A Difference in Interpretation Among Christians
November 8, 2009In Jesus’ name!
In 1John 1:8-10 we find these statements: 8””If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
I point this out to draw attention to a difference in interpretation among Christians. The question is this; Are these words a reference to the present condition of Christians or does it speak to the salvation process as Christians are rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son? I believe it has reference to the call of the Holy Spirit on our lives which is the act of God’s kindness which leads us to repentance. (Rom. 2:4)
November 8, 2009
The ones who believe in the former interpretation are obviously living under the law and believe our lives are governed by the law of God, forgetting that Jesus said from the Cross that “It is finished.”, and therefore has appointed us and declared to us that we no longer live under the law, or the written code, but under grace. A few Bible passages which confirm this truth follow.
Romans 6:6 – 7 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,* that we should no longer be slaves to sin– 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:11 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 7:6 6But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Romans 7:20 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Here, separation must be made between what we once were and what we are now. The sin no longer identifies who we are. Also, once the old self is crucified we become something that never existed before. The following scriptures explain:
2 Corinthians 5:17 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
Galatians 2:20 20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This brings us to point where we find out how things get done in the kingdom of God
Philippians 2:13 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Hebrews 4:10 10for anyone who enters God’s rest [the Sabbath rest] also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.
So Christians no longer sin. They are both free from it and dead to it. Add to this the following truth; since God reconciled the world to Himself through Christ, He no longer counts men’s sins against them. (2 Cor. 5: 18-19)
