The problem isn't God's forgiveness. He's more than willing to forgive when we come to our senses and turn around from the path we were on. He's practically begging us to. No, the problem is that people don't really want forgiveness, they want license. They want to be told they can act in any way they want, as selfishly as they want, be able to hurt anyone they want and still "go to heaven," or get a "get out of hell free card" because they profess to believe a certain theological teaching.
God doesn't do that. The Israelites acted that way with the sacrifices according to the Prophets, especially Isaiah. They hurt anyone they pleased, acted as selfishly as they wanted to, and thought they were safe because they offered the sacrifices and kept the holidays of the Torah. According to Isaiah God couldn't stand it, and told them their observances were making Him sick to His stomach. Pretty sure that's how He feels about "Christians" who "claim the blood of Jesus" while lying, cheating, gossiping, and leaving the widow, the orphan, the foreigner, and the homeless out in the cold.
The terms of the New Covenant were laid out at the Last Supper. Jesus was clear what was expected, and what would happen if the New Covenant wasn't kept on our part. It goes something like, "Make your home within Me and I within you. You're like a branch that makes its home in a grape vine. If you make your home within Me, you'll produce a lot of fruit. If you don't, then without Me you can't do anything at all. If you make your home in Me and my message makes its home in you, then you can ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. If you don't make your home in Me, you'll dry up like a branch cut from the plant, and then be collected to be tossed into a fire to be burned like a dried up branch." Making one's home within Him can is only done when a person comes to their senses and turns around. This is actually the way to turn around, recognizing that you can't do anything else but cause harm operating from your own devices. And God willingly and quickly forgives those who turn around.
But this isn't what people want. They want to be the prodigal son who comes home, is welcomed with open arms by his father, and then continues to live his profligate lifestyle in his father's tent while his loving father pays for it all. They don't want a solution to their problem of not being able to do anything else but error, they just want to escape the potential consequences of their deranged, harmful actions. They claim the blood of Jesus while trodding on Him and everything He taught.
That's not how this works. That's not what Jesus Himself taught. It's not what Paul, John, or Peter taught either, and James was explicit about having "faith" without the works to back up your supposed "faith."
If you don't even try to follow what Jesus taught, then you don't believe Him, or even believe in Him. You might believe that He lived, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, but guess what, so do the demons. They were there. You can't say you believe someone or believe in someone and then blow them off. That's called "lying." It's one thing to make mistakes while you're learning to imitate Him and keep the covenant. It's another entirely to not even try and to actively do the opposite, encouraging others to do to opposite of what He taught.
You can profess all the correct theology you want. You can go to church every Sunday. You can tithe. You can make yourself appear squeaky clean to the world. But if you're not making your home in Him, if who He is, the love that He is and taught, doesn't manifest itself through you, if you don't live as He taught and walk as He walk, then none of the theology you supposedly profess to believe matters in the slightest. All of it is absolutely worthless, and less than worthless, it is crap. Even Jesus said that you will be judged based on how you treated "the least of these." "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice." "Do to others what you want them to do to you." "Love your neighbor as yourself." These are what makes a disciple of Jesus Christ. These are what makes a genuine Christian in the eyes of God.
Don't you dare "claim the blood of Jesus" if you're going to treat Him with such disrespect as to blow off everything He taught. Otherwise, you're going to be in for a cold, utterly dark, and deeply painful surprise. And you will have chosen it yourself.
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