- A Teaching Manuscript by Pastor Jim Oliver
- TeleiosBibleChurch
- July – August 2005 (Updated 9/20/2011)
Outline
I. The Issue of Sin
– For the Unbeliever
– For the Believer
II Understanding Sin
III Sin Defined
IV Sin Categories
– Colossians 3:5-9a
– Proverbs 6:12-19
– 2 Timothy 3:2-5
– James 2:1-13
V. The Solution to Sin
I. The Issue of Sin
For the Unbeliever:
If you are an unbeliever, this is the only page of this presentation that applies to you. You see, the issue in your life is not sins you have committed. Jesus Christ has already died for every one of them. For you, the issue is the appropriation of His saving work. Our Lord paid the penalty for every sin you have ever committed. You will never be called to task for those sins. The only sin for which you will go to the Lake of Fire is for rejection of the work Christ did on your behalf. I can’t fathom the gnashing of teeth in the Lake of Fire on behalf of those who understand this! The thief on the cross understood why he was being executed: He had committed criminal acts for which he was given the sentence of death. He could understand that and, to a degree, accept that. But those who will go to the Lake of Fire are not going there because of all the sins and evil they committed. They are going there because they rejected Christ. So let me make very clear what the Lord has done for you.
God demonstrated His very own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us. Romans 5:8
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. John 3:36
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:18
Truly, truly, I say to you [I am giving you an absolute truth]: he who believes in Me has eternal life. John 6:47
Rejection of Jesus Christ is the basis of the unbeliever’s condemnation at the last judgment. Personal sin never condemns anyone to hell.
For the Believer:
For you believers, the issue of sin revolves around your spirituality, that is, the function of your spiritual life. We are commanded to be spiritual at all times.
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit… Ephesians 5:18
This involves fellowship with both the Father and Son as well as utilizing the power of the Holy Spirit. Anytime you fail to recognize a temptation to sin then succumb to it, you give birth to sin and destroy, or bring to a total halt, your spiritual life. The only way to regain your spiritual life is to name your sins to the Father as per 1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
II. The Importance of Understanding Sin
In your Christian life, it is important to know what constitutes a sin. This way you can avoid converting temptations to sin because you recognize that the urge to do something maybe a temptation to sin. The more you know about sin, the closer the accounts you can keep with God; that is the more quickly you can recover from sin. Understanding what sin is gives you the opportunity of building up resistance against it as well. If you can identify what is sin in the temptation stage you are more likely to resist it. However, the identification of temptation sometimes results in succumbing to that temptation, and so you sin. If you do sin, you will come to recognize that you have sinned by comparing your thinking with the doctrine you know. Once having recognized that thought, behavior or motive as a sin, you can take responsibility for it by naming it to the Father as per 1 John 1:9.
You need to understand that the temptation in itself is not the sin, but the volitional act of succumbing to that temptation is sin. The source of sin is human volition being united with one of two categories of temptation: the temptation to commit a known sin and the temptation to commit an unknown sin. So, temptation to sin, and therefore sin, comes in two categories: known and unknown.
It is easy to take responsibility for the known sins. You commit it, name it to the Father and He forgives you for it. On the other hand, if it is an unknown sin that has caused you to lose your spiritually, you must remain in a state of carnality until you finally commit a known sin then name it. When you do so, God also forgives you of those unknown sins and restores you to fellowship with Him. The danger lies in how long you remain in carnality and into what arenas of Satan’s power you enter into.
Let me address the so-called ease of taking responsibility for known sins. There are those who willingly commit known sins because they assume that they can name it to the Father immediately after, resume their spirituality without consequence. Remember that when you sin, you immediately become locked, to some degree, into arrogance and preoccupation with yourself. If you know that something you want to do is sin and you willingly commit it, you are, to some degree, arrogant, justifying yourself for that sin. Because you have willingly entered into that sin, knowing that it is a sin, you have just committed a sin of self-justification as well as that sin you were tempted to commit. Do you see how locked into arrogance you become by justifying even the most “harmless” of sins? Now that you are locked into arrogance and self-justification are going to willingly name that sin to the Father? Are you going to be that humble? So, I may say that is easy to recover from a known sin, but this is in mechanic only. Don’t glibly willingly commit a known sin thinking that you can simply name that sin and be done with it!
In any case, having committed either a known or unknown sin, having become locked into arrogance or hatred, recovery can be difficult. You need to understand what constitutes sin so that you may recover quickly without becoming deeply locked into satanic systems of thought and action..
When you commit a sin you need to be able to identify that sin so you can take responsibility for it. One problem in identifying a given sin is that many sins become accepted in a culture through many generations as being acceptable life patterns, so that no one considers them sins anymore. Even so, they are still sins. This factor came into play with the Kamikaze suicide bombers during World War 2. The Japanese culture justifies suicide in many forms. That culture has glorified committing suicide to the degree that if a student flunks a college entry exam that he will take his own life. In our American culture, premarital sex and recently, homosexuality falls into that category. It is a sin, yet, it is culturally acceptable. The list of culturally acceptable sins in any culture, I’m sure, is endless.
If you do not know a sin is a sin, you cannot take responsibility for it until you commit one that you know is a sin. For the ignorant, that may take some time; in the meantime the spiritual life goes into a terrible state of decline. This results in the believer going through the stages of reversionism, becoming involved in the cosmic system with its resultant divine discipline. If the believer becomes thoroughly entrenched in satanic thought and function by spiritual decline, he may eventually sin a sin of cognizance and name that sin to the Father, but he may be so deeply involved in reversionism that, though in the divine dynasphere briefly, he will get out again very quickly.
So, until you understand what the Bible calls sin, it is impossible to understand your spiritual experiential status quo. Too often we find ourselves committing sins and we’re not even aware that they are sins. Therefore, although we may rebound, we still get out of fellowship instantly. This is an unstable situation and not conducive to spiritual growth at all. So as a royal priest, you must know what sin is so that you can deal with your own sins before the Lord by the use of the recovery technique: naming your sin or sins to the Father. Remember that post-salvation sinning is the issue when considering your spirituality. The issue is not sins you committed before you were saved, but sins you commit after you are saved.
Also, don’t ever get the idea that you have reached sinless perfection, or that you sin infrequently. That very thought is the sin of arrogance! Listen to what the Apostle John wrote:
If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth [doctrine] is not in us. 1 John 1:8
If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. 1 John 1:10
Even if we allege that we have reached a state of rare sin in our lives, we are not deceiving anyone else, only ourselves. One of the greatest problems in spiritual adolescence is self-deception. You think you’re good or even perfect, not realizing the many sins of self-righteousness of which you are guilty. So don’t kid yourself; as long as you live, you will have the sin nature in the cell structure of your body, and you will sin. The only way to recover from sin and become filled with the Spirit and be restored to fellowship with God is through applying 1 John 1:9.
