Another question of the day….

Does God give “part marks”?  Like gymnastics? 

Here’s my context – I know a situation, at a church that loves God, and believes Christians must be emersion baptised to be members there.  Someone, who previously went to a different church, was baptised by being sprinkled, because no tank was available.  This person does not want to be re-baptised, even though they understand that God commands emersion baptism in the NT, because they do not feel wrong about their first post-conversion baptism. 

So – does God ever say “no, that’s okay, I understand it was too cold to go to the river, sprinkling’s good.”  Or, is does He say “This is my command, and partial obedience is full disobedience.”  (See 1 Samuel 13)

My analogy is just that – feel free to comment on it specifically, if you would like – but I really am curious as to your thoughts on a general level.  And, to be clear, we are not talking salvific issues….

C.S. Lewis on forgiveness

C.S. Lewis is my favorite author – heck, I named my son after him…  Found a good quote this morning:

I find that when I think I am asking God to forgive me I am often in reality (unless I watch myself very carefully) asking Him to do something quite different.  I am asking Him not to forgive me but to excuse me.  But there is all the difference in the world between forgiving and excusing.  Forgiveness says “Yes, you have done this thing, but I accept your apology.  I will never hold it against you and everything between us two will be exactly as it was before.”  But excusing says “I see that you couldn’t help it or didn’t mean it, you weren’t really to blame….”

Real forgiveness means looking steadily at the sin, the sin that is left over without any excuse, after all allowances have been made, and seeing it in its horror, dirt, meanness and malice, and nevertheless being wholly reconciled to the man who has done it.