Rebound revisited, part 9. 1Co 11:28; 1Jo 1:8-10; Eph 4:17; 2Ti 2:25.
length: 62:27 - taught on Apr, 12 2013
Class Outline:
Title: Rebound revisited, part 9. 1CO 11:28; 1JO 1:8-10; EPH 4:17; 2TI 2:25.
We have noted how strenuously Gnostic doctrine was combated by John and Paul.
Satan’s chief tactics are to hide his identity and his assaults. The Christian must recognize him and anticipate his moves. .. Although Satan’s foes do not always know their enemy, one thing is sure. Satan always knows his foes. He is thoroughly acquainted with them and is quite aware of those who fall to his strategies and are consequently and comparatively harmless.
He also knows those who recognize and count on their position in Christ and who find and fulfill God’s will for their lives. These saints are what the devil fears most, for they constitute the deadliest threat to his plans and ambitions.
It is against the latter group of the saints that Satan launches his most subtle attacks. Protected with the full armor of God, they are endued with God’s full power and have complete victory over Satan and his minions. Therefore Satan does his best to lure them away from trusting in the impregnable fortress of their position in Christ.
The evil one delights to see a saint become occupied with what he is or does in himself rather than with what he is or does in his position in Christ. This is tantamount to leaving the protection of the mighty fortress God has provided in Christ for the perils of the unprotected open field. It is the omnipotent power of God that Satan dreads. [What Demons Can Do to Saints, Merrill F. Unger]
1JO 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1JO 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1JO 1:7 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.
1JO 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
“sin” - a`marti,a[hamartia; singular] = OSN. If we say or claim to have no inherent sin (influencing our souls), we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us - for the licentious Gnostic.
1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
“confess” - o`mologe,w[homologeo; present active subjunctive] = to speak the same thing [literally]. To consent, accord, agree with. To confess, declare, or admit [Vines].
To confess by way of admitting oneself guilty of what one is accused of, the result of inward conviction (1JO 1:9) [Vines].
[Vines expository dictionary of the NT]
To agree, confess, profess, admit, acknowledge, promise, praise (CBL).
Only here is homologeo associated with sin. It is used 25 other times in the NT.
So why is it only here associated with sin?
The Gnostic lies had so gripped the churches that emphasizing the acknowledgement of sin, transgression, and evil was necessary to refute the lie that either inherent sin hadn’t effected them or that they had removed all sin from their lives.
This is not to say that only John taught this and that Paul or Peter or Jude did not. Paul and Peter emphasized the change in thinking from walking in darkness to walking in light, and no one can do that without at first acknowledging that they were actually walking in darkness.
But if we judged ourselves rightly, we should not be judged.
The acknowledgment of wrongdoing is clearly implied after rightly judging oneself.
“rightly” is added by the translators. However, it is obvious that the apostle doesn’t want them to judge themselves wrongly. If after reading this letter, the Corinthians concluded that they way in which they were celebrating the Lord’s supper was correct or righteous then they would have judged themselves wrongly.
that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Again, it is a no brainer that if I don’t recognize that I have submitted my will to the old man then why would I make the decision to lay it aside? Paul doesn’t need to mention acknowledgement of sin or evil because it is clearly implied in the decision to recover life in the new self.
I believe part of the problem of confusion of some of late is that we have been acknowledging sin in a prayer format, and neither Paul or John indicate it being a prayer process.
Neither Paul or John indicate acknowledgment of sin in a prayer format, however, the believer can pray to his Father about anything.
However, if I chose to acknowledge sin in prayer, there is nowhere in Scripture that I can find that makes that a violation of God’s righteousness. In fact:
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
The believer can pray to his Father about anything. And by the way, how about thanking Him for covering your sin at Cavalry? In everything give thanks.
However, if I think that my confession or acknowledgment is the cause of my forgiveness then I am treading on the perfect and complete work of Christ.