The only way to understand and learn and apply Bible doctrine and to advance to the life of mature spirituality is through the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is the enabling power for the perception of doctrine.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. John 14:26
These are the words of our Lord, spoken to His disciples in anticipation of the Church Age. The Holy Spirit came up them in the Upper Room at Pentecost. We still have, during this Church Age, Him ministry to us. His teaching ministry to us defines one aspect of the uniqueness of this Church Age. So, this verse teaches that it is God the Holy Spirit ultimately teaches us doctrine. The next verse presents the mechanics of His teaching ministry.
I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you. John 16:12-15
The phrase, “you cannot bear them now,” indicates that the disciples did not have the capacity to either understand or apply the advanced Church Age doctrines which our Lord wanted to teach them, but knew that they would learn those doctrines under the ministry of the Spirit. Note the mechanic: “whatever He hears, He will speak.” This means that the Spirit will not directly teach you but takes the utterances of the pastor or Bible teacher and teach those to you. No believer receives special information from the Holy Spirit. He takes that doctrine which is accurately taught and gives the Spirit-filled believer the ability to comprehend it.
The passage then presents the particulars of the doctrines He teaches. The first category of doctrine: “what is to come.” This includes prophecy of the then future Church Age, future dispensations and the eternal state. The doctrines which the Holy Spirit will teach glorify our Lord. Every doctrine does! Every doctrine belongs to our Lord; it is His thinking!
When ignorance characterizes your spiritual status, you will be frustrated because you will not able to access the promised dynamics of the spiritual life. You’ll be like a traveler with no road map and no sense of direction. You won’t be able to solve problems using God’s resources, to include the 10 problem-solving devices. If you don’t use those then you are destined to be a loser believer. So, it is imperative that you understand those things which knock you out of your spiritual life!
When you apply the recovery technique delineated in 1 John 1:9, you take responsibility for your own decisions and own sins. You will not make the mistake of blaming someone else for things you decide to do or things that you decide to think or talk about. Too often, a woman blames a man who “gets to her,” as if she had no volition. Men do the same thing; they always like to blame the woman, as if they had no volition of their own. But you must always take the responsibility for your own decisions. You begin to do so when you are consistent in the use of the rebound technique.
III. Sin Defined
The Greek word for sin is HAMARTIA ἁμαρτία. The theological doctrine which deals with sin is called hamartiology. By definition, sin is anything contrary to God’s perfect character or integrity. It is also acting independently of God and His provision. Every human being sins.
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God… Romans 3:23
Because we are all fallen, we all fall short of God’s integrity, of His glory. This is a very important point. It bears repeating! You will, because you are a human being, always fall short of God’s incredible perfect standard of integrity…unless you are living by His power. He has made it possible for us, as lowly, fallen human beings to fulfill His ultimate and perfect standard of righteousness every moment we live and breathe by simply being filled with the Spirit and resultantly being in fellowship with both the Father and the Son! This is an awesome thought! Even more awesome when you apply it to your life! So, the only way we avoid living contradictorily to God’s perfection is to live in fellowship with Him, being filled with the Holy Spirit.
IV. Categories of Sin
In this section of our doctrine, we’re going to look at a number of passages which delineate sin so that we can recognize it.
Colossians 3:5-10
Therefore, begin to put to death the members of your earthly body… Colossians 3:5a
This verse begins with the aorist active imperative of the verb, NEKROO νεκρόω which means, “to put to death,” or “to render impotent.” It was used in the context of sexual death in the Greek vernacular. Though it does not directly refer to that category of death in this context, it is an appropriate use of the word, considering the broader context and to whom this letter was written. These Colossians, as well as those believers in the entire Lycus Valley, were, as unbelievers, highly involved in the phallic cult. As unbelievers, their “worship” involved both, licentiousness with cultic prostitutes and emasculation for the priests. As immature believers, they’d stray back into that and other old categories of sin. This is really a sophisticated play on words! It is an ingressive aorist, which means that the action of the verb is viewed in its entirety but with emphasis on the beginning or start of the action. This then can be translated as, “Begin to consider as impotent…” On one hand, the priests to Cybele emasculated themselves while on the other hand, those who fornicated would not want to be impotent! Needless to say, with this vocabulary, Paul clearly got their attention and communicated this principle: In light of the glories of Christ and His work on our behalf, bring under control the influence from your old sin nature.
The next word is the post positive use of the inferential particle used as a conjunction, OUN οὖν translated as “therefore.” The mandate given in this verse is a challenge based upon the preceding verses. To thoroughly understand this we need to know what argument Paul is concluding this mandate with. Without going into total detail here, as it would require hours and pages of exegesis, we will introduce the general argument. The first issue is stated in Colossians 1:10, to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects…” Paul presents in verses 14 and following why: “He is the image of God,” “…in Whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3
Therefore! Our passage, then, continues!
The accusative plural of MELOS μέλος, translated, “body parts” continues the phrase” This is a very graphic way of teaching this lesson. “Begin to consider as dead, therefore, the body parts…” Had Paul written MELOS in the singular, then the lesson would be a prohibition of one category of sin. But because it is in the plural, it is tantamount to a mandate to reject the authority that you have given to your old sin nature over you which pervades every cell in your body. You use your body, to include your mind, tongue and other body parts to sin. Every time you sin, you are giving the ruler-ship of your soul over to your old sin nature, Satan’s inside agent. You do this to yourself.
Now, when you believed in Jesus Christ, you became positionally dead to your old sin nature. An avatar works as a good illustration of being positionally in Christ. Consider you real self in Heaven, in Christ. In that state, you are righteous, perfect, without sin. What’s here on earth is your avatar; a representation of your perfect self in an old sin nature ridden body. It just makes a person blue!
In another passage, Paul used the analogy of divorce to teach this principle.
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. Romans 7:1-4
Your old sin nature was your first husband, to whom, upon your faith in Christ, you became dead to. Jesus Christ became your new husband at the moment of salvation, so now He is your husband. You are under His authority. However, your first husband, your old sin nature drops by every so often and tempts you. You agree to that temptation and walk into sin. Paul, in this passage, says to stop doing that! You are seeing far too much of your ex-husband. He is dead to you, so start acting like he is! You need to experientially reject your old sin nature’s authority over you. So, this is a mandate for you to stop giving your old sin nature authority over your soul.
