I am always fascinated by the labels we as humans tend to attach to things in life. Take the sinners prayer. No where in the Bible as we know it does any reference towards the sinners prayer come up, nonetheless, its a definite and very important factor in the church's philosophy.

One of the scriptures quoted in the full-blown version of this age old prayer is Romans 3:23 which states "for all have sinned and falls short of the glory of God". Now this scripture is pretty straight forward in its own little universe and basically says that the whole of mankind are, because of their sinful nature, inferior to God. We do not possess the glory of God because of the fact that we are sinners. Now, could this imply that, if we were not sinners, that we were not inferior to God? Put differently, if man, within the biblical universe that is, were not sinners at all, could he possess and reflect the fullness of the glory of God? After all, the scriptures do say that originally man was made in God's image. Obviously God is not a sinner and therefore again, within the biblical realm, the DNA of man must have been altered some how later on with this sinful nature. So if we pray the sinners prayer, does our DNA get altered back again? Well, historically, as the church's philosophy goes, we basically stay sinners, we just don't go to hell anymore. It is at this point where the Bible, in its entirety seems to contradict the church.

Let's look at this from a different point of view. In the book Isiah it seems that God is prophesying through Isiah and He asks His people in chapter 51 verse 1 to look at the rock from which they were hewn. Now any geologist would tell you that the little piece of rock cut from a mine or mountain is genetically identical in every possible way. Observed under a microscope there would be absolutely no difference. In John 10, it is documented that the Pharisees are highly offended with Jesus calling Himself the son of God. However Jesus quotes their own scriptures, Psalm 82 in fact, and asks them whether God Himself did not call them, mere people, gods? Psalm 82 goes on further and states that not only are they gods, but they are sons of the most High. In Deuteronomy 10:17 God states that he does not regard any person above the other. In Acts 10 Peter has the revelation that God does not regard the Jewish people any higher than non-Jews. Within this context one could argue that the scriptures pointing out to the Jews that they are in fact gods and sons of God pertains just as much to anyone else as it does to them.

So God, within the parameters of the Biblical context, calls us gods and also calls us His sons (or daughters). Yet the church has been calling me a sinner for two thousand years. In fact, the mere concept of someone born into this world without sin is completely unheard of. Let's look at Rom 3 again. Paul, a Jew radically converted to the Christian faith writes a letter to Jews and non-Jews alike in the city of Rome and from chapter one onwards challenges the Jews on their judgmental nature towards the Greeks and other non-Jews. In Rom 1:16,17 he states that he is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for in this gospel the righteousness of God is revealed by faith for every man, not just the Jew. He then goes on to remind them in Romans 1 of their days in the desert and how they absolutely revolted against God in sin. In Romans 2 verse 1 he challenges them by asking how can they judge any other being having themselves done similar and even worse things. Within this context Rom 3:23 makes perfect sense as, for all, not just non-Jews have sinned and therefore falls short of the glory and majesty of God.

However, once Romans 3 is appreciated in its fullest context, it becomes clearer that this is not at all the point Paul is trying to make. Let's broaden the context of Romans 3:23 a bit by reading a few verses before and after. In verse 21 and 22 Paul comes back to his original thought of Rom 1:16 and 17 and explains how God's righteousness, the true righteousness that has nothing to do with the Jewish law is manifested at that very moment through faith in Jesus Christ (more specifically, faith in the death and resurrection of Christ as the son of man). He goes on to make his point that this righteousness is for everyone, because, we are back at the infamous verse 23, everyone has sinned. Verse 24 carries on to state that again everybody is justified by grace through the salvation obtained from Christ.

Should one read Romans 3:23 within the context it was written it says completely the opposite of what the church have been feeding us for the past two thousand years. In fact, one could carry on further and read Romans 4:25 as per the most original manuscripts available. Rom 4:25 basically says the following: "because of us being sinners Christ had to die for us on the cross, and because we were all, every single one of us, declared righteous, Christ stood up from the dead" Did you get that?! The King James version says it completely differently and states that because Jesus rose from the dead we now have the potential to be made righteous in Gods' eyes. That is completely incorrect and the core fundamentals of the church have been built upon the fact that everyone are still sinners. Scriptures say that Jesus only rose from the dead the moment the whole of mankind was made righteous, in other words, once again became that piece of the bigger rock that was cut from the quarry. In all aspects exactly like God!

I think it's important to say that I am not in any way mad at the church or some kind of Bible basher. On the contrary. I just think it necessary to get the facts right. Christ never came to die to give us the potential. The potential was ours the moment he rose from the dead. Whether you believe in God or not, the important factor here is that the Bible testifies of something different that what we have been told. The Bible tells us a gospel of good news, not judgmental news. According to what we read within the context of the biblical universe the following could be said:

1. Sin has been dealt with on the cross. Not 99%. 100%.
2. It does not seem to me, within the new Testamentical context, that God or Christ are keeping their thoughts busy with the so-called sinful nature of man. That seems to be what the church has been doing.
3. If, according to scriptures, every single man has already been justified before God, then no child is born and received within sin anymore.
4. If every man is already fully justified then everyone, not just Christians, have full and complete access to God without any form of hierarchy whatsoever.
5. The sinners prayer is in fact then a misnomer and the manifestation of salvation will not be through our admitting we are sinners, but rather the natural acceptance of our salvation through faith. Believing we are already in right standing with God, without any sin, could take a lot less faith than accepting Jesus Christ as our lord and savior for fear of going to hell. If God was in fact almighty why would he need such an elementary tactic as manipulative fear to make people worship Him?
6. Salvation only truly makes sense within this context.
   
7. Hell will not have one sinner in it, but rather possibly those who did not naturally and freely chose salvation. The notion of having been given full salvation and not accepted it would truly be hell. But that's a totally different can of worms on its own.
   

Have a good one.