Further confusion occurs by the fact that many teachers in the past have taught two forgiveness’s, and even though some of them did not distinguish that fact, they did not teach the two forgiveness’s to be the same. Chafer taught a judicial and parental forgiveness and equated the parental forgiveness, not as forgiveness of sin, but as restoration to fellowship. And in fact Col. Thieme taught the same thing without using Chafer’s terms, but rather the terminology of penalty forgiven (cross) and repercussion not forgiven (fellowship).
For instance:
In other words, if you don’t name your sins you are not forgiven and you remain in the cosmic system. [RB Thieme]
Remaining in the cosmic system is not remotely the same as remaining in the Lake of Fire, which is where every person would be if forgiveness was not fully completed at the cross. Getting out of the cosmic system, clearly labeled as darkness in the Scripture as we have already noted, and therefore back into the light is the restoration to fellowship which is what he clearly taught.
The misunderstanding of two forgiveness’s have led many to believe that you have to be given last rights before you die or that you have to have one last confession before you die, and if you do not get that chance, then those last unconfessed sins will take you straight to hell.
For this reason I personally don’t like using the word forgiveness twice, one for the cross and another for restoration to fellowship because what Christ did on behalf of the world and what we do in recovery of fellowship or walking in the light cannot be compared on any scale. So I will use forgiveness for the work of Christ which regenerates, makes righteous, holy, clean, a child of light, and sanctified forever any person who believes in Christ as his personal Savior. For restoration to fellowship with God I like the word recovery, which includes not only acknowledgment of sin but also a change of thinking from dark thinking to light.
When we read through Eph 4 and 5, as well as Rom 6-8, and Gal 5, you see that the ultimate weapon is choice with the enabling power of God the HS's influence.
What the Bible states here lines up with every believer’s experience so it does not need to be altered with any fancy theology. I have a choice to have faith or not, have hope or not, to love or hate. If it were the Spirit that forced me to do these things then I would have no free will at all, or do I just have free will in the arena of sin?
Fellowship means to share in common. When God the HS fully influences me it doesn’t mean that I become a robot or lose my individuality or free will. He leads me into all truth, like a horse is led to water, and if I’m thirsty enough for truth I will drink it and in this too He empowers me, but He will not violate my free will.
No believer is able to obey God’s imperatives in the spiritual life in his human energy, so during the brief transition from walking in darkness to light the Spirit fills the believer and empowers the believer as the believer chooses to submit his will to truth.
We will see that 1JO 1:9 does not teach that you are forgiven because you acknowledge sin, but rather takes you right to the cross, nor is it in the form of a prayer, but the acknowledgement is a necessary part of the recovery process from walking in darkness to walking in the light. Paul and Peter knew it as did the churches until Gnosticism had taken such a hold over the hearts of believers that John in 90 AD had to spell it out as clearly and plainly as possible.
Don’t forget, it’s not only the Spirit that gives power, but the word of God is alive and powerful. I must have both or I have the power of neither.
1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Confession of Christ:
"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven.
"And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men, the Son of Man shall confess him also before the angels of God;
And he confessed, and did not deny, and he confessed, "I am not the Christ."
His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed, that if anyone should confess Him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue;
that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;
for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.
By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
2Jo 7
For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.
General confession or declaration to men:
"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'
Thereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.
"But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
"But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law, and that is written in the Prophets;
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Acknowledgment of faith:
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
They professto know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient, and worthless for any good deed.
Giving thanks or praise:
Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
Being confessed or announced to the Father:
'He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father, and before His angels.
Confession of sin:
1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
“confess” - o`mologe,w[homologeo; present active subjunctive] = to speak the same thing [literally]. To consent, accord, agree with, acknowledge, confess, declare, or admit.
I believe that it was because of the usage of homologeo here that public confessions became standard in many churches by 200 AD, and which is a grievous error.
“sins” - a`marti,a[hamartia; plural with the genitive pronoun hemon] = our sins. The plural refers to personal sins that are the result of volition, and which also indicate the presence of inherent sin.
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