You do this in one of two ways: You may, either at the point of temptation, recognize the temptation and reject it or at the point of conception, refrain from carrying out the temptation to the point of sin. Secondly, if you do sin, then you need to rebound, naming your sins to the Father, thereby returning to spirituality from carnality.
You must be on continual alert for temptations! It’s not like salvation, where you believed once and you were saved from that moment on, having been given eternal life. You must constantly be on the alert for temptations from both your old sin nature and from things outside of you, which link up and appeal to your old sin nature. When you recognize a temptation, resist it. If you catch a temptation as being such at its outset, then at that point, you have the opportunity to “put to death the members of your body…’ Go no further with it! However, if you don’t recognize it as being a temptation at the point, you have another chance to bring a halt to that sin. That is in the stage of planning the sin. James calls this the conception stage. This is where the temptation hooks up with your volition and you decide you are going to do this! Recognize that what you are planning is wrong and stop it there! Stopping a temptation at either of these stages requires two things. First, you must have the filling of the Spirit giving you divine power, the supernatural power to resist the temptation.
Secondly, you must have doctrine in your soul to apply to that temptation. That doctrine must include both a categorical knowledge of sin so you can recognize it as a temptation to sin and it must include the promises or rationale against fulfilling that sin. However, if you do succumb to that temptation, name the sin to the Father and resume your spiritual life.
Why does Paul call old sin nature influence “members of your earthly body?” Your old sin nature permeates every cell in your body. Everyone was born this way. We, as human beings, are fallen from the perfection God created Adam and Eve as. The only way to reject its influence over you is to maintain your spirituality!
Paul then lists categories of sin. Now, this initial list of sins are those which we all, to a degree, participated in as unbelievers. These sins are anti-establishment in nature, meaning that in carrying them out, you are destroying the fabric which holds a given society together. God has bestowed upon the human race, laws of establishment which, when applied, provide the necessary integrity for the function of a national entity. These principles include personal responsibility, private property, marriage, family and nationalism. As a believer in Jesus Christ, having learning basic doctrines, you should not be involved in these sins. These you should have put behind you while in spiritual childhood. The English text of Colossians 3:5b reads this way.
…immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire… Colossians 3:5b
Now, we will look at the Greek text for better understanding of each of these concepts.
Immorality is PORNEIA πορνεία, which means fornication in any of its unnatural forms, or any illicit sexual intercourse. Fornication, by definition is sexual intercourse between unmarried people.
Impurity is AKATHARSIA ἀκαθαρσία which means impurity of mind, that is, mental adultery, or sexual lust “the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living.”[1]. Lust is defined as inordinate desire in any category. In moving from immorality to impurity, Paul is including mental activity in sin as well as overt activity. (our Lord raised the bar from activity to mental activity)
Passion is PATHOS πάθος which refers to getting excited about degenerate things. In keeping here with the sexual context, it refers to any sexual motivation apart from God’s design. This is inordinate affection for mental sexual degeneracy. The person who cultivates this kind of appetite can always find a way to satisfy it, moving into pornography.
Evil desire is EPITHUMIA ἐπιθυμία which means evil lust or desires. Desires lead to acts, appetites lead to actions. Paul also addressed the issue of sexual sins to the Romans.
Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. Romans 13:13
After he had named these sensual sins, Paul added,
[1] Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader (Col 3:5). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
…and greed which amount to idolatry. Colossians 3:5c
PLEONEZIA πλεονεξία means wanting more; always wanting more! Sexual lust is a good illustration of this because the person who is involved in the above list of sins becomes locked into lust for sexual gratification. It is, like many others, an addictive sin. Greed or covetousness is the sin of always wanting more, whether more things or more pleasures. The greedy or covetous person is never satisfied with what he has, becoming involved a frantic search for more, thinking that his happiness lies in those things or pleasures. He is usually envious of what other people have, thinking that others are happy because of what they have. This is tantamount to idolatry because whenever you become involved in greed, you are putting things or pleasure the first priority in your life, instead of God. If you look back to the Old Testament (Ex. 20:17), you will find that “Thou shalt not covet” is the last of the Ten Commandments. Why? Because a greedy or covetous person will dishonor God, take God’s name in vain, lie, steal, and commit every other sin in order to satisfy his lust! That lust, if it spreads throughout a nation, will destroy its integrity and ability to function.
For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. Colossians 3:6-7
Whoever indulges in these things is not only liable individually to divine discipline in the three categories we have already discussed, but also the nation is liable to be disciplined under the four cycles of national discipline. Note again here that Paul says that we all once were involved, to one degree or another, in these sins. Every unbeliever is. The point is that as a believer, you should not be!
Our passage continues:
But now you also, put these all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Colossians 3:8
After discussing sins which you should have been able to resist early in your spiritual growth, now Paul lists sins which are common among believers. These sins are generally more sophisticated. Our tendency as believers is to rationalize our way around these. We don’t consider these to be terrible sins, if sins at all. Paul lists these also because these will destroy the function of a local church. For members of the congregation to be able to listen and learn objectively, these sins need to be taken care of. We’ll go over the sins which Paul, under the ministry of the Spirit, has listed for our edification:
ORGE ὀργή means anger, generally caused by jealousy. This is a sin of reaction. If you have a predilection toward this sin, it can easily become habitually entered into when your buttons are pushed! We tend to blame those who push our buttons instead of dealing with it ourselves by means of the doctrine in our own souls. This particular sin is often hidden thereby becoming motivation for other sins, such as revenge motivation and murder. This one simmers.
THUMOS θυμός is also a category of anger but it refers to an emotional anger which results in soul turbulence, tantrums and explosions. You commit a sin of THUMOS when you lose your temper.
KAKIA κακία means depravity or evil directed toward someone else. You are in this sin if you are upset when someone else succeeds or you are secretly happy if they get into trouble.
BLASPHEMIA βλασφημία means to malign or slander the character of God. This generally describes slanderous speech, maligning God’s character. Anytime you attribute a characteristic to God which He does not have, you are guilty of blasphemy. One the other hand, when you allege with either with your speech, thinking or behavior that God is unable to fulfill a promise or category of grace, then you are also blaspheming because you are maligning Gods character when you don’t believe what He says.
AISCHROLOGIA αἰσχρολογία means ugly speech; talk that hurts others. This is simply thoughtlessness of others, a total contradiction of the attitude we are commanded to have toward each other.
