The Two Temples
(A Christian Workbook)
Appendix A: Victory Objections
(Originally published at http://creationsda.org/binary/essays/eqvic.html)
or
whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the Victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. (1John 5:4)
This is
a brief essay I wrote for someone who was newly interested in Victory over sin.
Naturally, having been subject to the leaven of supposedly Christian teaching,
it was all very new to her. In order to provide our response to the most common
verses people use to oppose this wonderful promise of our Savior, I compiled
the following brief list.
1) “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am
carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that
do I not; but what I hate, that do I. For I know that in me (that is, in my
flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to
perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but
the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom 7:14,15,18, 19)
Response: Paul says in verse 24, “O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?” He then answers it in verse 25 – “I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” In part b of that verse he says, “So
then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of
sin.”
Through
Christ there is a “law of God” placed in the mind/heart (Rom 2:15) and it is in
opposition to the “natural man” of the flesh. With the flesh, we still serve
the law of sin, and those who walk in the flesh will sin naturally. However,
this is not Paul’s present state, but his state when he was married to the Law
(he sets up the time element in verses 7:1-6) and says, “But now we are
delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should
serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” (verse 6)
The rest of Chapter 7 is his pre-converted state, and not how he is now. He
begins with “now” in Chapter 8:1 saying, “There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit.”
This
completes the thought begun in chapter 6. Romans was written as a unit, and
never meant to be fragmented, stopping the day’s study at 7:25. It must be read
at least from chapter 6 to chapter 8, where Paul says, “What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that
are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:1-2) up till he says, “For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” (Rom 8:14)
This is all the treatment of one principle: In the flesh, we cannot please God
(8:8) and of ourselves, apart from Christ we can only desire to walk in
righteousness (7:15), BUT continuing that thought, “But ye are not in the
flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” (Rom 8:9)
A full
reading of that passage sets forth the promise that those in Christ walk in the
Spirit, and do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Here is what Paul says of the
conversion experience, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Cor
5:17)
2) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not in us.” (1John 1:8) “If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his
word is not in us.” (1John 1:9,10)
Response: John often speaks repetitively for emphasis, and this
verse is an exact double for those which come before and after it. Here are
those verses:
“If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and
do not the truth: “ (1John 1:6)
“He
that saith, ‘I know Him,’ and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the
truth is not in him.” (1John 2:4)
In each
of these cases, 1:8 included, John is speaking to those Christians who are
influenced by a heresy known as Gnosticism. The Gnostics taught that once you
were converted, nothing you did was bad or evil... that is to say, even if you
did bad things, they were not “sin.” The human flesh is by nature evil, even with
the experience of being born again, and would do evil on its own. Once your
spirit was saved, however, you were fine. Remnants of this theology are found
in the commonly taught “once saved always saved” view of salvation. John’s
entire letter is address to those who were sinning, but saying they were not.
And so to THESE people he writes, if we are IN sin (as they were) and “if we
say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His word is not in us.” In
other words, call sin by its right name.
Those
who were able to admit to being in sin were to confess, be converted,and then
Christ’s blood would be accepted “to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Accepting the blood cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness, not just some; and
never more do we willfully (deliberately) commit acts of transgression. It
should be pointed out that people still make errors in judgment (e.g., Peter in
Galatians 2) but they do not deliberately sin. As John says there is a “sin
unto death” which is deliberate, and “a sin which is not unto death” (1John
5:15) for which the Sacrifice (Christ) could be used to atone (Leviticus 5:5)
For SDAs, there is even less of a reason to misread this verse. Ellen White
says in her writings that John’s letter was written to those who were in great
deception, believing that their actions were above what could be called “sin,”
no matter how depraved their practices actually were.
3) “My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous:” (1John 2:1)
Response: Although this is also in 1John, it is so often used it
gets a section of its own. People use this as an “obvious” verse to say that
people who are converted still sin – “but if any man sin” they just repent and
Christ picks them up again to fall off the cliff another time.
In
doing so, they change the word “and” to a “but” and make John contradict
himself. Here is what John writes about converts and sin in that very same
letter, two chapters away:
“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.” (1John 3:9)
There
is no way to misapply this, except that some Christians will teach that John
means a Christian will not “continue” in sin. This is not true to the text as
it is written or translated. The Greek is even clearer, and a literal
translation would be, “Whosoever is born of God misses not the mark. (hamartian
ou)” It’s not about continuing in known sin, that part is obvious, but if a
person KNOWS a thing is sin, he will not even give in to the temptation at all.
Changing that word to mean “continuing in sin” is adding to the Scripture a
doctrine that is alien to its consistency and the message of true freedom in
Christ.
Further,
that phrase “if any man sin” is in the aorist tense in Greek, and is the exact
same expression Paul uses when he says, “for all have sinned and come short of
the Glory of God.” (Rom 3:23) This is translated in the English as the
past-perfect tense (it is NOT, “for all sin”), and so what John actually wrote
in the original manuscript is, “if any man have sinned.” If we realize we have
been in sin, we repent, and this is what the Advocate, Christ, does in us. He
does not pick us up from every fall, He comes into us when we realize we are in
need of a Savior, and we can walk with confidence, “For Yahweh shall be thy
confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.” (Pro 3:26) There is no
contradiction by the same author in the same book of Scripture; John says those
who are born of God “cannot sin,” and he maintains this teaching firmly in every
verse of his letters. “Brethren, give diligence to make your calling and
election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” (2Peter 1:10)
4) Speaking of Peter: Peter was with Christ for 3.5 years
and he still denied Him during His trial. (John 18:27)
Response: Strange as it may seem at first, Peter was NOT converted
until after Pentecost. Most Christians are where Peter was, walking WITH
Christ, but not yet having Him dwelling in their hearts. Just before He died,
this dialogue took place: “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath
desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee,
that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy
brethren.’” (Luke 22:31,32) Yes, Peter denied Christ during times of severe
trial, and so will any who are only walking with Him. But the ones who come
unto the full salvation experience can testify like Paul, who is much different
than his Romans 7 past, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet
not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
(Gal 2:20)
Peter
himself writes (after actually being converted), “Forasmuch then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for
he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.” (1Peter 4:1) If we
are “crucified with Christ” as Paul puts it, we “hath ceased from sin.” True
Sabbath rest; “But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor 2:16)
5) David sinned, and yet God calls him a “man after his
own heart.”
