Rebound revisited, part 10. 1Jo 1:8-10; 2Ti 2:11-14; Eph 1:7; Col 1:13-14

Title: Rebound revisited, part 10. 1JO 1:8-10; 2TI 2:11-14; EPH 1:7; COL 1:13-14.     

 

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.

 

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.

 

When I recover from walking in darkness and I chose the word of God I have the power of both of them in my life, and you can’t have only one, you must have both for divine power to enable you to live in your position, which is truly living in who you are in Christ, a child of light walking in the light.

 

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.

 

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.

 

NT usage: We have 26 uses of homologeo in the NT and none of them are used in the context of 1JO 1:9.

 

 “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.

 

But again, in verse 10, John is addressing those who believe that they no longer commit personal sins. The presence of personal sins is proof of an OSN within the believer and so both are in view.

 

So with the subordinating, conditional conjunction ean [if] and the present active subjunctive of homologeo and the genitive pronoun and the plural of hamartia we have; “If we confess our own sins (and not someone else’s) [3^rd class condition - maybe we will maybe we won’t]. We may just come to the conclusion of verse 8 or 10.

 

Ok, so then what? We have the phrase, “He is faithful and righteous.”

 

 “is” = e`sti,[esti; present active indicative] = God is, keeps on being, and always is faithful and just.

 

Faithful and righteousjust are good translations of pistos and dikaios respectively.

 

Again, we have an if then statement that seems confusing at first. Does God’s faithfulness and justice depend on my confession of sin? God is immutable, and so there is no way that He can at any time be unfaithful or unjust, nor can He withhold that from any believer.

 

2TI 2:11 It is a trustworthy statement:

For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;

 

2TI 2:12 If we endure, we shall also reign with Him;

If we deny Him, He also will deny us [rewards - 1Cor 3:15];

 

MAT 10:32-33

"Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. "But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

 

This is a reward to the CA believer in Rev

 

REV 3:5

'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.

 

2TI 2:13 If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.

 

He cannot deny Himself because He is immutably faithful and every believer is indwelt by God as the holy temple of God. The Shekinah glory could and did leave the Jewish temple but that cannot happen to any CA temple.

 

2TI 2:14 Remind them of these things, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless, and leads to the ruin of the hearers.

 

We have recently studied the righteousness of God and we also understand that that cannot change either.

 

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.

 

So, “If we confess our sins, He is always faithful and righteous to …

 

Subordinating nominal conjunction hina = so that or in order that or to.

 

 “forgive” - avfi,hmi[aphiemi; aorist active subjunctive] = to let go, leave, to disregard, leave behind, dismiss, divorce, cancel, pardon, remit, forgive, abandon.

 

The subjunctive may lead us to believe that God may or may not forgive us based on our confession of the sin. This is what has led some to believe in two forgiveness’s.

 

The point in 1Jo is refuting false teaching and presenting the fact that all of us were born in sin and continue to commit sin and that sins can destroy our spiritual lives if we don’t deal with them effectively under the principle of grace, which is that all forgiveness and cleansing was accomplished at the cross and through recovery from walking in the darkness to walking in the light we appropriate or claim that finished work in our souls.

 

The judge, acknowledge, cease, and think doctrine recovery eliminates licentiousness, asceticism, guilt, and condemnation.

 

Therefore, grace gives the believer the confidence to forge ahead in the light that is the life in Jesus Christ.

 

John states clearly:

 

1JO 2:12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake.

 

If any sin is unforgiven then the person must pay the wages of sin, which is death.

 

ROM 6:23

For the wages of sin is death [spiritual death - this is what Christ paid - the blood of Christ], but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

However, Christ paid that price, the only One qualified to do so, and so all sins are forgiven. The same word for forgiveness is used in EPH 1:7 and COL 1:14.

 

EPH 1:7-8

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness [aphiemi] of our trespasses [paraptoma - synonym meaning trespass or offense], according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.

 

COL 1:13-14

For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness [aphiemi] of sins [genitive plural of hamartia].

 

If forgiveness depends on anything that we do then the work of Christ was not finished. Faith in Christ for salvation is the believer’s acceptance of the work of Christ on his behalf. I do not have to believe in Him again. If the Bible states that I’m forgiven of all sin at the moment of salvation then what forgiveness is referenced in 1JO 1:9; the same one for there is only one.

 

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.

 

So we have hina plus a subjunctive. The same construction is used in:

 

JOH 1:7

He came for a witness, that [hina] he might bear witness [aorist active subjunctive] of the light, that [hina] all might believe [aorist active subjunctive] through him.

 

The witness of Jesus Christ was never in question, but the faith of those who saw Him was. The same is true in 1JO 1:9. The forgiveness and cleansing accomplished by Christ on the cross is not in question and man can add nothing to it, but not all believers were seeing it that way, and the same is true today.

 

 “forgive” - avfi,hmi[aphiemi; aorist active subjunctive] = to let go, leave, to disregard, leave behind, dismiss, divorce, cancel, pardon, remit, forgive, abandon.

