August 14, 2019 IF ANYONE SINS
1 John 1:7-8, 10 “but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
1 John 2:1 “My little children, I am writing these things to you that you might not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
1 John 3:6, 9 “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.”
I believe that the subject of this blog, and likely a few more that follow, is the most misunderstood teaching of the New Testament as well as a subject that often stirs up heated debate. I certainly do not consider myself a scholar, nor one who has an infallible understanding of the scriptures. However, with that being said, one does not have to be a scholar in order to understand the scriptures because we have the Holy Spirit living in us guiding us into the truth of scripture. There are two major contributing factors that cause this subject to be misunderstood as well as controversial. One is that around one hundred years ago, there was a group of influential theologians who introduced new concepts and interpretations of scripture and these new concepts and ideas were accepted as ‘the truth’ and began to be taught in the seminaries and preached from the pulpits. As an example, they came up with the idea of ‘dispensations,’ as a way of saying that much of what we read in the New Testament no longer applies today-it was just for a certain ‘dispensation’ or time. If you read from a Scofield bible, you will find footnotes explaining away certain teachings of the New Testament. As a result, much of what we hear from the pulpit, what we read in books, and what is taught in seminaries, is a watered down version if the New Testament. The second reason for the controversy surrounding this subject is that we tend to read and interpret scripture through our own preferences; we have filters that make the word say what we want it to say. So here we are; what is the subject of this blog and others to follow? I believe that the misunderstanding of this core truth of scripture has had catastrophic results on individual believers as well as the church as a whole. As we look at some scriptures dealing with this subject, we will find some that may sound contradictory, and we will most likely find that some of them are contrary to what we have always believed. I encourage each of us to read the scriptures without our preferences or what we have always believed about this subject-in other words, no filters. I’m out of space for this blog; this will serve as the introduction. Just to give you something to think about, I will leave you with a question; can we live without sin?
Blessings,
Buddy
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