Paul added one more sin in verse 9:
Do not lie to one another…Colossians 3:9a
Paul said the same thing to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 4:25. This is important! When you lie you are following in Satan’s footsteps because he was the first liar (John 8:44)! Nothing destroys personal relationships quicker than the lie, either verbal or overt. Nothing will get you out of fellowship with God quicker than a so-called white lie! God the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17; 15:26). The Truth here is Bible doctrine, but an important application of that reality is that you should not lie. When you lie, you are in cahoots with Satan, himself. A lie is any misrepresentation of the truth, even if the words are accurate. A lie can be carried in your tone of voice, the look on your face, or any facet of body language! So can your motivation.
Now, let’s turn to our next passage:
Proverbs 6:12-19
This passage teaches two other categories of sin. Proverbs 6:12-15 address the troublemaker. He is arrogant, jealous, and implacable with revenge motivation which is evil. Revenge motivation is evil because it is a mental motivation bent upon destruction of another. He is a gossip, and guilty of inordinate ambition and inordinate competition. The troublemaker is a disaster in the local church and in any organization. In their own mind, troublemakers are always better than everyone else.
A worthless person, a wicked man is the one who walks with a perverse mouth, Proverbs 6:12
The general principle presented in this verse deals with sins of the tongue. Trouble making is often generated through the mouth in gossip, maligning, and judging. A false mouth emphasizes the sins of the tongue.
The first key word in this verse is BALIYA’AL בְּלִיַּ֫עַל often transliterated as Belial. It means worthless and good for nothing, a lawbreaker, a rebellious person, a plotter of evil. Note that this is a category of sin, not a specific act or thought. This word became a proper name for Satan as the Lawless one in the intertestamental period.
Wicked, AWEN אָ֫וֶן refers to an act which is morally evil and corrupt. It is damaging to one’s relationship to God and others, The primary meaning of the word has two facets: a stress on trouble which moves on to or progresses toward wickedness, and an emphasis on emptiness which moves on to idolatry. This emptiness is a result of a believer’s rejection of Bible doctrine. When a believer rejects the Word of God, all sorts of satanic thinking invades his soul to fill up what should be doctrinal thought.
Perversity or crookedness, IQQASHUWTH עִקְּשׁוּת emphasizes the perversion and twisted nature of sin. A believer’s personality will change if he has matured to certain degree then rejected doctrine. A good illustration of this is the Gollum character in the “Lord of the Rings” series of films. He was so consumed by lust for the ring that his entire character changed. A believer who rejects doctrine will inevitably be a worse person than he was before he was saved!
One aspect then, of the worthless person, in God’s eyes, is the inability to be honest. This person always distorts the truth. The fact that the person “walks” this way indicates that this is a life characterized by living and spreading the lie. Often, satanic lies are a simple distortion or graying of the truth.
Verse 13 teaches that a troublemaker uses body language:
He winks with his eye, he signals with his feet, he points with his finger. Proverbs 6:13
Winking, QO-RES קָרַץ means you wink as you run down someone. To signal with the feet means to scrape the feet, a custom we don’t have. It is rude to point MO-RE יָרָה the finger. All this is the body language of mockery, ridicule, and derision. All of these actions also become a secret signal of the deceiver to others not to interfere with his deception. A troublemaker, then, not only has a lifestyle of living and spreading the lie but also deceives those around him in a conspiratorial manner.
Perversity in his right lobe devises evil continually [or a better translation, “malice is in his right lobe; [he devises evil at all times”]; he spreads strife. Proverbs 6:14
The characterization of the troublemaker continues. Perversity TAH-PU-KOT תַּהְפֻּכָה is deviation from doctrine. The troublemaker does not go by what the Bible says is right and wrong. Some believers evangelize; some believers spread strife.
Therefore, his destruction will come suddenly [divine discipline]; he will be broken instantly and there is no remedy. Proverbs 6:15
First, the troublemaker suffers from self-induced misery under the law of volitional responsibility, but eventually he gets clobbered with divine discipline in three stages: warning discipline, intensive discipline, and eventually dying discipline. So either remain a troublemaker and be broken, or depart from it through the rebound technique. Why, you may ask, does God keep a believer-troublemaker in the local church? God keeps reversionist believers alive to test growing believers. Even if you never leave the sanctuary of your local church, God has provided people to whom you can apply Bible doctrine and accelerate your spiritual growth! Now, continuing our passage, Proverbs 6:16-19 list the seven worst sins in God’s eyes. Every sin is abhorrent to God but these are the worst. As we look at each word closely, we will note that this isn’t just a listing of seven sins, but seven categories of sins which represent entire sin complexes. Our passage begins with verse 16:
There are six things which the Lord hates; in fact, seven are an abomination to His soul. Proverbs 6:16
Let’s first look at that verb, hate, SA-NE שָׂנֵא. We all understand that hate is a sin and we cannot ascribe a sin to God. He does not sin. This is an anthropopathism, a word that describes God’s policy in terms of human understanding. God doesn’t hate a sin but His policy toward it can be understood in terms of human hatred. Let me illustrate this. During my stay in Houston, I spent a few years living in my commercial photographic studio. When I moved in, I had to push the cockroaches back to where they belonged: outdoors! Periodically, they tried to overrun my work space and coexist with me as they must have the previous tenant! Well, I didn’t hate them, per se, but my policy of treatment toward them could sure have been construed as hatred, if you had seen me in action! I attempted to stamp them out, literally! If my heels weren’t fast enough, I resorted to the nearest can of Raid! I didn’t hate them because they are just a fact of life in the South, but I did everything I could to keep them at bay! When I moved out, they began to encroach again! They knew I was leaving! So the term hatred here describes God’s policy toward sin in a way that we can appreciate His attitude toward it!
A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, Proverbs 6:17
The word RUM רוּם, in the Qal participle here, translated proud, actually modifies AYIN עַיִן eyes. It describes a physical affect of raised eyes, demonstrating arrogance. A proud look represents an arrogant attitude. Arrogance can alter you usual pleasant facial expression, unless of course, you play great poker! This arrogance includes everything in the arrogance complex of sin: bitterness, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, and others.
A lying tongue refers not only to malicious gossip and slander but also to lying in business and in the court. Gossip and slander destroy a person’s reputation and destroys one’s ability to function to his highest ability in areas that require personal relationships. If lying becomes a national past time, it will destroy integrity in business and those within corporations will no longer be trusted. Lying in business destroys its stability and vitality as a foundation of a given economy. Lying in the courtroom destroys the integrity of our system of jurist prudence. Our whole system of law is based upon integrity in the courtroom. So, you see that lying has the potential of destroying personal relationships, the economy and vital governmental functions.
