Salvation Question

First of all, Newlady, see how she would feel if any of her children said to her: "Mom, I don't plan on obeying you at all and I plan on living life my own way. But I know you will still give me my inheritance later, so we'll settle it all then, OK?"

Then, in answer to your request, here are some verses which might help:

Ephesians 2:1-3 -- As for you [believers], you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

Please read Romans 1, all of it. (It comes right after Acts in the New Testament.) Then note the following from different parts of Romans:

2:5-11
But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God 'will give to each person according to what he has done.' To those who by peersistence in doing good seek glory, honor and imoortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

7:14 - 8:17
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So, then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law wa powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order tht the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor ca it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives n you.

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation -- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave agan to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, and by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs -- hei4rs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

It is imperative that your husband's niece understands that a heart gradually gets hardened when one live's according to oneself. Habits get formed, and the excuses one uses at first become a sort of reality to the sinner. He gradually goes from giving himself an excuse for a certain activity to feeling that the activity is necessary for reasons of the excuse. This is one of the reasons the writer of the book of Hebrews pleads with the Hebrews themselves,

As it has been said,
"Today, if you hear his boice,
do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion."

Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led ou6t of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert? And to whom did God swear that they would NEVER enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Consider James strong words in James 2:19:
You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that -- and shudder.

The idea of 'believe on Christ' means much more than intellectual acknowledgment -- as James says, even the demons do that. To believe means to put one's full life at His disposal. Period. Nothing held back. With this in mind, remember John 3:16-18

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and ony Son, that whoever believes in him shal not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whowever believes in him is not condemend, but whoever does ot believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. Thisis the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates th4e light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

Your husband's niece seems to have the idea that she is an accident in the universe and that she can justify herself before God.

First of all, she is not an accident. God does not create accidents! There is a reason for her life. She can go to God and live out that reason through HIS power, or she can deny it and live in disobedience.

If she lives in disobedience, then there is no way she can justify herself. God sees through every excuse and has always provided her with a way out -- in and through Christ! By refusing that way, she has also refused the only justification available to her -- Christ Himself.

Judgement Day will be a day too late. Her decisions must be made here and now. She must also keep in mind that her precious children will be watching her and influenced by her actions and choices. What kind of a future does she want for them where there eternal lives are concerned?

 

Sometimes people need to take all that rope and hang themselves. When she has, be there for her to show her the way. Until then, quietly and gently present truth as much as possible, first of all in the way you yourself live, secondly in the relationship you maintain with her, and only thirdly in what you say.

 

Dear newlady, Welcome to the Family of God! Romans 8:28-30 tells you where you are headed and Philippians 1:6 tells you who is taking responsibility for getting you there!

Your job is to get to know the Bible and our Lord, and learn to let Him live through you, not just 'guide' your life. You are not your own now, and He is entirely faithful to bring you to the place He created you to be. God bless you.