Doctrine of the indwelling Christ part 12. The rebound technique – freedom from the devastating effects of sin.

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Title: Doctrine of the indwelling Christ part 12. The rebound technique – freedom from the devastating effects of sin.

 

/(1) Rebound: The grace procedure of naming and citing a known sin in order to restore fellowship with God. \

 

1 John 1:3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

 

1 John 1:4 And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

 

John and those with him receive joy when the word of God is impregnating itself in his listeners. However, the words that he is about to write mean absolutely nothing without fellowship with God.

 

His illustration, which is simple and clear, is the difference between light and darkness. The light is fellowship with God and the darkness is no fellowship with God, which is life in the cosmic system.

 

First we must define fellowship.

 

 

 

/Fellowship – communion, to share something in common, to share that which is enjoyed, sharing comfort through like mindedness. Fellowship with God must take precedence over fellowship with people.\

 

/God hates sin and cannot have contact with sin. The humanity of Christ paid for all sin, but when the believer commits sin, until he confesses it he is in agreement or fellowship with sin.\

 

While “in sin” in my experience (I can never be “in sin” in position because I’m “in Christ”) I am fellowshipping with that which God hates.

 

Yes my sin is forgiven, but my fellowship with God is cut off, and hopefully for only a very short period of time.

 

When I confess my sin, I am agreeing with God that it was against Him and part of the darkness of the fallen universe and not the light of the delivered universe.

 

/In sin the believer is in fellowship with what God hates and so has lost fellowship with God. In confession the believer agrees with God that the sin is against Him and a part of the darkness and so fellowship with God is restored.\

 

We mentioned L.S. Chafer’s story, “Teddy’s Bad,”  to illustrate this point.

 

As it was with Teddy and his father, so it is with us and God. Unconfessed sin leaves you in the cosmic system, which is a system that God despises. Your sins are forgiven and you are a son forever, but you cannot commune, share in, or have fellowship with God in that status quo. When you confess that sin or sins to God, your fellowship is immediately restored.

 

/We confess our sins only. We do not ask for forgiveness. That would be annulling the work of Christ on the cross.\

 

/There is no merit in confession of sin. All the merit goes to the One who has made payment for the sin.\

 

/Confession is a grace procedure. It is not claiming a promise. It is a procedure, therefore you have to follow the procedure – confess the sin to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ.\

 

Notice that I didn’t say in the power of the HS, because you are not in fellowship. This is the only legitimate function of the believer priest when he is out of fellowship with God.

 

There are two spheres of power by which man will be controlled by a power greater than himself. Which one he chooses will determine whether he functions in divine good or evil.

 

There is the divine sphere of power by which man is controlled by God – I can do all things through Christ who keeps on pouring His power into me.

 

There is the satanic sphere of power by which man is controlled by the evil of the cosmic system. This sphere has two sub-spheres, one of arrogance (self absorption) and one of hate (hatred towards Christ and grace). The satanic sphere contains many who have believed in Christ but have fallen under false doctrines. They cannot lose their salvation, but they live in these spheres and become anti-grace and therefore anti-Christ.

 

The first epistle of John was written to refute Gnosticism. Gnosticism was the greatest revival of the first century and it served to bring more Christians into the cosmic system than any other false doctrine.

 

Gnostics believed that all matter, including the physical body, was created by a lesser half-god, called the demiurge in later writings, who was evil and therefore the physical universe created by him is evil. But that inside every man is a spark of the divine that can only be awakened by the true gnosis or knowledge. They therefore believed that the physical body of Christ was evil, but through his own awareness of gnosis, the Christ came upon Him at His baptism by John and left Him at the cross. Therefore again, it wasn’t His death that may save you but His life of gnosis, and if you can find it then you as well will be saved forever. If you don’t find it you must be reincarnated and your spark goes into another evil house. There is a bunch more to this heresy than I’m telling you, but you will see in the following scriptures why John is addressing this subject of rebound and the filling of the Spirit.

 

As a brain child of satan, Gnosticism appealed to man because it gave man the freedom to live as he pleased. His body was evil and the rules of morality were just rules imposed by a lesser god of evil. If he deemed them right at the time then he may live in them and become ascetic. If he deemed them false at the time then he did not have to live in them and be lascivious. The gnosis was only revealed to the individual spark within, but the demiurge did not know the gnosis so the world didn’t know it. It was classic religion of dualism, good and evil, without a written truth. The truth or gnosis was a mystery that was only revealed to the few who found their spark. It is vague enough to attract the intellectual and has the vocabulary of Christianity enough to attract the believer.

 

Several religious cults have been extensions of this early and successful attempt by satan to blind mankind from grace.

 

Yes my flesh or OSN is darkness, but when I’m filled with the Spirit my soul lives in light and the members of my body are used for righteousness.

 

1 John 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.

 

The Gnostics believed that God brought forth a lesser god of darkness and evil who created the physical universe.

 

1 John 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;

 

Gnostics didn’t have a problem with walking in darkness as long as you decided it wasn’t a part of the concealed gnosis.

 

1 John 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.

 

Gnostics believed that sin was only a result of your lack of identification with your spark and the gnosis that flamed it. To be cleansed from sin you would have to find gnosis. But here we see that John instructs us that the blood of Christ, i.e. the cross of Christ, the spiritual death of Christ, cleanses us from all sin. The Gnostics took no value in the death of Christ, only that they saw Him as one misunderstood as the greatest Gnostic and therefore was put to death. Was Christ put to death by Jew or Roman? No. He put down His own life for the world.