Hands that shed innocent blood belong to those who commit murder. It does not refer to those who kill in the line of duty such as those in law enforcement or in the military. Murder may be committed because of anger in either of its two categories, or in pursuit of other criminal activities. Murder is listed as one of the worst sins because it permanently removes the victim’s volition. If an unbeliever is victim, then that person will no longer have the ability to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ and believe. This is the most important decision a person will ever make as well as being the pivotal issue in the angelic conflict. If, however, the victim is a believer, murder removes that person’s ability to grow in grace, the subsequent issue in the angelic conflict. So murder removes the ability for that person to fulfill God’s plan for his life.
Note the pattern of sins listed in verse 17. The author lists the three categories of sin: mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, and overt sins. This is the same pattern Satan followed when he fell. Murder is the only overt sin listed among the seven worst sins. The worst overt sin not fornication as we who are formerly Baptist might think!
A heart that that devises evil conspiracies, feet that run rapidly to evil…” Proverbs 6:18
The heart, LEB לֵב in most Biblical texts refers not to the organ which circulates blood throughout the body, but to the circulatory system of thought throughout the soul. It is translated in other passages as, “inner man,” “will”, or “soul.” “Devises” is the qal participle of HORES חָרַשׁ. This word is translated, “plow,” “inscribe,” “plot” and in this context, “to plot a course of action.” Wicked or evil, AWEN חָרַשׁ characterizes the system of thinking of this person. So this phrase refers to the person who is frustrated and becomes conspiratorial. This person is uncomfortable under authority, under which we must all function, and undermines it. God has given to us systems of authority for our benefit! If you ever undermine bona fide authority you are playing right into Satan’s hands. He is the original rejecter of authority! This sin also refers to children who undermine the authority of their parents, and of anyone else who has authority over them. This can become a national trend that destroys a nation! Furthermore, as a result of conspiracy, there is active civil disobedience, again destroying the national fabric. The feet which run rapidly to evil belong to the criminal who wantonly destroys property and life, often in the name of some crusade or human good activity.
A false witness who utters lies, he who sows discord [strife] between the brethren. Proverbs 6:19
Jews had the greatest system of jurisprudence in history. This sin negates it by making it impossible to bring out the facts. Sowing discord, disagreement or strife between the brethren refers to playing one person against another. This person destroys the single-mindedness believers should have by turning people against each other. There is one factor in this spreading strife that we need to understand. It requires some skill, forethought and advanced planning. This is evil as well.
2 Timothy 3:2-5
Most Biblical scholars agree that Paul wrote this letter to Timothy during his second Roman imprisonment from which he would be executed. At that time, Timothy was pastoring the Ephesian Church. In this final message to Timothy, he warned him of the kinds of people he would have to deal with, those who would characterize this period of degeneracy. Paul called this period, “the last days.”
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.2 Timothy 3:1
There is some debate as to exactly what he meant by those words. According to Thieme, three possibilities exist; two designate this to specific periods of time. First, it may refer to the latter days of the Millennium, but the context, sins of the Church Age believer, does not allow for that interpretation. Secondly, it could refer to a time period of intense sin during the Church Age, which would bring our Lord back to rapture the Church Age. This doesn’t work well either because believers have committed these sins from the earliest days of the Church Age; they continue to be committed by believers. The “last days,” then, don’t refer to a period of time but a potential in every believer’s life.
If a believer continues to remain in a state of carnality, he will be steeped in the categories of sin Paul lists. If he continues in this “steeped” state, then he will pass rapidly through the stages of divine discipline, eventuating in his demise under the sin unto death.
All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. 1 John 5:17
In 2 Timothy 3:2-7 Paul gives us this list of sins which are so destructive. These sins are found in every local church. These sins can destroy the function of a local church if allowed to continue unchecked, thereby negating the mission of the local church; to bring the congregation to spiritual maturity. As Paul wrote in verse five, which we will study closely when we get to it, that if you are a believer, stay away from those who fall into the category of the listed sins. Those who are involved in them are more likely to bring you down than you are to help them recover from their reversionism. Bob Thieme called these types ‘cosmic evangelists’ because they were likely to lead you down their own path to self-destruction, which is the trend of those living in either of the Satanic systems of power. These sins are can also be fairly well hidden because these people as we will see in our passage, are real religious! They may be very attractive people who appear to be very “spiritual.” So you may well be attracted to them. If Satan were an embodied creature, attending your local church, he would be one of the most socially appealing people there! So also are his “evangelists!” So, you will find these sins in every church…well, except perhaps small ones where not as many sin natures are active!
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, 2 Timothy 3:2
Paul listed PHILAUTOS φίλαυτος first. This is a compound word, from PHILOS φίλος, love and the intensive pronoun, AUTOS αυτος, himself. If you ever look in the mirror and see your image bounce back to you, you get the idea behind a reflexive pronoun. Instead of love being directed outside of you, it bounces right back! It goes no further! The entire self-love concept is loaded into this one word! It means self-centeredness, which is the foundation of arrogance. Why is this sin so destructive to a local church? Every function of the local church depends upon everyone fulfilling their responsibilities as unto the Lord and not for self-gain or self-aggrandizement. You can’t fulfill your spiritual gift if all you think about is yourself! Your focus in your spiritual life has to be on the Lord, not yourself! Now, there is a place for self-evaluation and so on as a function of your spiritual life. This does not refer to that. Now, I’m not even going to address the hindrance self-centeredness is to your relationship to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, your own spiritual growth, relationships with people and contentedness! It’s pretty obvious! The point here is that God has designed His love to overflow from you to back to Him and to others.
The second sin is PHILAGUROS φιλάργυρος. This means to be a lover of money, more commonly known as greed! This is related to inordinate desire or lust for money and not to the normal appreciation for money gained from hard work and good investment. It also refers to sin in relationship to money: stealing money or being dishonest for monetary gain. Note that the focus of these first two words is love. Again, our love is to be directed to God and not ourselves or money. In terms of local church function, if every member is motivated by greed and not by love for God and His Word, then the local church will not be supported financially. Financial support for the local church is an important issue because, as Paul wrote, it results “in many thanksgivings to the Lord!” Financial support of one’s local church is also a means of being participating in the e’spirit d’corps, the team concept in local church function. We will look further into the dynamics of giving in a later doctrine. Giving is on par with prayer in terms of eternal reward. The amount given…or the form of giving is not the factor. It is the mental attitude and motivation! Remember the widow’s mite!
