10. Sin
SIN
Please explain the clauses, “in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life,” inGenesis 3:17; also “the man is become as one of us,” in verse 22 of the same chapter. My pastor says this latter clause proves that the “fall” was up instead of down. The Revised Version gives the true meaning of the clause referred to in Genesis 3:17. Verses 16 and 17 are given by the Revision as follows:
“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy conception; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake: in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.”
Sin had brought with it what the 8th of Romans calls “the bondage of corruption,” with its attendant evils. As to the second clause referred to in your inquiry, it should not be read by itself. “Knowing good and evil” is not the same thing as “knowing the difference between good and evil.” In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it is written that the Lord Jesus “knew no sin,” but that does not mean that He was ignorant concerning sin, or that He did not know the difference between good and evil. Adam and Eve by the fall—and it was a fall and not an “elevation”—came to know sin as being its victims and in bondage to it There is no comfort for evolutionists in that dreadful fact
Since Adam was created in “the image of God” how do you account for the presence of “cave men,” which is proved historically? I have been asked this question and am at a loss to explain it. Did man during the centuries degenerate into cave men and then become civilized again?
Yes. There is no proof of the existence of men before Adam. The first chapter of Romans depicts the awful career of man beginning with the knowledge of God and going downward to the awful bottom. Up from this bottom many have come back to the knowledge of God again, and some have become His children through the new birth. Is sin always caused by the attacks of Satan?
Sin is not always the result of Satan’s attacks. Even during the Millennium when Christ will be here on the throne and when Satan is restrained for a thousand years, there will yet be sin; so much so, that, at the end of the thousand years when Satan is released, he finds it possible to muster a tremendous army of rebels against the Lord. Sin is a part of man’s make-up, and it is inseparable from him in this life. It is no doubt true that as he becomes more intimate with God, he will become more sensitive to sin and will, therefore, find in himself far more sin than he ever before dreamed was there. Is an act of disobedience to the Lord’s command, always a sin that needs confession although committed through thoughtlessness or weakness?
Surely! All coming short of the glory of God is sin whether in thought, or word, or deed; and sin, whether we are conscious of it or not, should be confessed, and we should judge ourselves for it. In the Levitical economy the offerings were for sins done unwittingly or in ignorance. Presumptuous sins were punished. Contrast Leviticus 4:1-2; Leviticus 4:13, etc, with Leviticus 10:1-2, and Job 1:5.
What are the presumptuous sins referred to in: “Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins and let them not have dominion over me” (Psalms 19:13)? The Old Testament divides sins into two classes. First, sins done in ignorance, or unwittingly. Second, sins committed wittingly or knowingly. For the former class the bloody offerings were provided, but for presumptuous sins there was no such provision, and they must be punished. See, for example, Leviticus 22:14; Joshua 20:3-5.
I recently heard it said in public that the doctrine of imputation was illustrated in the Epistle of Philemon. Will you explain this?
It is quite true. When Paul in this Epistle asks Philemon to receive his runaway slave Onesimus, he says: “If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; I Paul have written it with mine own hand, I will repay it.” This is a perfect illustration of the doctrine of imputed righteousness. It is as if the Son of God had said before the foundation of the world concerning our sins, “Put it to mine account, I will repay it.” And the righteous God agreed to that arrangement, and, imputing our sins to the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary, He was thus able righteously to impute unto us all the virtues of Christ. The death on Calvary of the infinite Son of God was of sufficient value in the sight of God to constitute the ransom price for all our sins. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Will you please explainJohn 16:3, the last two parts? The ministry of the Holy Spirit toward the world is to convince men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. The “sin” referred to is the sin of the rejection of the Son of God: “Of sin, because they believe not on me” (verse 9). The “righteousness” is the righteousness of Christ Himself who, in His absence will be represented here by the Holy Spirit. “Of righteousness,” says Christ, “because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more.” He claimed to be the Son of God, and, in proof of this claim, He purposed to send the Holy Spirit from Heaven into the world. When the Holy Spirit came therefore, His coming was a demonstration of the righteousness of the claims of the Son of God. The Son Himself is absent from the world so far as His visible body is concerned. But the presence of the Holy Spirit here is positive proof that the Son of God went where He said He was going when He left His disciples on the Mount of Olives. The “judgment” of which the Spirit of God was to reprove or convince the world was the judgment of Satan: “Of judgment, because the prince of this world is (or, hath been) judged.” Satan is under the judgment of God though the time of his execution is not yet come. In John 12:31 our Lord said: “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” And then as if explaining His meaning He said in the next verse, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” His lifting up from the earth was about to take place on the cross for “this he said, signifying what death he should die” (verse 33). The cross of Calvary was the scene of the most tremendous battle of the ages. It was there that the Son of God, “through death,” defeated “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). In due time Satan will meet his doom in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10). Meanwhile we are to remember that he is a defeated foe, and we are not to be afraid of him. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
What is the unpardonable sin referred to inMatthew 12:31-32?
