You might be confusing forgiveness with the consequences of our sins. We receive complete forgiveness for all sins when we repent and put our trust in Christ and his finished work at Calvary. But that does not necessarily mean all the consequences for our past sinful actions all of a sudden disappear in this life.

If I had an ugly anti-Christian tattoo put on my arm in my pagan days, just because I come to Christ and repent does not mean the tattoo now miraculously disappears. If I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day, and then get lung cancer, coming to Christ may or may not remove that lung cancer. Sure, I can pray for healing as a Christian, but chances are I will have to reap what I have sown. And coming to Christ does not mean that I no longer age or eventually die a physical death. Everyone does – believer and non-believer alike. Even Lazarus presumably continued to age and then die – again – after he was raised by Jesus.

I have written a whole article on the difference between forgiveness and the consequences of sin here: www.billmuehlenberg.com/2007/10/14/sin-forgiveness-and-consequences/

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

A very balanced and thoughtful article of which I am appreciative.

My thoughts are that the miracles of the NT are in evidence today at the forefront of the spread of the gospel. Places like India where there has been much opposition and much prayer and sacrifice on behalf of the believing church.

The same can be true here but we our churches are too captivated by apathy and comfort and we tend to find ourselves in a spiritual backwater, until persecution and spiritual need prods us into sacrificial faith.

Lennard Caldwell, Clifton, Queensland

Fee’s analysis of Paul is that there is in all his letters an implicit assumption, a consistent “moot point”, that his readers are living both individually and corporately what contemporary Pentecostals would call Spirit-filled lives.

Romans 8:1-11 and Galatians 5:16-26 and 1 Cor 2:6-16 reflect this… what is both a theological and existentially deeply “Pauline” concept, and the basis of his eschatological framework.

I, therefore, find it interesting how shallowly we have take this key Pauline issue. Indeed, we have in this Pauline emphasis not least an epistemological basis, as 1 Cor 2:6-16 suggests. So while NT Wright and others would suggest that Paul’s emphasis on the centrality of agape love amounts to an epistemological “construct”, I’d have to say I think this matter of “living in the Spirit” is at least as central to the Christian/eschatological question of knowledge as well.

And I think we have to accept that this is not a dangerous leaning towards some feared gnosticism, but rather the radical razor’s edge of life in the Spirit, where the “mind of Christ” indeed IS ours by the Spirit.

Hence the ridiculousness of taking our legal dirty washing to the civic courts. Hence the immaturity and fleshyness (read: un-Spirit-ualness) of factionalism in the Christian community. Hence the demand for ethical living without fear of confusing it with “works of the law”. Hence Paul’s particular aggression directed towards the “mutilators of the flesh”.

Hence (I would add) the offence to the Holy Spirit of demanding the tithe in today’s churches! Personally, I fail to see how church leaders today (especially in the Pentecostal and Charismatic streams) can fail to “hear” the freedom of the Spirit that Paul so passionately fights for, the proof of which I see in this determination to continue preaching “the tithe”.

Paul’s passion for the Spirit life gave him prophetic clarity regarding every encroachment of the “judaisers” and anyone else trying to turn a “heart” thing back into a “stone” thing… hence his wonderfully cutting challenge to the Galatians in 3:1-6. He reminds them that their “call” was accompanied by unmistakable and undeniable signs and power of the Spirit. He further reminds them that they have experienced (mis-translations say “suffered”) so much of the Spirit… hence the rhetorical point that it is indeed such foolishness to now return to the flesh.

But “flesh” is all that the tithe is. To tell a Christian today that God is asking them to give a tenth is not only unbiblical but it is leading them away from a heart-to-heart relationship with God through the Spirit and back to “the letter”! Don’t people see that?!

Folks, the Spirit life, Spirit love and Spirit wisdom/knowledge of this eschatological “now but not yet” existence of ours is not meant to be so hard. It’s meant to be… freedom!

So I think the challenge for us is to be more like Paul. More determined to have more of the Spirit. More determined to fight tooth and nail against every encroachment of “stone” thinking. Lets drop talk of the tithe. It was a shadow! We now have the reality: abundance and “foolish” generosity in the Spirit

Finally, here’s a thought: let’s refuse to let any “Christian” write a book or lecture us, or theologise, or instruct us in any way, if we — like Paul — cannot in good conscience see them as mature (i.e. Spirit-ual) according to 1 Cor 2. Gee, that would thin out the shelves at Koorong, I reckon

Alister Cameron

Nathan Keen, Melbourne

Ewan McDonald, Victoria.