The third sin listed is: ALAZON ἀλαζών. The one guilty of this is boastful, making more of himself than what reality justifies. He says that he has better things than what he has and says he can do better than what he can. He might even ascribe to himself abilities he doesn’t even have. The ancient Greeks used this word to describe the orator, philosopher, poet, magician, doctor, cook or officer! We might add salesman to the list! Theophrastus defined this as “arousing of the expectation of certain personal characteristics, goodnesses which are not in fact there” the empty boaster who deceives himself and others by making the most of his advantages, abilities and achievements (TDNT Vol. 10). This is a characteristic of soul which separates a person from the proper function God has assigned to him. Furthermore, this person has more confidence in his own abilities than he has in God’s. But make no mistake; God can make much more of you than you can ever make of yourself!
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Romans 12:3
Arrogance is HUPERPHONOS ὑπερήφανος. Arrogance is the easiest way to enter into Satan’s realm of power. It begins with rejection of authority and soon becomes locked into preoccupation with self. The person resents authority, including pastoral authority to teach the Word of God from the pulpit. This one will hang out in churches to gain approbation from others. As good as they may seem, all they boast about, position, power or wealth is empty and meaningless. Arrogance includes an entire complex of sins where the individual is totally preoccupied with himself. This one is mentally insolent, and supercilious. This arrogance is also against God and stands in stark contrast to the humility which is supposed to be our response to God and which is full surrender to Him. So, this is the pride in one’s own being and work.
The next sin on the list is BLASPHEMOS βλάσφημος. We tend to think of blasphemy in terms of rejecting a bona fide interpretation of doctrine or academically refuting an accepted doctrinal teaching. In past times, blasphemy was punishable by death if the government was run by the Church. In reality, BLASPHEMOS βλάσφημος means to mistake the true nature of God, to doubt His power or to live in contradiction to His policy. So, any lifestyle which rejects God’s promises, provision and character is blasphemous. The blasphemous person doesn’t have to write academic papers contradicting current theological views, but just resist God’s will for his life. Most of Christianity today blasphemes by misunderstanding and misapplying doctrine. You malign God and blaspheme every time you fail to apply a divine promise or doctrinal rationale.
Disobedient comes from the Greek Word APEITHES ἀπειθής. This deals with rejection of bona fide authority. One of the most important issues in the spiritual life is authority orientation. The authority orientation pattern begins in childhood with obedience to parents. If a child is raised, being inculcated with that pattern of thought, then that child will be set up to respond to the authority of the Holy Spirit when given gospel information. There is nothing more important in the process of raising children than to teach authority orientation by means of fair discipline. The person who begins life by disobeying parents may very well progress to criminality and never respond to the Gospel without learning authority orientation another way. So important is authority orientation, that to those who develop it early in life by respecting their parents, God promises a long life:
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth. Ephesians 6:1-3
Ungrateful is the Greek ACHARISTOS ἀχάριστος. The issue of gratitude in the spiritual life is an important one. By means of the gratitude in your soul toward God, you can determine to what degree you have grown of spiritually. To the degree that you are grateful to the Lord for the incredible wealth He has given to each of us, to that degree, you are fulfilling His plan for your life. You can only be grateful to the Lord if you know Him and understand every asset He has given you, so this is a measure of the doctrine in your soul, by which you come to know and appreciate our Lord. So this word, ungrateful describes the immature believer who is not growing in grace. Spiritual growth is not an issue to this person, so he is a pawn of Satan, constantly living in the Cosmic System, acting as a test for growing believers. This is a subject we will return to in a later study because so much is indicated by the thought pattern of soul gratitude. Two passages describe the concept of gratitude:
In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Let me emphasize the word, everything here. When you are grateful, you will have the capacity to understand that God places in you any situation for your benefit and happiness. He brings testing to you to accelerate your spiritual growth. /So you are in a tense situation? Apply the doctrine you have learned and watch the deliverance of the Lord and watch your faith grow!
Having been rooted and grounded and having been edified in Him and being stabilized by means of doctrine as you have been taught, overflowing with thanksgiving. Colossians 2:7
This passage indicates that if you are growing up spiritually from learning and applying doctrines you have been taught, then you will become filled with gratitude. You can’t come to know God and not overflow with thanksgiving!
ANOSIOS ἀνόσιος is generally translated as “unholy.” Note that the last three categories of sins refer to not being something you are. They are words describing spiritual growth preceded with a negative “a.” In this case, you should be holy, that is experientially sanctified, being filled with the Spirit, and having fellowship with both the Father and the Son. The translation, “wicked,” fits well here, too, because if any believer is not in a state of spirituality, then he will be controlled by his old sin nature, living and functioning in the Satan’s power system. This word HOSIOS ὁσίως, which is the antithesis of our word here a strong connotation of proper procedure in carrying out a divine function. Its equivalent is used very often in the Old Testament because that dispensation was one of ritual. It required the fulfillment of precise rituals to teach God’s plan for that age. Though ours is a plan of protocol, there is still an area within which we need to function properly. We need to discharge the functions of our office of royal priest. How? We need to be consistent state of spirituality so that we do not become wicked, thoroughly entrenched in Satan’s Cosmic System.
Our passage continues in verse 3:
…unloving, implacable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good of intrinsic value… 2 Timothy 3:3
Unloving is the Greek word ASTORGOS ἄστοργος. The root word here is STERGO, a verb which means, “to cherish affectionately.” The ‘A ἄ,’ is a negative alpha prefix which when combined with the root word means the opposite of the root. So ASTERGOS means unloving. The love referred to though, is not a direct reference to either personal or virtue love, which we have defined extensively previously, but speaks to a lack of capacity to appreciate, lovingly, anything in life. Capacity for love, life and happiness is a wonderful and blessed by-product of living the spiritual life. It is the glue that holds personal relationships together. We don’t have this love on our own, but we reflect God’s love. The person who does not possess this love is maturing spiritually.
When a believer does not have capacity for love, whatever capacity he have had for love under establishment, as an unbeliever, has been covered up or wiped out by scar tissue of the soul. An unbeliever who adheres to establishment can have a limited STERGO, but the believer who has rejected doctrine totally destroys any capacity he once had. So this concept refers to a lack of capacity for any affection at all. This is brought on by reversionism, consistently living carnally, living under Satanic influence. A believer who rejects doctrine will become a worse person than what he was as an unbeliever in terms of human function. He won’t lose his salvation, but he will be indistinguishable from an unbeliever with no capacity for love, life or thoughtfulness. The only way a believer can gain capacity for love, in any category, is by learning to think the way our Lord does. It’s no coincidence that the Scripture says that, “God is love.” The only path to true love is bible doctrine.