Let us study the context, beginning with verses 22 and 23: “Then was brought unto him one possessed with a demon, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw. And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?’ It was plain that this work was supernatural and superhuman. The Pharisees, not willing to attribute it to the Spirit of God, declared that Jesus had an evil spirit—that He cast out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons, that is, by Satan himself. Replying to this, the Lord Jesus shows the absurdity of supposing Satan arrayed against Satan. It was not likely that the prince of the power of the air should be fighting against his own forces. How, then, should his kingdom stand? And what had they to say about the exorcists among themselves—were they, too, casting out demons by Beelzebub? Jesus had not been so foolish as to attempt to rob the strong man—that is, Satan—without first binding him. The very first act of His ministry was to overcome this “strong man” in the wilderness, and now He was spoiling his house. The lines were sharply drawn and the fight was on. “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathered not with me scattered abroad” (Matthew 12:30). To ascribe to the devil the work of the Holy Spirit of God was a most terrible act of blasphemy which should never be forgiven (Matthew 12:31-32). This, then, is “the unpardonable sin”—to charge the Lord Jesus Christ with acting by the power of Satan—to accuse the Holy Spirit of God with being the unclean spirit of Satan! Mark very plainly states that Jesus uttered this warning, “because they said, He hath an unclean spirit” (Mark 3:30). Their cup of iniquity was full to overflowing and He lifted up His voice against them. “Either make the tree good, and its fruit good,” said He, “or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaked. The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:33-37). The unpardonable sin should not be confused with the “sin unto death” of 1 John 5:16-17. The “sin unto death” is a sin committed by a child of God which brings upon him physical death under the chastening hand of his faithful heavenly Father. There were instances of this “sin unto death” in the Corinthian Church (1 Corinthians 11:30-32). Can a man or woman who has been born again, say ten years ago, get into the place where he or she can commit the unpardonable sin and be lost? A man who has been born again cannot commit the “unpardonable sin” and get lost. A man who receives the Lord Jesus Christ as his personal Savior, accepting His finished work as his only hope of salvation, cannot get lost for Jesus Himself said in John 10:27-28 : “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” Saved and safe is the man who puts himself under the shelter of the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and neither Satan, angels, nor principalities can pluck out of God’s hand the man who has placed his trust in His only begotten Son.
What is the “sin unto death? The “sin unto death” and the “sin not unto death” of 1 John 5:16-17 are to be understood in the light of the doctrine taught in 1 Corinthians 11:31-32. Physical death is sometimes a judicial penalty from God visited upon His saved people for unconfessed, unjudged sin. When a Christian falls into sin, his salvation indeed is not jeopardized, but his fellowship with God is interrupted. The way back into fellowship is through confession (1 John 1:9). If God’s child, in such circumstances, refuses to confess, the Father is forced to chasten him. The Corinthian Christians were in just such a case. They had been disorderly in the observance of the Lord’s Supper by eating the bread and drinking the cup of the Lord unworthily, that is, in an unworthy manner. They were thus guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (1 Corinthians 11:27). They refused to examine themselves, in order that they might so eat of the bread and drink of the cup as to please God (verse 28). They continued to eat and drink unworthily, eating and drinking judgment unto themselves, not discerning the Lord’s body (verse 29). For this cause, many were weak and sickly among them and many had fallen asleep; that is to say, they had died under the chastening hand of God. They were still saved, but physical death had been visited upon them in chastening (verse 30). Had they judged themselves, they would not have been judged by Him (verse 31), but since they had compelled Him to judge them, they had been chastened of the Lord that they should not be condemned with the world (verse 32). Condemnation is impossible for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1, R.V.). They have already been condemned in the person of their Substitute and put to death on the cross of Calvary. Now, since they have become God’s children by the new birth, they can never again be brought under condemnation, but they may be chastened even unto physical illness or physical death.
Moses sinned unto death (Deuteronomy 32:48-52); Achan committed a sin unto death (Joshua 7:16-26); and Ananias and Sapphira committed a sin unto death (Acts 5:1-11).