 

The subjunctive is in use because the believer’s understanding of his recovery to fellowship or walking in the light is dependent on his understanding of the adverse effects of sin in his life.

 

The licentious lived as if he had no inherent sin, for sin only affected the body and not the soul. The ascetic thought he no longer sinned while he certainly was. We could add to these two groups those who get guilty and condemned about sin. None of these camps yield their will to the work of Christ and the revelation that comes with positional truth. Living in darkness as terrible effects on the life of the believer and so recovery is extremely important. No one who thinks sin has no effect on him, or that he no longer sins, or continues in guilt and condemnation over sin applies the grace given to every believer by the work of Christ on the cross so that they may execute the spiritual life.

 

The aorist tense points to the time when forgiveness occurred - the cross.

 

Someone had told me there was a positional and experiential forgiveness as there is with sanctification. I agree with those classifications for sanctification because sanctification means to be set apart unto something or someone. We are set apart from the unbeliever and the second death at salvation yet we can still reside in the world or darkness. But forgiveness is final unless you’re only forgiven of some sins, like past ones, but not of others, like future ones. If that is the case then you do not enter heaven. If Christ paid for all sin, and He did, then we are forgiven of all sin. If I tell God my sin that does not change that fact. If it does then my confession is the determining factor in forgiveness and not the cross since we would have to conclude that the cross wasn’t enough. The issue in 1Jo 1 is acknowledging that we are sinners, both inherent and in experience (vs. 8,10), recognizing and acknowledging the current sin (vs. 9), halting the current trend, and then changing our thinking back to the mind of Christ, which is the rest of the epistle. In this process the HS is fully influencing us and empowering us.

 

The final clause in verse 9, stating that God is always faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness is a direct link to the cross in your thinking so that there is no guilt or condemnation over the sin. It was done at Cavalry, so let’s move right on into the light, the environment that our new selves are designed to live in.

 

So the subjunctive is used because this is a conditional clause based on acknowledgment of the sin, since there were many in these churches that were under the false doctrines of Gnosticism who were not acknowledging that they had any sin at all.

 

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.

 

 “cleanse” - kathari,zw[katharizo; aorist active subjunctive] = to make clean, to cleanse.

 

The aorist tense again points the time that sin was cleansed and the subjunctive mood refers to the listeners, some of which or many of which concluded that they were without sin or had reached sinlessness and so there was no need for atonement.

 

You cannot live the Christian way of life unless you acknowledge you are born a sinner and that you do and will commit personal sin, for if you do not you will remain in sin and darkness and never stop the current trend that has you out of fellowship with God and therefore without power and soon to receive divine discipline [judge yourselves so that you may not be judged].

 

Uses of katharizo : 2CO 7:1.

 

2CO 6:14  Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness [having no law], or what fellowship has light with darkness?

 

 “partnership” - me,tocoj[metochos] = one who shares with someone else as an associate in an enterprise or undertaking.

 

The word for fellowship is koinonia as it is in 1Jo 1.

 

This would definitely refer to marriage, but it would also refer to close fellowship as one would fellowship with God. God here is not talking about business partnership, as some have misapplied it, but partnership in the spiritual life. “You haven’t been screwed until you’ve been screwed by a Christian.”

 

However, some have taken this to mean that they isolate themselves from the world, which makes them poor ambassadors and eventually cold, hard hearted individuals. Naturally some believers go the other way completely and maintain close fellowship with any unbeliever. The believer is not to be isolated or a runner with the evil ones of the world, but rather he is to know that he is in the world, but not of the world. In privacy the believer priest reaches his own conclusions on who to separate from, both mentally and physically, and to whom he should fellowship with. With a simple and clear understanding of what the word fellowship means (koinonia) the believer’s discernment should be spot on.

 

Fellowship - to share in common.

 

Think of whom Christ associated with (sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes) and with whom He had dear fellowship with. And then also think about what the Pharisees condemned Him for in this area.

 

2CO 6:15 Or what harmony [sounding together - the sound you make together] has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever?

 

The unbeliever does not sound or talk the way that the believer does. So fellowship in the strict sense of the word is out.

 

Fellowship is a symphony of thought, between the believer and God and between positive believer and positive believer.

 

And the experience of this shows it true. There is a sharing of truth between positive believers that the world never sees. And because of it they will call you a cult or a dissenter, but in all honesty they are jealous and afraid of it.

 

Government systems remove this freedom. … Progressives like the collective and not the individual. Agencies are set up by them so that they can do your thinking for you, because, you see, you are not smart enough to take care of your own environment, education of your children [they belong to the state], your guns, your religion, your speech, your money, your retirement or future, or your fellowship. Wonderfully, our founding fathers knew the need of these things since king George of England had attempted to take away their inalienable rights. By the way, all the agencies that have been formed by our government are all under the power of one man, the president, and they take no orders from your elected officials in congress.

 

In true fellowship ideas grow, prosper, and many things get done.