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16
You can only come to believe God’s love for us by maturing spiritually. As you mature, you begin to reflect His love, becoming loving toward others in the process. The apostle John also talked about this love:
“The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 1 John 4:8
Irreconcilable is the Greek ASPONDOS ἄσπονδος, which can be translated as implacable. This refers to the person you can’t please, no matter what! I used my two year old as an example of this. Of course from a two year old, it’s an expected behavior! One morning, she indicated that she wanted some chocolate powder added to her milk. Being a little slow on the upstart, it took me a few minutes to figure out what she wanted. As soon as I realized what she wanted, I added the Nestles to her cup. In the meantime, she lost her temper and started crying and fussing. Do you think the chocolate milk appeased her? No! She was totally wrapped up in herself pity and nothing short of sending her to her room was able to pull her out of it. She came out of her room 30 seconds later, with a totally changed attitude! But, an implacable person is totally wrapped up in themselves and their real or alleged injury or insult!
An implacable person in your work place can really be a challenge! This person constantly tries to undermine authority, whether it be secular or within a local church. This person will try to convert others to his sour attitude. You can’t please an implacable person in any way, shape or form! A little divine discipline, however, may bring them around!
Another connotation of this word is translated as, “trucebreaker.” The word like the last one is made up of SPONDE, with the alpha negative prefix. SPONDE refers to a libation, something poured out in offering to a deity, a kind of sacrifice. In the ancient world, a libation was also used when a treaty was made and accepted. The alpha prefixed, negates the word, and comes to mean “refusing to enter into a treaty, irreconcilable, implacable.” [Wuest, K. S. Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament : For the English reader].
“Malicious gossips” is the word, DIABOLOS διάβολος, which in its literal meaning refers to a person one who falsely accuses another, slandering him. The word comes from another word which literally means “to throw through,” coming to mean, “to riddle one with accusations.” [Wuest, K. S.] The local church is no place to slander other people. If one person’s behavior, in anyway, offends you, then you need to rely upon your virtue love and give them a chance to mature spiritually, as you do!
Without self-control is AKRATES ἀκρατής. This refers to people who are lacking in self-control. This one will go where ever his sin nature leads him. Paul’s sin list continues with brutal, ANEMEROS ἀνήμερος, which, with today’s news stories of brutal people, needs no expansion. Haters of good, is the Greek, APHILAGATHOS ἀφιλάγαθος, which refers to the person who has gone beyond simple antagonism toward the Word of God and those who teach it, to hatred toward it. This person now, wants to tear it down and destroy it.
Verse 4 continues with:
…treacherous, thoughtless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… 2 Timothy 3:4
Treacherous is PRODOTES προδότης. Luke used this word to describe Judas. Thoughtless, PROPETES προπετής, refers to recklessness and rashness. This person is being led by his emotions, without thought at all. Doctrine is thought, divine thought. You cannot apply doctrine if you are being led by you emotions. TUFOOMIA τυφόομαι is translated “conceited,” the extreme end of preoccupation with yourself.
Being a lover of pleasure, PHILEDONOS φιλήδονος, instead of a lover of God, brings me to a point that I will preach about! One of the evils of our society is the constant perusal of pleasures and entertainments. Now, there is nothing wrong with these, per se. But in our society, these things have become the first priority in life. We subordinate everything to that perusal. We, as Church believers, need to come to the realization that our lives are not our own. If you are in the military you are under the authority of your commanding officer twenty-four hours a day. You may be called upon to discharge your responsibility at any time! In the same way, your life belongs to the Lord, twenty-four hours a day, as long as you live. You are a Christian soldier, involved in the angelic conflict. You are responsible to fulfill every mandate in the Word of God which is directed to Church Age believers, just as the soldier is responsible to obey orders. These mandates are your orders from the Lord Jesus Christ, your commander-in-chief! Your first responsibility is your training, growing in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You will not go on R and R or be discharged from your Christian military responsibilities until the day you die. So, you need to look at physical death as a permanent change in station from active duty to retirement! And what a retirement God has prepared for those who fulfill His plan! It is beyond what we can possible think or imagine! Your life does not begin until you die! We as believers, especially in this Church Age, the most intense of all the dispensations, need to restructure our priorities! The first must be God’s plan for your life, in all of its facets!
If you do this, then every other area of your life, including your perusal of entertainments, will take on their proper place in your life. Because you will have gained capacity for peripheral areas of your life, you will enjoy them far more than you dreamed you could!
Our passage continues in verse 5:
…holding to a form of godliness although they have repudiated its power. Avoid such as these. 2 Timothy 3:5
“Holding to a form of godliness” means these people appear to be maturing spiritually. They talk the talk, they know the language, but they lack the power of the spiritual life. In other words, they are not combining their doctrine with faith. They don’t believe the doctrine so they cannot apply it to their lives! The power of godliness is in the divine dynasphere, the practical spiritual life. Such people have repudiated that power by being in reversionism, consistent carnality and the Satanic systems of power! Avoid these people because you will not influence them to turn their lives around, they will drag you down! Why is this so? These people sit in the same pew as you, listening to the same teaching of the Word as you, yet they reject what they hear! They have available to them the same divine power and the same divine provision to grow spiritually, yet they reject it! How can you give them more? They will drag you down, spiritually! To repeat Paul’s words: Avoid them!
James 2:1-13 The Sin of Partiality
My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called? If, however, you are fulfilling the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not commit murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment. James 2:1-13
Other Issues
There are many more sins and categories of sins which we can discuss. Instead of getting into a long dissertation about them, let me list a few: There are the emotional sins, to include fear, worry, anxiety, anger, irrationality, hatred, violence and finally murder. Murder is also related to sins which are not emotional, such as bitterness, jealousy and frustration. We have discussed many of these is past studies. Other sin categories include legalism, revenge, self-righteousness, sins related to rejection of authority, related to crime, and mental illness. Mentally ill people who murder ought to be executed! They still had the use of their volition and their emotions by which they committed that sin of murder. Another category of sin are chemical sins, which involve taking drugs, to include the use of opium, heroin, marijuana, cocaine, crack, acid, and whatever drug is currently popular.