What does the Bible teach in regard to inbred sin? The Bible teaches that sin, meaning the old self life in the believer, remains there until the believer goes to Heaven. It is unchanged and unchangeable. Along with the old sin nature is the new nature which comes in at the new birth, and thus the indwelling Spirit of God is working in the believer. Just so far as the believer is yielded to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit controls the believer’s life and walk. Is sin merely selfishness? Is there selfishness in unbelief, malice, or hatred of God? Would you mind explaining this to me?
Underneath all these things is self usurping the place belonging to God. It is men living unto themselves instead of unto Him who died for them and rose again. See 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. And yet selfishness and sin are not precisely synonymous terms. Selfishness is lust which, having conceived, bringeth forth sin (James 1:15).
What does God’s Word teach concerning adultery? If a man commits adultery, is he then in God’s sight separated from his wife? Does adultery in God’s sight end the marriage relationship? Would it be right for the adulterer to live with his wife again?
There is no teaching in Scripture that the sin of adultery automatically frees the adulterer from his or her marriage vows. The marriage relationship is not so easily annulled in the Word of God. Yes, it would be right for the guilty man to live with his wife again if she is willing to forgive and receive him. Under the law of Moses, adultery was a capital crime. In Leviticus 20:10, it is written of “the man that committeth adultery with another man’s wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.”
Please explain to me1 John 3:9. The apparent conflict between 1 John 1:8 and 1 John 3:9 has ever been a source of perplexity to Christian interpreters. In the former verse John writes: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” In the latter verse the same writer says: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
Many and devious are the attempts to reconcile this apparent contradiction. Eradicationists take special delight in 1 John 3:9. One of these, a young man, accosted this editor during some meetings down in the Virginia peninsula, saying, “May I ask you a question?”
“Certainly.”
“Please give me your interpretation of 1 John 3:9.”
“I will do that, after you have given me your interpretation of 1 John 1:8.”
“No, I want you to tell me the meaning of 1 John 3:9.”
“But, you see, 1 John 1:8 comes before 1 John 3:9. Let us deal with this first, and then we will come to your verse.” The young man turned away sorrowfully and with apparent pity for us. Of course, he would say that by an experience called a second work of grace, the old nature had been eradicated from him and that he could no longer sin. But, looked at squarely, if the verse proves what he claims it proves, it proves too much. For it is not speaking merely of persons who have received a second work of grace, it includes all who have been born of God. The so-called “Holiness” people cannot claim the language as applying exclusively to them. A common interpretation applies the statement of 1 John 3:8 to the new nature in the believer. We are told that what is meant by the verse is that when a Christian falls into sin it is the old nature that is at work for the new nature, since it is “created in righteousness and true holiness,” cannot sin. Of course, that is all true enough, and it is elsewhere taught in the Word of God: “If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Romans 7:16-17). But this interpretation will not do for 1 John 3:9. It is excluded by the language of the succeeding verse which says: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” Whatever the sin may be that is referred to in the ninth verse, it is something that is manifest to those looking on, and it is something that cannot be done by a born-again person.
Then there are those who apply the language of 1 John 3:9 to the believer’s standing as contrasted with his state. When one is born again he is brought into a standing which never afterwards varies: he is “accepted in the Beloved.” His sin, and also his sins, have all been imputed to Christ, and now the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him. He enters into the blessedness of a man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:5-8). The doctrine of imputation is a doctrine that is beautiful and true. There is a wonderful illustration of its working in Numbers 23:21 where God says that “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.” He saw His people only under the blood which, according to His reckoning, had already been shed “from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Thus, by what someone has called “the higher ethic of the cross,” the righteous God was able to impute His own righteousness unto His sinning people (2 Corinthians 5:19; 2 Corinthians 5:21). But this interpretation of 1 John 3:9 must also be rejected in view of the language of verse 10: “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” The believer’s standing is not something which is made manifest to the on-looker, and the “sin” of 1 John 3:9 is a matter affecting the believer’s testimony. It is something that no believer can do.
Yet another, and, perhaps, even more common, interpretation tells us that the sin referred to in our verse is a continuous act or habit of life and that the born-again person does not go on sinning. Some of the private translators of the New Testament have substituted the word “practice” for the word “commit.” Mr. Darby, for instance, makes the verse read: “Whoever has been begotten of God does not practice sin, because his seed abides in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God.” The Rotherham translation reads: “Whosoever hath been born of God is not committing sin, because a seed of him within him abideth; and he cannot be committing sin, because of God hath he been born;” and in a footnote Mr. Rotherham says: ‘The tense shows continuance.” All of this interpretation is freely conceded, but it is difficult to see how it helps any toward a solution of our problem. The statement still stands that the Born Again person “cannot be committing sin,” or “cannot sin.” The full force of the statement is that the regenerate person is not able to do the thing here called sin. And yet there stands the statement of 1 John 1:8 : “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
We recently met a pastor in western Pennsylvania who declared that neither he nor any member of his church ever sins. That would be glorious if it were only true. But it is plain from the Word of God that he is deceiving himself, and, what is even worse, he is helping to deceive those who are under his shepherdly care. Happily the children of God generally are laboring under no such delusion.
