As we continue on with this subject of Sin Consciousness, lets begin with Ephesians 2:4-9.
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Did you notice it’s His great love and rich mercy that made us alive? Not your efforts. Look at verse 5. God so wanted us to get the truth that it is by grace we are saved that he had it repeated in verse 8 and then put the cherry on top by saying “not by works” in verse 9. It’s not your effort, it’s what Jesus has already accomplished once for all time for all people.
Okay, but you haven’t answered the rest of the post about “if we say we have no sin”. You’re right, so let’s do that. First off, anytime you use scripture, you have to ask the Who, What, Where, When, and Why to make certain that you’re rightly dividing scripture and not taking it out of context for your purposes. So, here it is and then we’ll comment.
1 John 1-8-10 The Message
If we claim that we’re free of sin, we’re only fooling ourselves. A claim like that is errant nonsense. On the other hand, if we admit our sins—make a clean break of them—he won’t let us down; he’ll be true to himself. He’ll forgive our sins and purge us of all wrongdoing. If we claim that we’ve never sinned, we out-and-out contradict God—make a liar out of him. A claim like that only shows off our ignorance of God.”
Okay. Who’s talking? John the beloved. What is He talking about? Sin? Well partly, but more than that he’s showing a way to be free from sin. How can I make that statement? Well, you need more information about Who he’s talking to. Is it we that are righteous and saved already, or is it those who have yet to receive the truth about Jesus? It’s the latter.
How do I know this? Easy. Look at 1 John 1:1-4. I’ll even use the same version, The Message. “1-2 From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in—we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes, verified it with our own hands. The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen! And now we’re telling you in most sober prose that what we witnessed was, incredibly, this: The infinite Life of God himself took shape before us.
Okay, right here John is telling someone about what they have seen and heard and experienced. Now he is going to categorize who he’s talking to. Look here.
3-4 We saw it, we heard it, and now we’re telling you so you can experience it along with us, this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!”
So, he’s telling people that have not yet experienced what they have. His burden is to hopefully share what they’ve experienced in such a way that those who are outside the great grace covenant will join them in their joy.
If that’s not good enough for you, look what John says in chapter 2. He starts with this is in verse 1 and 2, again in the Message. “I write this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good—not only ours, but the whole world’s”.
Just because we’re saved doesn’t mean we won’t make a mistake, but the good news is Jesus is our advocate to quickly remind the Father that He has already taken care of it. We don’t work not to sin, we labor to enter into His rest where there is no sin.
Finally, staying in this same book, only because that’s where the post attempted to point to regarding our failure or responsibility regarding sin, let’s look at two more verses. This first one I have in the Amplified version, because it is very vivid and clear.
1 John 3:9 – “No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.” God’s DNA is in me and I CANNOT practice sinning.
Now, I don’t know about you, but that’s pretty clear to me. Just in case it doesn’t ring in your spirit, let me help you. Look at this one. 1 John 5:18 – “We know [absolutely] that anyone born of God does not [deliberately and knowingly] practice committing sin, but the One Who was begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him [Christ’s divine presence within him preserves him against the evil], and the wicked one does not lay hold (get a grip) on him or touch [him].”
In closing, I guess if you want to, you can reject all this truth and keep plowing that same old field of works unto righteousness, performance for acceptance, but for me, I’m going to do what Hebrews 4:11 says. It’s the only place in the dispensation of grace where God gives us permission to work. It says “Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
So, trying to work to be freed from sin is actually unbelief. If you’re trying to work for yourselves, you don’t believe what happened at Calvary. You don’t believe all your sins and the sins of the whole world were abolished. IT IS FINISHED!
Also, you don’t believe what scripture says about who is doing the work. It’s Jesus. Phil 2:13 says in the Easy to Read Version “Yes, it is God who is working in you. He helps you want to do what pleases him, and he gives you the power to do it.” And in the Living Bible. “For God is at work within you, helping you want to obey him, and then helping you do what he wants.”
So we see that it is God who is not only giving you the desire to do what pleases Him, but then He gives you the ability to do what He gave you in that desire. If you’re so busy trying to do the work, you push God aside and He cannot work for you. REST!!!
This got long by necessity. I wanted to use plenty of truth to drown the false teaching about being sinners now and always. I wanted to make sure we know who we truly are. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. We are freed from sin and death. We are holy and perfect in Jesus, and the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily in us. Col 2:9,10. Grace and Peace.
