TO SIN OR NOT TO SIN
“Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.”
1 John 3:4-6 NLT
The sin issue stands squarely on the centre of our lives as long as we are in this world. John deals with this matter simply, concisely, step by step, so that we can never be in doubt about what God’s part is and what our part must be.
Step one: Everything that is contrary to God’s character is sin. Get that straight! Since His law is the expression of His character, when we defy Him by disobeying His instructions, we act in rebellion against Him. That is intolerable, no matter how big or small the transgression might be.
Step two: God dealt with our sin by sending His own Son to take away our sin. Jesus became the scapegoat in our place. His death as our substitute allows Him to forgive and remove our sin and our guilt in total. He declares us, legally, not guilty. He wipes the record clean. There is nothing in our “debit” column.
Step three: He has given us a fresh start. It’s up to us to keep our accounts up to date. Those who have been cleared of debt must do everything they can to keep their record debt-free.
However, we still have the possibility of incurring debt again because of the old sin-nature’s presence. God has not removed our old nature. There is still a war going on between the flesh and the Spirit.
“The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.”
Galatians 5:17-18 NLT
This battle is real, but God has provided powerful resources to ensure victory over the sinful nature.
He has given us His nature, so now we have two natures, the old and the new.
“And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
2 Peter 1:4 NLT
He has put His own Spirit in us to guide and empower us to overcome sin.
” So, I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves…. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses…. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”
Galatians 5:16, 18, 25 NLT
His Word is always at our disposal. The Holy Spirit continually reminds us of both God’s standards and His promises. We need never be in doubt about what God’s will is since it is, written in His Word.
“All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.”
2 Timothy 3:16-17 NLT
God’s peace is a powerful guard against enemy activity in our hearts.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7 NLT
His grace is freely available to help overcome temptation and keep us steadfast in our faith and faithfulness to Him. Through prayer, we access His grace in times of need.
“For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”
Romans 5:17 NLT
“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Hebrews 4:16 NLT
Our faith in God and in His promises is the link we have with Him to overcome the world’s pull on us.
“For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”
1 John 5:4-5 NLT
His love for us is the power that holds us steady and keeps us going in the face of every obstacle.
“No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”
Romans 8:37 NLT
“And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.”
Romans 8:38 NLT
Step four: The question is, “Why do professing Christians continue to live in sin? “ By that, I mean, “Why do people who say they are believers act as though they are not?” John’s response is quite simple. They are not true believers. Their behaviour denies their confession. They cannot claim what they do not possess.
The presence of God’s Spirit is the final guarantee and godly behaviour the proof that true believers belong to God.
Category Archives: Christian Life
SEEN BUT UNSEEN
SEEN BUT UNSEEN
“See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”
1 John 3:1-2 NLT
Children of God! Has this truth ever really sunk in? God’s love for His human family has stretched beyond the limits of our understanding. Despite our fallen state, with our horrendous track record of rebellion, disobedience, filthy talk and vile behaviour, He has loved us, rescued us, and molded us into a family of sons and daughters who are the way to resembling His perfect son.
How did He do it? By revealing the extent of His love that refused to give up on us. Helpless and hopeless as we were, He intervened with a plan so daring that only God could pull it off.
God became man! How is that for humiliation! He not only became man, not a “pretend” man, but a real flesh-and-blood, suffering, pain-feeling, bleeding, weeping, bone-weary, dusty, hungry, thirsty, real man. This man also went to the end of the road for us… death, a criminal’s death, beaten, tortured, bled out to the last drop, completely drained of life, limp, dangling from a pole like an abandoned rag doll. And the Father watched it all happen and approved!
“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer…
Isaiah 53:10 NIV
“But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief…. ”
Isaiah 53:10 NLT
How is that for betrayal… and the Son agreed to the plan!
Love like that must win… and it did. So, now God is building a beloved family, people across time, all over the world, leaving the realm of darkness through faith in the one who took their place, and wonder of wonders, slowly taking on and being molded into the likeness of their Saviour. God’s way of doing things turned enemies into sons.
So, John says, this is all happening behind the scenes. People in the world have no clue about what God is doing. They only see, here and there, people who offend them because they don’t join in with their rebellion. They don’t understand what is happening under their noses because the unseen realm is closed to them.
And what of the future for God’s family? Where is this crazy scheme taking us?
One day, God will rip the curtain aside, like He did on the day Jesus died, and the ungodly world, together with all creation will see what He has been doing behind the scenes.
“For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering…. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.
Romans 8:19, 23 NLT
So, says John, there us work for us to do, here and now. With a future so bright and glorious, we cannot afford to plod along in spiritual mediocrity. This present life is a partnership venture with the Holy Spirit.
“And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure.”
1 John 3:3 NLT
God does not want the lives that belong to Him and for which He paid such a high price to be mixed with anything that dishonour Him. He has offered us grace in abundance to overcome the flesh and to live in holy fear.
Paul says the same thing a little differently…
“… Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”
Philippians 2:12-13 NLT
There is a goal to pursue which should take up all our energies as we live ordinary lives in a chaotic world. Paul called it “one thing” to which he strained forward with all his focus and motivation. And the prize is….
“Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”
1 John 3:2 NLT
Wherever we are at the end of our earthly journey, God will close the gap when we see Jesus. What a hope and what a prize!
This is the process from earth to glory
“For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.”
Romans 8:29-30 NLT
And from God’s perspective, it’s a done deal.
THE DIVINE TEACHER
THE DIVINE TEACHER
“I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray. But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ.”
1 John 2:26-27 NLT
How significant is John’s reassurance in these days of escalating deception! Jesus warned that His immanent coming would be marked by an unprecedented increase in deception.