Several years before Dr. Scofield went to be with the Lord, this editor said to him: “I see that you have adopted the word practice’ in the margin of your Reference Bible relating to the third chapter of First John. But, Doctor, how does that help matters any? When you consider that any coming short of the glory of God in thought or word or deed is sin, is it not true that we all do practice sin?”
“Alas! alas! so we do,” replied the Doctor.
It is only to those who are ignorant of God’s righteousness that the idea ever occurs that they may be able to establish their own righteousness (Romans 10:3). We are all practicing sin, and that continually.
What, then, is the true explanation of 1 John 3:9? “Sin” as referred to in this verse must be different from “sin” as found in 1 John 1:8; and, whatever the sin of 1 John 3:9 is, it is something that cannot be committed by a regenerate person. The key to our problem is found, as we believe, in the Revised rendering of the fourth verse of the chapter. In the Authorized Version the verse reads: “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.” That there is something wrong with this translation is evident from the fact that the New Testament clearly teaches that the believer is “not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14); and “sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13) “for where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). In the Revision 1 John 3:4 reads: “Everyone that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.”
Now, if the whole paragraph, beginning with this verse, be read in view of the definition of sin given here, we shall see what the Holy Spirit of truth evidently had in mind when the paragraph was written. No born-again person will be guilty of sin in the sense of lawlessness.
Lawlessness at its root is the denial of any rule over one’s life.
It is to say that even God has no right to control the life of His child.
It is to say, “I will not have this Man to rule over me.” It is anarchy. This was the sin of the Antinomists of the dark ages. Indeed, antinomianism is suggested in the word for lawlessness, which is anomia.
There is a vast difference between disobedience and lawlessness. One may disobey the will of God, while at the same time acknowledging God’s will to be right and that it ought to be obeyed.
It was a renewed heart that spoke in Romans 7:22 saying, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man;” even while admitting that there was another law at work within that heart, warring against the law of the mind, and bringing God’s child into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members. He was disobeying God’s will, but he was not claiming the right to disobey it. He was striving to obey it, and in his Mure he cried out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?’ (verse 24).
Another illustration of this truth is found in the case of an Old Testament believer, who, when his sin was brought home to him, cried out, saying: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” (Psalms 51:4). Wisdom is justified of all her children, and so also is God justified of His. No matter how backslidden a child of God may be, he never boasts of his backsliding nor claims the right to backslide. He remains a child of God all the time, and he is wretched even while living in disobedience to God’s Word and will.
Assuming for a moment that we have come upon the key to our mystery, let us now paraphrase the passage, 1 John 3:4-10, making use of the key:
“Whosoever committeth sin committeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no lawlessness. Whosoever abideth in him is never lawless: whosoever is lawless hath not seen him, neither known him ... He who is lawless is of the devil; for the devil was lawless from the beginning. . . . Whosoever is begotten of God is never lawless; for his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot be lawless because he is begotten of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil.” This is the true meaning of John’s language in this same Epistle, chapter 2:3-6: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
Let us not think of “commandments” here as applying to Moses’ law to Israel from Sinai. “John uses ‘commandments,’ says Dr. Scofield, “(1) in the general sense of the divine will, however revealed, ‘his word’ (verse 5); and (2) especially of the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2; 2 John 1:5). See, also, John 15:10-12” (Scofield Reference Bible).
“But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected (that is, brought to fruition, or to its intended end): hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
How did He walk with reference to the Word and will of His Father? We know that He always did the will of His Father, that it was His delight to do His will, His meat to do the will of Him that sent Him.
What a wonderful work it is that God has wrought in His people. Not only has He delivered them from the penalty of sin and removed the Law so that it can no longer sting them to death (1 Corinthians 15:56-57; 2 Corinthians 3:7-11); but He has also wrought within them a new creation, which ever causes them to look up to Him, crying, Abba, Father, confessing His Lordship over their lives and delighting in the accomplishment of His will in them. And one day, praise God, we shall come to the end of the road, where we shall be presented faukless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.
“To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”