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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
DISCIPLESHIP 101
Part 16 – The Issue of Sin - 5
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
The simplicity of the gospel is that our
unrighteous nature is replaced with a righteous nature; and Father provides His
very own Spirit to empower that spirit of righteousness within us to break
through the barriers of the mind and the flesh in order to bear the fruit of
righteousness. It isn’t complicated. We simply have to want it.
In a series of studies called “Discipleship
101,” it might seem odd that we have spent five lessons on “the issue of sin.” Sin receives almost no attention in the “contemporary”
gospel message. That is the main reason
why Christians, today, refuse to walk in righteousness; or else, they simply have
no clue how to walk in righteousness.
Sin is what they do; and 1 John 1:9 is how they deal with it. 1 John 1:9 is used as the Christian equivalent
of confession in the Catholic church.
Sin all you want, whenever you want; just try to do it secretly so it doesn’t
tarnish your public image; and yet, you still have the inner guilt and
discomfort of knowing what you have done.
The Catholics enter a closet and confess their sins to a man, who then
tells them they are forgiven…and sometimes requires certain ritualistic behavior
or activity of them if their confessed sins seem to warrant it. The Christian just quotes 1 John 1:9 and “believes”
the matter is put behind him/her. Both
of these are simply mental devices to appease one’s sense of guilt.
Most Christians today have been raised on the
notion that their sins were forgiven, past, present and future. Once they pray “the magic prayer,” they have
the “Going to Heaven” card in their possession; and though their continued
sinning matters, it really only affects their fellowship with IAUE, not their
eternal destination. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. The early disciples
had no such concept. Such an idea is
alien to the thinking of the New Testament writers.
John 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He
that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for
without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a
man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Messiah hath made
us free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
2 Behold,
I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Messiah shall profit you
nothing.
3 For I
testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the
whole law.
4 Messiah is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by
the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened, and
have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
5 And
have tasted the good word of IAUE, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance;
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of IAUE afresh, and put him to an
open shame.
2 Peter 2:20 For if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Master and Saviour Yahushua
Messiah, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is
worse with them than the beginning.
21 For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy
commandment delivered unto them.
Roman 11:22 Behold therefore the goodness and severity of
IAUE: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou
continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
Colossians 1:21 And you, that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
22 In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and
unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not
moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which
was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a
minister;
1 Timothy 4:16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the
doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
1 John 2:24 Let that therefore abide in you, which
ye have heard from the beginning. If
that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall
continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
Hebrews 3:7 Wherefore
(as the Holy Spirit saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden
not your hearts, as
in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do
alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living Elohim.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you
be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Messiah, if we hold the
beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation.
Hebrews 10: 26 For if we sin wilfully
after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more
sacrifice for sins,
27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery
indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Hebrews 10:38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them
that believe to the saving of the soul.
These verses are but a small sampling of the
thinking of the New Testament writers. Remember,
from prior posts, Yahushua did not take readily the professions of men’s
declaration that they want to be his disciples.
In every case, he gave them reasons to reconsider that decision. Discipleship would not be just a matter of
believing in him. It would cost everything.
Those of you who cling to 1 John 1:9 as your “Get
out of Jail” card; have you ever reflected on that verse other than as a way to
absolve your own sense of guilt? If you
are forgiven past, present and future, why does it say that if you confess your
sin, he is faithful and just to FORGIVE your sin. If your sins are forgiven past, present and
future, this would be a needless act.
Why does it say he will cleanse you of all UNRIGHTEOUSNESS? Where does that unrighteousness come from if
you are in a protected state of righteousness?
The apostle John, who wrote this verse, dedicated the entire book of 1
John to convey the absolute necessity of the disciple to walk uprightly before
the Master and before IAUE. He depicted
the abject horror of the idea of a believer continuing to walk in sin
(unrighteousness). The whole purpose of
the book was to instruct the disciple NOT to walk in sin.
So, once we open the door to believing that
sin is still an issue in the life of the believer; we must resolve HOW it
remains a problem if Messiah died for our sins.
This is a fairly simple task.
Romans 3:24 Being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Messiah
Yahushua:
25 Whom Elohim hath set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of Elohim;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might
be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Yahushua.
The Levitical law explained that the soul that sins must
surely die. A sacrifice for sins was
offered year by year to “cover” the sins over to the next year…never being
forgiven and removed. The Hebrew simply
had annual protection against accountability for his sin if he participated in the
offering of atonement. Messiah was the
perfect sacrifice that removed those sins that had been committed up to the point
of their belief in him. Once a person
becomes his disciple, they are under a new covenant; and they have a new high
priest who is of the tribe of Judah.
Hebrews 7:12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of
necessity a change also of the law.
Yahushua
presides over a new priesthood that does not fall under the auspices of the
Levitical law. The law of Moses was
given to the tribe of Levi. Yahushua is
of the tribe of Judah; which necessitates that he presides over new law; and he
does just that. Sin is dealt with
differently under the New Covenant than it was under the Old Covenant…and it IS
dealt with.
Sin,
in the lives of those who are partakers of the New Covenant, is to be an
experience of omission, not commission.
We are not to CHOOSE a path of unrighteousness. Sin in the life of the
disciples should only occur because their minds are yet in the process of being
renewed and their unrighteous acts are committed, not by choice to disobey
their Master; but rather because they did not know better. Choosing sin is the path of rebellion against
the King; and a deliberate dishonoring of the price paid by our Master to
deliver us from unrighteousness.
The price
Yahushua paid that we might walk in the light as he is in the light is a wound
in the heart of IAUE; and HE does not take lightly men’s rejection of it. The sin issue has been completely resolved in
our Master Yahushua Messiah; and we must embrace it fully and walk in the power of
the new life he died to give us. We are
not at liberty to begin our discipleship with gusto, only to fizzle out in
unbelief or lack of heart to continue in the grace of our Master.
Consider
the cost before putting your hand to the plow; for it is better never to have
begun, than to begin only to draw back from righteousness.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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