There are other studies which also further delineate the interlocking nature of sin related to both arrogance and hatred. We will consider those in later studies. Because of its complexity, we really can’t take the study of hamartiology all at once. We need to digest it bit by bit. Consider this study the first of several inoculations against sin!
V The Solution to Sin
God knew about all sins in eternity past. God knew simultaneously every sin that would ever be committed by every member of the human race. Because He has always known this, and because He is perfect, He demands a sin solution. His integrity includes both righteousness, which is His perfect standard, and justice, which is the function of His integrity. Therefore, what God’s righteousness demands, God’s justice executes. If something attains the standard of His righteousness, his justice blesses it. If something falls short of His perfect standard, then condemnation is demanded. So, God’s righteousness condemned all sins in human history. Every sin, by definition, falls short of His perfection. Therefore, God’s righteousness demands that His justice judge sin. He had an option here. He could have immediately judged the human race, what existed of it, at the moment of the first sin, condemned them both. Or, He could have intervened under the concept of grace and provided the divine solution for sin. This He did.
Therefore, under the function of His justice, He judged every sin in human history in Christ on the Calvary Cross as a substitute for us. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement deals with this subject thoroughly. All sins were imputed to the perfect human nature of Christ on the Cross. Christ accepted this imputation and the sentence because of His virtue love toward every member of the human race. Our Lord accepted the judgment of all our sins by God the Father because of His personal love for God the Father. In order to fulfill this salvation work, Jesus Christ as eternal God made four decisions: first, He agreed to substitutionary unlimited atonement, that is, He agreed to go to the cross and be judged for the sins of the entire world in His humanity. He didn’t pay only for the sins of those He knew would believe, but He died for the sins of the entire human race. Secondly, He agreed to satisfy the justice and righteousness of the Father. This is the subject of the doctrine of propitiation. Thirdly, He agreed to reconcile members of the human race to God through faith alone. Fourthly, He agreed to redeem the human race, freeing people from slavery to the sin nature by providing the redemption solution of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone.
Jesus Christ provided all of these things, and more, at the cross, but we need to make an important distinction here. There was no forgiveness at the Cross of Christ, only judgment, judgment, judgment. Forgiveness must be separated from the Cross, just as a result is separated from its cause. Forgiveness did not occur at the Cross. Forgiveness is a result of the Cross. What our Lord said to the Father concerning those who were crucifying him would seem to indicate the contrary. Before the judgment of the Cross began, our Lord prayed to the Father from His humanity to forgive those who were crucifying Him. That was a request for personal forgiveness on the part of our Lord’s humanity on behalf of those who were murdering Him. What an incredible indication of our Lord’s virtue love! Could the Father have forgiven those at that point and redeemed them? No, because forgiveness must be appropriated by faith alone in Christ alone. A person’s volition, freedom of choice, must be mixed with the Gospel then God forgives. So what our Lord requested was not the same as forgiveness of sins at the moment of salvation. Again, did the Father forgive those who taking part of our Lord’s illegal execution? If you look further into the book of Acts, you will note that thousands believed when the apostles presented the Gospel. So, the Father did extend forgiveness to them, answering our Lord’s petition on their behalf. But it was forgiveness granted on the basis of faith!
Continuing our study of this separation between our Lord’s act of redemption and forgiveness of sin, listen to Ephesians 1:7. It clearly separates the two concepts.
…by Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 1:7
Now, when you first look at this verse in the English, you can come to the conclusion that your sins were forgiven the moment our Lord died for them. This opens the door to all kinds of heresies. As a matter of fact, even if you go to the Koine Greek, you can come to the same conclusion, because “redemption” is in the accusative case and so is “forgiveness.” It looks like an accusative of apposition, where both words have the same syntactical relationship to “we have.” But, this doesn’t work as an apposition of accusative because that does not appear in the Koine Greek. So, we need to look a bit further to understand the relationship between redemption and forgiveness. Paul often chose to communicate in the old Attic Greek. I could illustrate the effect the Attic Greek would have on an audience, if I were to start speaking in Shakespearian English. You would sit up and take note. The Ancient Greeks didn’t watch DVDs for entertainment; they would go to the local oratory and listen to wonderful logic and drama, sometimes in the Attic Greek. So we need look no further: this is an Attic Greek double accusative. This is the accusative of object and result. This is not Koine Greek accusative of apposition. There is no such thing as an accusative of apposition in the Koine Greek.
What does this mean? Syntactically, forgiveness stands as the result of redemption. Forgiveness is result of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Redemption was the judgment on the Cross. Forgiveness is the result. Forgiveness always occurs at the moment of salvation through the decision of mankind with regard to the salvation work of Christ. So, every sin you committed before you were saved were forgiven at the moment you believed in Christ. Forgiveness is a result of our Lord’s work on the cross, provided in love combined with your positive volition resulting in faith in Christ. The angelic conflict demands the use of our volition!
The point is the: all the sins of the unbeliever are never forgiven because this person never believes in Christ. These sins are never used in judgment of the unbeliever. They are not even mentioned because they were judged in Christ on the Cross. The unbeliever is judged because he has never believed in Christ and because of his good works, which add up to minus righteousness. Though the unbeliever rejects God’s love, God never rejects the unbeliever. Forgiveness for the unbeliever is just hanging out there waiting to be appropriated! Appropriation only comes through faith in Christ!
For the believer, all post-salvation sins are forgiven the moment we implement 1 John 1:9, acknowledging, naming or citing our sins before the Father.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9
God is faithful and righteous to forgive us because Christ never lost the perfect righteousness of His human nature while being judged for every sin of the human race. Not only does God the Father forgive us the sins we acknowledge, but He forgives us for all wrongdoing, that is, for all the sins we have committed which we did not know were sins. Pre-salvation sins are forgiven at the point of regeneration. Post-salvation sins of the believer are forgiven at the point of rebound. The sin nature controls the soul, we are carnal until we use the divine solution presented in 1 John 1:9. When we rebound from sin, we recover the filling of the Holy Spirit and fellowship with the Father and Son, moving on in our spiritual life. Never look back; keep moving in the spiritual life. What if we do keep looking back and getting snagged on old sins? We become stiff-necked, stubborn, hard of heart, and have scar tissue of the soul until we use the divine solution of rebound. We are punished by God when we do not use the divine solution. God the Holy Spirit is grieved until we use the divine solution of rebound.
So, the solution to all sins is the same: the salvation work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. The justice of God judged every sin in human history, so that the love of God can provide the solution as expressed in the grace of God:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB
Dispensations 