Response: David also walked with Christ, but as Ellen White states,
he needed to be converted after his sin. For non-Adventists, we need only turn to
the Psalm he writes thereafter: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a
right spirit within me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me
with thy free spirit.” (Psa 51:10,12) Creation and restoration are exactly the
things that turn the old, sinful man – into the new, spiritual man.
Before
this point, although David was faithful inasmuch as he knew, he lied, killed
unnecessarily, pretended to be crazy to avoid being killed, and deceived the
high priest in order to evade capture by Saul (this later got the high priest
and his entire family killed). After this point of conversion, we do NOT see
this behavior again. David was a changed man after Nathan pointed out the sin
that was in the monarch’s heart.
Christ
of course is our example. David died; the 144,000 do not. Even Paul, Peter and
John died – they were not as responsible for the light as we, the Remnant, are.
We reflect His character more surely than David ever did, and it is written,
“Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after
evil things, as they also lusted. “ (1Cor 10:6) We have more light, and a more
perfect Example to follow.
6) “Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which
also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:12)
Response: This is one of those many cases where you just have to
look at the next verse and the few that follow. This reads: “Brethren, I count
not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any
thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” (Phil
3:13-15)
Commentaries
will add in footnotes “apprehended [to the resurrection of the dead.]” Paul is
not yet in his new body, and has not yet become all that he can be in Christ.
This brings to light the two words translated as “perfect” in the New
Testament. Paul says he is not yet “perfect” (teleioo – verse 12) but
three verses later says, “let us, therefore, as many as be perfect” (teleios
– verse 15). Another apparent contradiction that can be cleared up by the Greek
original. The first word means perfect in the sense of completed, finished. For
example Christ fulfilled (completed) the Law. The second word means “lacking
nothing,” and morally excellent. THIS is the word Christ uses when He says, “Be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect.” (Mat
5:48) That Voice gives us the power to DO it, if we have faith in Him as the
Creator.
Paul’s
statement in Philippians is that he is not yet finished; and if there was more,
God would “reveal even this” to him. He had more to learn, as do we all. Yet
for all that he knows he grasps, “forgetting those things which are behind,”
and is lacking nothing, for as he testifies, “I have lived in all good conscience
before God until this day.” (Acts 23:1) Every single one of us can say that, if
the “Seed of God” is in us, and it has nothing to do with spiritual pride,
because we do not glory in self, but in the Cross by which it is possible. (Gal
6:14)
A
couple more things to remember: The New Testament never calls converts
“sinners” in the present tense. Paul considers himself a “chief of sinners”
(1Tim 1:5) only by virtue of his sinful past (verse 13), obtaining mercy
because he did those things “ignorantly in unbelief.” What he does teach is
that “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. “ (Rom 5:8) And “Now thanks be unto God, which always
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge
by us in every place.” (2Cor 2:14)
There
is not a verse that gives place to deliberate, willful sin after Christ died.
I’ve shown strong statements from Paul, Peter and John (there are also ones
from James and Jude) which describe conversion as a life completely free from
sin. This is the Gospel of Christ. We do not say that God would not forgive the
repentant, but that one who is born again – and more, one who will be “without
fault before the Throne” as the 144,000 are – will not need to ask! This is a
scary, and even blasphemous thought to those who see Christ as He who will pick
them up every time they fall; however this “new theology” has no foundation in
Scripture, and the true Christ is He who lives in us as the Advocate, Comforter
and Savior, eternally and flawlessly (for He is without flaw) keeping us from
falling.
This is
the invitation He has open to all, in the Church age of Laodicea – in which we
are living now – “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my
voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me.” (Rev 3:20) For Adventists, who consider themselves the Remnant, we
are to be a part of the true Body of Christ, separate from sin, unions with the
world, and false teachings about the nature of the very One who saved us.
Mrs.
White puts it this way, “The principles of righteousness must be implanted in
the soul. The faith must grasp the power of Jesus Christ, else there is no
safety. Licentious practices are getting to be as common as in the days before
the flood. Not one should be buried with Christ by baptism unless they are
critically examined whether they have ceased to sin, whether they have fixed
moral principles, whether they know what sin is, whether they have moral
defilement which God abhors. Find out by close questioning if these persons are
really ceasing to sin, if with David they can say, ‘I hate sin with a perfect
hatred.’” [Manuscript Releases Volume Six, page 165, paragraph 3;
Chapter Title: Preparation for Baptism]
“I can
do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil 4:13)
“But
Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, ‘With men this is impossible; but with
God all things are possible.’ Jesus said unto him, ‘If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth.’” (Mat 19:26; Mark 9:23)
For a
more full treatment of these see the Binary
Angel website (under the Articles section).
