IOW, you can live like the world and have Jesus, too.
Check out your Greek on that!
You are missing the big picture in favor of the smaller one. To put it compactly, PPS is saying it is sin we repent of to come to salvation - not sins. Yes...we do repent of individual sins, but what is really at stake (big picture) is not the murder
itself or the rape
itself or the pride
itself....not from God's vantage point. From where He sits, the issue is the root - unbelief. It's like a doctor trying to treat a disease. The patient sees all the symptoms and wants to bandage those up. If he's not showing any
obvious symptoms, he thinks everything is okay. But the doctor knows the human body much better than the patient and so he knows what to look for - he knows what the real problem is and he wants to get at that. The patient comes to the doctor because of the signs (sins) that point to a bigger underlying problem (sin).
Also, PPS is saying (and I agree) that most people are too caught up in sins to recognize sin. That is, if nothing is blatantly, overtly, obviously, externally wrong (not raping, killing, murdering, lying to ones neighbor etc...) then everything is deemed to be okay. The average Christian (and unbeliever, you realize) thinks they are okay because they don't do X, Y and Z. But the root of unbelief infects everything - even those things that are "good works". So (as PPS added) even the "good works" can be sinful if they are not done in faith. ANYTHING that is not of faith is sin. If - for example - you are called to be a plumber and you become a pastor instead, it is sin. I don't know that God's callings are always that specific, but it simply shows that ANYTHING that is not of faith is sin - even the things we think are inherently good.
The approach to Christianity that says "I can live like the devil and follow God" (or some variant of what you have written above) is evidence of immaturity at best and not being regenerate at worst. Note that I am not saying you are representative of that, but the approach to God that would even consider that line of thought - which Paul addressed in Romans 6.
We were looking at prayer on Sunday - and among the passages examined were Mark 11:22-24 and Galatians 4 (several verses). The pertinent verses in Mark are :
And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Mark 11:22-24
And the ones in Galatians 4:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Galatians 4:4-7
Which naturally brings to mind Romans 8. The verse of interest being:
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Romans 8:9-14
Now...people naturally gravitate to the injunctions to not sin, not be debtors to the flesh etc....But if you look at what is being said about those that are the sons of God, it is said that they WILL naturally cry "Abba, Father" in their inner man (using PPS' term). And as this pertains to prayer, we have "name it and claim it" groups that want to use Mark 11:23-24 to support their position that if they can think of it and ask for it, then it is theirs. And if they don't have (whatever), it's because they lack faith. But that's missing the context - those that are the sons of God are not after their own desires. They, with Christ (the only begotten Son) pray "Not my will but Thine be done". They seek the Father's will. They want to please Him and do what He wants. That underlies everything. It isn't an add-on. It's not like we have a checklist :
1. Don't sin (check)
2. Seek God's will (check)
3. etc...
Again - those that have the Spirit of God NATURALLY seek His will. They don't have to be told "don't sin" just like they don't have to be told "pray for X, Y or Z" or "Don't pray for A, B or C". If they can ask in faith, knowing they are seeking His will (led by His Spirit) then they will be able to ask with ALL confidence knowing they have whatsoever they ask (because they don't ask amiss).
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
I John 5:13-15
That is the only way these can be true - if we are walking according to His will. NOT - whatever you wish you can have. But that is the same mentality that says you can sin as much as you want because you are secure in Christ. They come from the same root of self-seeking. And, as I said above, at best they can be attributed to immaturity in Christ but at worst they are evidence that one has not been regenerated.
Even what Truster said about a man continuing in sin by the allowance of the Almighty applies. It's maturing a man in Him. It's bringing him to see all that affects and afflicts him through his fallen natural man. Just because we don't show obvious signs of sin doesn't mean it isn't there. When, for example, was the last time you charged someone (yourself included) with having the "pride of life"? The same sin you see in theologically adept practitioners can easily be at work in simple folk. The manifestations are different (if they show at all to the natural eye).
