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Pilate once asked Jesus a question, in John 18:38 we read, "Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?" This was a very important question but Pilate did not wait for an answer. Unfortunately we have no record also in the Bible where someone asked Jesus the question, "What is Sin ?" May be we could have read the words of Jesus himself describing the nature of sin.
If our consception of sin is faulty, our whole struture of understanding and conclusion about truth will be based on wrong premises.
In a nut shell the Bible says in 1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
In 1 John 3:8 we read, "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
3:10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil:...."
The sin question is the pivotal question. Anything taught and preached which obscures the cruciality of sin,is a sign of a feeble understanding of the Savior and the cross.
To reason from a false premise is to start an endless chain of false conclusions which will lead to incorrect views of any other fundamental questions.
Sin is a deviation from God's holiness and revealed will, either in condition or in act. 1. Separation from God. 2. Depravity of the moral and spiritual nature. 3. It is the principle of intrincic antagonism between good and evil, holiness and unholiness, justice and injustice.
Choice of evil combined with the resultant separation begets depravity of nature.
Salvation is an individual matter; hence to free the individual from death requires that he be freed individually from sin. Herein do we see the necessity of personal repentence through Christ. Through Christ, one must break the combination of causes which produce death by renouncing and forsaking sin.
When through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, when diviation from holiness and revealed will of God ceases- then the sentence of death is immediately lifted.
1. Reinstatement into the presence and favor of God. 2. Freedom from the sentence of punishment. 3. Cleansing from that depravity of nature which was the direct result Jesus Christ as Savior
In Matthew 9:13 we read, ".......... for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. "
In Matthew 1:21 we read, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins."
The purpose of Christ's coming and work was to save man FROM, sin. The objective of his CALL, was for man to separate himself from sin and the purpose of his work was to CARRY AWAY SIN from man.
The CALL and WORK are the mutual responsibilities resting on Christ, The individual has tha actual consumation of Salvation.
1. There is no suggestion that man is to be saved in his sins, (Even Christians) or inspite of his sins, but FROM them.
2. Man's sins are not separated FROM THE NOTICE and CONDEMNATION of God by the intervention of the righteousness of Christ. BUT, man's sins are separated FROM MAN HIMSELF.
3. There is no hint here that the effectiveness of the atonment lay in changing the nature of sin but rather in delivering from sin.
To be justified by Christ
This involves the following:-
1. Recognition of need.
2. Faith in the sufficiency of Christ's atonement at the cross.
3. Acceptance of Christ as the only Savior.
Ezekiel 18:4 reads, "Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. "
Few elements of truth
1. The new covenant consists of a personal experience of literal righteousness and holiness.
Luke 1:68-75 1:68 Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
1:69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
1:70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
1:71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
1:72 To perform the mercy [promised] to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
1:73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
1:74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
1:75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
There is no suggestion of liberty to SIN here, and yet this is the heart of the new covenant. Unless one has righteousness and holiness he may talk about the new covenant, but not enjoying its previleges.
2. To be freed from the law and to be saved by grace does not mean there is slightest liberty to commit a single SIN.
Romans 5:20-6:1,2. 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:
5:21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
People haved leaped to the conclusion that because they were free from the wrath of the law because of Christ,they were free to do wrong under grace.
3. The Ten commandments stand foever.
Mark 12:29-34 "12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments [is], Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment.
12:31 And the second [is] like, [namely] this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
12:32 And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:
12:33 And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love [his] neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
12:34 And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him [any question]."
Matthew 22:35-40 "Then one of them, [which was] a lawyer, asked [him a question], tempting him, and saying,
22:36 Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law?
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and great commandment.
22:39 And the second [is] like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
22:40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
4. Those living in unrighteousness or guilty of wilful sin are still under the law
1 Timothy 1:8-12 "1:8 But we know that the law [is] good, if a man use it lawfully;
1:9 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
1:10 For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;
1:11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
1:12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;"
5. The new covenant does not replace the primary old, BUT transplant it.
Hebrews 8:10-13 "8:10 For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
8:13 In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away."
Atonement does not change the nature of sin, but proposes to change the nature of man. It does not take the deadliness out of sin, but takes sin out of man.
1. Repentance which lead to saving faith is a condition of salvation.
2. If at any time practice of sin is resumed and faith in Christ as a personal savior ceases to be active, such sin, eith of commission or omission, will again separate the soul from God. If unrepented of, it will cause the loss of eternal life.
3. The pardon of all sin through faith and repentence, victory over outward and inward sin and purging of the nature of all sinfulness through Christ, IN THIS LIFE: are the three privileges made possible by the blood of Jesus Christ our savior. This constitute the absolute requirements for entrance into heaven.
In our new dispensation of grace, we have not left the sin problem behind. Every dispensation has a sin problem at the center of the stage
From the garden of Eden to the second coming of Christ, all revolves around the sin question. This will cease to engage the primary attention of both God and man only when Satan, his angels and those who refused to separate with sin, are cast into the lake of fire and when the redeemed are all safe in the kingdom made new.
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