Agreeing with God About our Sin

1 John 1:5-6 ESV

 

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

 

Jesus Christ did not die on that cross for our sins so that we would continue living in sin, only now guilt free. He did not free us merely from the punishment of sin so we would escape hell and go to heaven when we die, but he freed us from our slavery to sin so that we would now be slaves of God and of his righteousness in the power of God, by his grace.

 

For, in him is no darkness. Thus, he would not free us so we would keep living in the darkness without guilt. So, if we claim to be in relationship with Jesus Christ, via confession of him as our Savior, and if we claim heaven as our eternal home, but while we walk (in conduct, in practice) in darkness (in sin, in wickedness), then we are lying and we do not practice the truth.

 

For our walk is how we live each day. It is our norm, what we do over and over again as a matter of life course, of habit. It is our conduct, but it is also our attitudes, our thinking, and our speaking. It is what we do and who we are day in and day out. Yet, this is not saying we will never sin again, but that sin should no longer have dominion over our lives to where we obey it.

 

For sin to be our practice, therefore, it means that we deliberately, willfully, habitually, and premeditatedly repeat the same offenses over and over again in God’s face, in defiance of him and of his moral standards, choosing our flesh over God and his word time and time again, even willfully hurting others without caring. We, thus, are insulting the spirit of grace on purpose.

 

So, don’t be led astray by those who are teaching that you can believe in Jesus Christ and have heaven guaranteed you when you die but that you can keep on in your sinful practices and that God will not judge you. He will! For, if we sow to please the flesh, from the flesh we will reap destruction, but if we sow to please the Spirit, from the Spirit we will reap eternal life.

 

[Rom 6:1-23; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 1:13-19; Heb 10:26-31; Gal 6:7-8]

 

1 John 1:7 ESV

 

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

 

Now, please pay attention with me here to what this is saying for it is critical that we all get this, for not many people are teaching this. They skip over this verse 7 and they move on down to verse 9 which they then loosely interpret to say that if we confess our sins that they are forgiven past, present, and future, and that no matter how much we sin from this moment forward that our sins will never count against us.

 

But let’s examine what verse 7 is saying here, for it is consistent with what Jesus taught and with what Paul taught and with what the other New Testament apostles taught, too. And that is that we must walk (in conduct, in practice) in the light (in Jesus Christ, in righteousness and holiness, and in the truth of God’s Holy Word). And IF we do, we have fellowship with God and with one another who are also in fellowship with God, and the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.

 

So, we don’t get cleansed once and then we are good to go until the day we die. Jesus taught that we must deny self and take up our cross daily (die daily with him to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him if we want to be one of his followers. Paul said the same. If by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of the flesh then we have life eternal with God.

 

For, we are saved (past), we are being saved (present), and we will be saved (future) when Jesus returns for us, his bride, which is when our salvation will then be complete, and not until then. But this is conditional upon us continuing in Christ and in obedience to his word and in walks of faith and in practicing righteousness and holiness and not sin.

 

[Jude 1:3-4; Rom 8:1-17; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 8:24; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 1:18; Jn 8:31-32; Jn 15:1-12; Rom 11:17-24; 1 Co 15:2; Col 1:21-23; 2 Tim 2:10-13; Heb 3:6, 14-15; 2 Pet 1:5-11; 1 Jn 2:3-6, 24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10]

 

1 John 1:8-10 ESV

 

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

 

Now, let’s examine this word “confess.” It means to agree with God about our sin, i.e. to speak the same as God about our sin, to the same conclusion as God, and to be fully in agreement and aligned with God. And what does God say about our sin? He says we must repent of our sins, that we must forsake them, and we must now follow him in obedience and that we must now walk (in conduct) according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.

 

But that is not how most people are teaching it these days. They are teaching that if you admit you sinned that you are forgiven and that the blood of Jesus cleanses you from all sin. But that is not what this is teaching, especially in light of verse 7. We have to walk (in conduct, in practice) in the Lord and in his righteousness and holiness, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

 

So, confessing sin is not just making a verbal acknowledgment of sin. I have known many people who would admit that they sinned but it didn’t alter how they lived their lives from that point forward. They may have called it repentance, but it is not repentance if you don’t change and if you keep going back to the same sins deliberately and habitually in God’s face cyclically. For repentance involves turning away from the sin.

 

So, a mere acknowledgment of sin is not agreeing with God about your sin. We have to forsake our sins, for that is why Jesus died that we might die with  him to sin and live to him and to his righteousness. He died to deliver us from our slavery (addiction) to sin and to empower us to live holy and godly lives, pleasing to him. We have to submit to the Lordship of Christ over our lives and we must now walk in obedience to our Lord’s commands.

 

But, again, this is not a one time thing. Now, it isn’t that you lose your salvation every time you sin, either, which is what some people teach, or it wouldn’t be grace, and it would defeat the purpose for why Jesus gave his life up for us, because not one of us can keep the law perfectly. So, Jesus set the criteria for us that we walk (in practice) according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh, and then we have life eternal with God.

 

[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-24; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10, 19-20; 2 Co 5:10, 15; Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Gal 5:16-21; Eph 5:3-6; Gal 6:7-8; Rom 2:6-8; Matt 7:21-23; Heb 10:26-27; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10]

 

Pie Jesu

 

Songwriter: Andrew Lloyd-Webber

 

Merciful Jesus,

Pie Jesu,

 

Who takes away the sins of the world

Qui tollis peccata mundi

 

Give them rest, grant them rest

Dona eis requiem, dona eis requiem

 

Lamb of God

Agnus Dei,

 

Who takes away the sins of the world

Qui tollis peccata mundi

 

Grant them eternal rest

Dona eis requiem

 

Forever

Sempiternam

 

Requiem

Requiem

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46wueF4OKck

Caution: This link may contain ads