Ephesians; 1:4 – Election of church age believer, part 25.Friday December 14, 2018
3g. The elect are royal priests in the kingdom of God.
“sin” “sins” or “sinners” occurs in my document 141 times. Sometimes people get tired of hearing the word. Other times people just don’t want to deal with it and think it’s best to ignore it. And I think most of the time it is not people’s favorite message. Some of you might rather something else and maybe you conclude that you don’t need to hear it, and maybe you don’t, but you must remember, there is always someone listening who does. So, put on your best humility hat and pay attention.
Sin must not rule the royal priest. Sin in a life cannot be ignored or excused. Sin is confessed before God in search of His help in overcoming, in search of His mercy and grace, and all without condemnation because we have an Advocate [Helper].
We turn from the truth of the origin and identity of sin as a perversion of what is good to the practical aspect of overcoming the trends of sin in our lives through God’s wisdom and power.
We have to be completely forgiven of all sin to live like holy, elected, royal priests. We cannot overcome the perversion of sin from the position of being unforgiven or even partially forgiven. The trends of sin that the sin nature loves must be overcome. We can openly confess our sins to God in the pursuit of His help, and the Advocate, Jesus Christ, will give us that help in the form of knowledge, faith, conviction, understanding, and His Holy Spirit within us, filling us as we learn not to grieve or quench Him.
Would unforgiven people go to God and open up about the sin in their lives and seek mercy and grace to help? They would hide from Him. We do not.
It is also true that a believer who refuses to acknowledge and confess sin in his life will not enjoy the blessings of the spiritual life. We must not lie to ourselves or to God.
Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,
We can be open with God about the sin that tempts us, that we fall into at times, and that threatens to reign over us because He has forgiven us of all sin.
God has the only wisdom and power to make us overcomers. We openly go to the One who has forgiven and cleansed us in search of that wisdom and power.
If we have to do so to be forgiven by God then there is a problem with the blood of Christ. If we do so because we are forgiven by God then there is no problem with the blood of Christ. In other words, we don’t want to sin. We want to overcome all sin and being open with God about sin, seeking to discover what gives those sins power over us, is extremely beneficial in the war against the flesh, which flesh is so often self-justifying and self-deceiving.
I mean, are we not fighting this war with Him? Is the battle not His while we face the Egyptians, Canaanites, Amorites, Amalekites, etc., etc.?
And, God will help us to experience victory in the many ways that He may choose, and one of those ways is through other members of the body of Christ.
Gal 6:1 Brethren, even if a man is caught [caught up as in a net] in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted.
Gal 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and thus fulfill the law of Christ.
Gal 6:3 For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Gal 6:4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting [glorying] in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another.
“examine” is the present active imperative of dokimazo, which means to prove the purity of something. This is a command to consistently test the purity of our own work, that it is of divine quality. And when it is found to be of God then we can glory (Greek: kauchema - not boast but to glory in) in our own lives and not in comparison to other believers.
Gal 6:5 For each one shall bear his own load.
Gal 6:6 And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.
Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
Gal 6:8 For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life [the fruit of the Christ life].
Gal 6:9 And let us not lose heart in doing good [I may not see immediate fruit], for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.
Gal 6:10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
Some have taught and written that there are two kinds of forgiveness, judicial and familial, and they do this because they assume the “if” clause in 1Jo 1:9 to be cause and effect. They then teach that if you don’t confess your sins to God, you are not forgiven of the second one (familial) and if you are not, you cannot fellowship with Him. If this were true, the word of God would make it clear since it is not a minor truth. This thinking morphed into people simply confessing the sin of arrogance all the time in order to cover their bases. I personally reject this because I do not find it in the word of God, and secondly because forgiveness is not partial.
We do not have to tell God what our sins are in order to have a relationship with Him. Our relationship with God will be a great experience in life when we overcome sin through His power and wisdom.
We would certainly have to recognize sins in our life in order to enjoy our relationship with God. You cannot overcome what you do not know. And, a believer who refuses to acknowledge sin in his life because he wants to enjoy sin, or is too proud to imagine he has weakness, or for any other vain reason, will not realize the full blessing of the life he was elected to.
The elect man or woman who desires to experience his election in this life more than anything, and such thinking is not an option, it is a command, then that elect person will recognize the sins in his life and will acknowledge them as such. He will confess them to God in search of God’s help, God’s grace and mercy, and in search of the power to overcome.
When we recognize sin, we are agreeing with God concerning sin. We confess that we are sinners and in need of His grace and we seek His help in overcoming the sins that so easily entangle us.
We are not to sin, but we will, yet sin cannot be mastering our lives, not as those who have been made elect, cleansed, forgiven, righteous, holy, king priests.
Confessing or acknowledging our sins openly to God, the One who has forgiven us fully, is a means to the end of overcoming them through seeking His help. Confession alone is not seeking His help as if it were a ritual or a procedure. It’s not a procedure. There is no more sacrifice for sin. We are not given ritualistic procedures in our age outside of the Lord’s Supper.
John wrote, “If we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” We read of laying aside the sin that so easily entangles us, laying aside the old man, not setting our minds on the things of the earth, and consider the members of your body as dead to immorality and impurity.
Col 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Col 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
Col 3:5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
Col 3:6 For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come,
Col 3:7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them.
Col 3:8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth.
Col 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices,
Col 3:10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him. |