Satan’s character, the hallmark of his nature, is to deceive. Jesus called him a liar and the father (source) of all lies. Somehow, he knows that his days are numbered. His desire is to take down as many humans as he can with him. His most effective weapon is deception, lies, twisting the truth in every way possible.
People are vulnerable through ignorance and gullible by choice. The flesh, their old, sinful nature, is always available and ready to be tickled and titivated. Satan knows how to lure them away from the truth by offering many promises without the small print!
For those who are in Christ, His representative, the Holy Spirit indwells us. He is committed to leading us into all truth. Since He is the Spirit of truth and since His Word is truth, He highlights the truth for us in His Word.
However, He cannot remind us of truth that is not already in our minds. Our safeguard against the perils of deception is to soak our minds God’s Word for the Holy Spirit to use to enlighten us and keep us on track with the Father.
John assures us that the Spirit and His work is not fake. We can trust Him to keep us out of harm’s way by teaching us whatever we need to know that is in line with The Father’s character and will.. Human teachers can easily mislead us but never the Holy Spirit. He will always be faithful to the Scriptures.
This does not mean that all human teachers are deceivers. It does mean that we always need to test what they teach by the standard of God’s Word and trust the Holy Spirit to help us understand and hold to the truth.
THE SPIRIT IS THE KEY
THE SPIRIT IS THE KEY
“But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth. So, I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies…. So, you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. And in this fellowship, we enjoy the eternal life he promised us.”
1 John 2:20-21, 24-25 NLT
John is careful to remind his readers that the Holy Spirit in them, the Spirit of truth, is the crucial key in the issue of deception.
Many deceivers were already around in John’s day. Legalistic Judaism was out to lure Jewish and Gentile believers back under its yoke as a safeguard from persecution. The Roman government tolerated Judaism, but this new Way that challenged the Emperor himself was intolerable. Christians refused to acknowledge Caesar as Lord. They bowed to no one but Jesus, this Nazarene whom they claimed had come back from Roman execution by crucifixion to live again.
An even more subtle deception was being propagated in the form of “Christian Gnosticism”. The crux of this heresy lay in the philosophy that spirit is good, but matter is evil. Since the body is matter, Jesus could not have had a real human body. Hence the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary, the heresy spawned to get around the problem of evil matter. If Mary was conceived miraculously and without sin, this took care of the humanity of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit in the believer guides and convinces us of the truth. John urges his readers, then, to stay in and remain faithful to the truth so that they may remain in fellowship with the Father and the Son. Only in this way can they (and we) continue to be assured if eternal life.
Fellowship implies being in harmony with the Father and the Son, loving what they love and sharing in their work on earth. We cannot enjoy this fellowship unless we believe and stay faithful to the real Jesus, the God/man who came to reveal the Father and to take us to the Father by reconciling us to the Father through His atoning sacrifice.
IMPERMANENT TRANSIENCE
IMPERMANENT TRANSIENCE
“Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love
the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers
only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and
pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father but
are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that
people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”
1 John 2:15-17 NLT
What were John’s first words of caution and counsel to babies and grown-ups in
Christ?
BE CAREFUL OF THE WORLD
“The world is too much with us; and soon
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; -…” wrote William
Wordsworth in his sonnet, “The World is too much with us”.
The Apostle John was aware of this danger long before Wordsworth wrote his
observation. The world not only presses in on us, demanding attention and
response, but there is also an eager reply from within us, from that old nature
that is closely allied to the alluring temptations from the world.
The way God’s children deal with the world’s offers depends on one thing, the
object of our love. Jesus said that we will serve what we love, what masters
our affections, God or money.
“No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you
will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be
enslaved to money.”
Matthew 6:24 NLT
Money symbolises everything the world has to offer because, in the end, money
pays for the world’s trinkets, fame, possessions, and achievements.
What is the major problem with the world’s rewards? Do they not
satisfy? Yes, for a time! Are they not enjoyable? Yes, for a
time! Are their rewards not real? Yes, for a time!
However, the real trouble is that worldly fame, pleasure, possessions, and
achievements are as transient as the world itself. The world and all its
systems are doomed to pass away. Gid has no use for a creation corrupted by
sin. His eternal plan is a perfect earth inhabited by perfect people and
governed by His perfect Son.
“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the
heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves
will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to
deserve judgment.”
2 Peter 3:10 NLT
God made His promised renewal possible through the sacrifice of His Son,
atoning for the sin of the world and bringing about a reversal of everything
that went wrong when Adam rebelled.
“But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has
promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.”
2 Peter 3:13 NLT
So, says John, if you love the world and all it has to offer, you will join the
world and all who love it in the great judgment coming when unrighteousness
will be destroyed forever.
Only the power of love for God, motivated by His love for us, will save us from
His judgment and preserve us for eternal life.
“This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent
his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:10 NLT
Paul adds the dimension of vision to John’s motivation of love.
“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits
are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are small and won’t last
very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will
last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix
our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be
gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT
Hardship and trouble are as transient as the world’s pleasures because they are
part of this fallen planet. However, unlike worldly pleasure, hardships don’t
pander to the flesh. They serve the purpose of divine discipline, supporting
our efforts to subdue the flesh that we might share God’s holiness.
“Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t
we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live
forever? For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best
they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might
share in his holiness.”
Hebrews 12:9-10 NLT
Those who follow John’s good counsel discover that God’s will, and not ours, is
good, perfect, and acceptable, and that doing God’s will guarantee that we will
continue from this transient world to eternal life. We experience eternal life
now, in part, but then in eternity, for those who believe in Jesus will never
die.