 

1 John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 

The Gnostic believed the sinlessness could be achieved through gnosis.

 

1 John 1:9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

The Gnostic believed that righteousness could only be had by discovery of the gnosis so as to send the spark within to the fullness of God.

 

There are those who don’t like rebound. They claim that it makes them focus on sin, but that is another issue entirely. They don’t confess sin, but instead claim the finished work as a promise.

 

The work is definitely finished. But the scripture is clear that when we sin we are out of fellowship with God and God desires that fellowship to be restored.

 

We are not to focus on sin at all. We are simply to recognize when we are out of fellowship.

 

1 John 1:10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

 

This verse is sarcasm to the Gnostics. They willingly called Christ the logos because He found the gnosis more than anyone. By this gnosis you could be sinless. By becoming like the logos you could become sinless. John says, “If you say you haven’t sinned there is no logos in you at all.”

 

I have related this section of scripture to you in light of Gnosticism so that you may again understand that religion does not solve problems. Gnosticism only creates more problems as does all religion. I also want you to be well educated in the epistles of the NT. Why they are written is often not taught, but when we know why they are written it gives us greater depth into their meaning.

 

God is not vague. He does not promote asceticism or lasciviousness, for these are functions of the OSN. He does not give eternal life based on gnosis. Eternal life rests in faith in the Savior and His overreaching death on the cross. Everything God does for man is based upon grace and not man’s ability to find some spark within himself that he never had. Grace means that the One true God does all the work and we benefit by pistis and not gnosis.

 

As we have studied in Jam 1, gnosis only puffs up, the real truth of the word of God, which comes after salvation, must be embraced as in love and impregnated as in metabolized. Grace and human merit cannot coexist.

 

Now it is wonderful that scripture has a dual nature at times. In the psalms David often wrote about his own trials and sufferings when God the HS was also giving him prophetic wisdom about the Messiah to come.

 

The apostle John wrote this epistle, as well as the gospel, in refutation to the false doctrine of his time, mainly Gnosticism, and God the HS also uses these words to not only refute, but to record for all time some gorgeous truths about rebound, i.e. restoring fellowship with Christ, the Father, and the Spirit.

 

So now, let us look at this section without the grossness of the Gnostics.

 

1 John 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.

 

/God is light and not one ounce of darkness is within Him – white light is made up of three primary colors. Light is a perfect analogy for the trinity.\

 

/Light has come into the world through Jesus Christ:  John 1:4-5; 8:2\

 

/John 1:4-5

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. \

 

/John 8:12

Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." \

 

By sinning you have chosen the darkness. All do it. Ok.

 

 

/In rebound we confess the sin, isolate the sin [which means no blaming or spill over into other sins], forget the sin [claiming the cross], and move on without guilt [for there is no condemnation for those in Christ].\  

 

This is important for fellowship with God and not the forgiveness of sin. That’s why there should not be one ounce of guilt.

 

But by failing to rebound you are remaining in communion with the darkness, which is the domain of satan. While fellowshipping with darkness you cannot fellowship with the light.

 

Therefore, God has given us the rebound technique so that we can restore our fellowship. Do you know why He did that? Because He desires fellowship, communion, sharing of blessing and comfort through the truth with you, and way more than you desire it from Him.

 

/Every believer is a royal priest who represents himself before God. The believer out of fellowship confesses privately to God and not to anyone else.\

 

The rebound prayer is our only procedure when we are out of fellowship and have lost the F/HS.

 

So do it! And do it often!

 

/Verse 6 represents the illusion of the one who thinks he has no sin or doesn’t think that sin affects him in any way. He doesn’t think that he is obligated to have fellowship with God. A lie.\

 

1 John 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;

 

/What is in the darkness? Arrogance and hatred. Arrogance = I don’t need the doctrine. Hatred = I hate the doctrine.\

 

Arrogance is the first cosmic sphere. This was the attitude of satan at his fall. Hatred is the second cosmic sphere. This was the attitude of satan after his fall. From his hatred of God and God’s truth religion was born.

 

These are darkness and they are a power more powerful than yourself. The light is the plan of God, which is also more powerful than yourself. There is not a third sphere that you can choose.

 

Man is weak. He cannot be evil or good on his own. He must be influenced by systems outside of himself. Therefore, he must choose from the two systems.

 

God has purposed this so that we would be witnesses in life for either good or evil.

 

Remember, you are indwelt by Christ, and that is why we are studying this. You are the temple of God and as such you must remain in fellowship with Him.

 

/The believer in the cosmic system is described as grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30), quenching the Holy Spirit (1Th 5:19), carnal (1Co 3:3), walking in darkness (1Jn 1:6), enemy of God (Jam 4:4), anti-Christ (1Jn 2:18), enemy of the cross (Phi 3:18).\

 

The cosmic system is a waste of your time. It is a quencher of energy, individuality, creativity, love, joy, and tranquility. It is so important that you understand that you rebound as often as a known sin occurs and do so quickly.

 

/God invented a system to sustain the humanity of Christ from birth to the cross and from the cross to His ascension and session. This system is called “light” and has been given to every CA believer.\

 

1 John 1:7 but if we walk [lifestyle or the function of your life] 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.

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