Part One:
Are we able to live without the guilt of sin? I believe that the answer is yes, but first allow me to explain to you something that I feel is important. Please, don't take my word for anything because it doesn't matter what I say, it only matters what the bible says. I encourage you to look for yourself. I would never expect anyone to just take my word for it. In this posting, I will attempt to explain what I have discovered about sin itself.
All of us have sinned according to (Romans 3:23), which says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." also, every one of us, just as the Apostle Paul, when he wrote Romans 7, will all continue to sin until the day we die. Apostle Paul wrote: "I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin." (Romans 7:15-25)
These two passages show us that first, we have all sinned and second, we will always continue to sin in the flesh until the day we die. Now, if I were to say to you that you'd better stop sinning, knowing that I myself will be sinning until the day I die, would I be acting like a judgmental hypocrite? It would certainly seem that way. Wouldn't it? Looking at all of this from the perspective of these two verses only would make me look like I were being a hypocrite. However, delving a bit further into this will reveal something that gives us an entirely new perspective on things. These two verses that we looked at, are only two pieces of the puzzle. There is another piece however, that often gets left out, or over-looked. Without this next piece of the puzzle, we would never be able to understand this clearly and it will always seem as though a Christian, is a hypocrite and a judgmental person. I will now present to you the third piece of the puzzle:
1 John 3:6-9
"Whosoever abideth in God sinneth not, whosoever sinneth, hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that commits sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God."
This scripture seems to be a struggle for many people including myself in the past. Upon reading this I had to make a decision, either the bible was wrong, or I was wrong. (but nobody can live without sinning right?). Well, I know that the bible does not contradict itself so it was time to invest many days in figuring out the meaning behind this verse. I want you to understand that I cannot explain this without several quotes from the bible but honestly, would you really want me to? Again, don't take my word for it let the bible interpret itself. Also know that there are many explanations out there to uncover. By all means, learn them all and make your own decision for yourself.
God is a God of liberty and freedom. Without these, there can be no real sincere love. If God forced himself on us and detained us from the freedom of making our own decisions and choices, like a 'puppet master' of sorts, meticulously controlling every thought, act and outcome in order for us to worship him, wouldn't this be self-serving of Him? Wouldn't this be the same behavior as a mentally ill kidnapper who seeks after someone to detain with forceful and selfish expectations? My love for the Lord is not Stockholm syndrome I can assure you that. Love is not self-serving or self-centered, just as 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 says. It is in fact "other centeredness". Love is always focused on another and always gives the liberty and freedom to someone to decide whether or not they wish to love in return. Love is never focused on itself or forceful according to the Word of God. So then, since God is love, as 1 John 4:8 says, we all are given freedoms and liberties to make up our own minds and make our own choices. Love will always be an influence and response fashion that can be both freely accepted and freely denied.
Herein, resides sincere love and your freedom to believe anything that you want to believe or serve God anyway you wish to serve him. Because (Romans 14:5) says: “One man esteems one day above another, another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded, in his own mind.” This verse is one of the many verses that should convince you that there are many ways to look at things. As long as Jesus, who is God, is our focus we are all given the liberty to differ on some of our beliefs. So learn any perspective that you want. Learn them all if you so desire and judge for yourself, according to the Word of God, through the Holy Spirit, which ones you will believe. Just make sure that you learn the bible as a whole and not in partial, so that you can have all of the pieces of the puzzle that you need.
My own desire for understanding 1 John 3:6-9, which is the third piece of the puzzle I quoted previously, led me to many other verses. And I came across a startling discovery. I found out that according to the bible, there are two different kinds of sins! Yes, you heard right, two different kinds of sins. Each having ramifications branching from the roots of two separate sources, yet in essence, they are both the same at the surface. However, the consequences of each are different. Confusing? That's why I have to quote from the bible. According to the Word of God there are "presumptuous sins”, which are acts of a blatant, voluntary and willful nature that is self-serving and defiant to God. The devil didn't CRAM the fruit down Adam and Eve's throats but he did heavily influence them. They made the decision on their own to defy the Lord. This was the “cause” of the fall in the Garden of Eden.
There are also "ignorant or involuntary sins”. They are acts, of an involuntary, accidental and abrupt nature or they are done in complete unawareness through total ignorance of not knowing any better. These ignorant and involuntary sins have been passed down through generation to generation in our blood since Adam and Eve's presumptuous sin of eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge. This is one of the many “effects” of the fall in the Garden of Eden.
Involuntary and Ignorant Sins
Have you ever stubbed your toe and out of pain, said some things not becoming of a Christian? Have you ever been driving your car somewhere and somebody else cuts you off, or did something aggressive and you blurted out profane words? Have you ever had a sinful thought come into your head, out of no where that bothered you and you wonder, where in the world did that come from? Have you ever gotten angry with someone and while in the heat of the moment said something mean, degrading or hurtful and regretted it almost immediately after it came out of your mouth? Have you ever done some thing wrong and not even known it? Maybe later someone tells you what you did, though you either don't remember or it occurs to you and you drop your head in shame? What if no one ever told you? You would never even know. Small children often don't know any better when they do things wrong. I could go on and on but I'm sure you get the point by now. These are involuntary sins in the sense that they were not deliberately defiant to God. They in fact reside in our sinful flesh and blood throughout time since the fall in the Garden of Eden. We cannot help ourselves but to sin, involuntarily or ignorantly, no matter how hard we try. We can never please God without the help of the Holy Spirit because our sinful nature is contrary with His Spirit. Again, don't take my word for anything. Let the bible define itself. Here are some verses from the bible so that you can see for yourself: The bible in (Romans 8:7) says:
"For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile to God. For it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
(Numbers 15:28): And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him."
Notation. Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, is the Highest Priest of all. He made the greatest and most sufficient sacrifice for the atonement of the whole world once and for all eternity when he laid down his own life and was crucified at Calvary. Next verse.
(John 9:41): "Jesus said to them, if you were blind you would have no sin but now you say, We see. Therefore your sin remains."
(John 15:22) Here Jesus says: "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now however, they have no excuse for their sin."
The GREAT NEWS for us is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for these involuntary and ignorant sins. As well as for our SINCERE REPENTED FOR, PRESUMPTUOUS SINS but only if we STOP LIVING our lives in willful defiance to Him!
Sins committed by people in ignorance do not lead to condemnation because God will not hold them guilty, Thanks be to Jesus our Savior for the sacrifice He made on the cross. We should also pray for these people who just don't know any better. This is exactly what Jesus did on the cross when He prayed, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do" in (Luke 23:34). So now we can understand what Paul meant when he wrote:
"I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway." (Romans 7:15-19)
Oh and by the way, you cannot just stay ignorant on purpose. Willful ignorance is sin too. This is established by (Hosea 4:6) which says:
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you..."
Presumptuous Sins
“The Lord God commanded the man saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”(Genesis 2:16-17)
“You won’t die, the serpent replied to the woman. God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and it's fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too." (Genesis 3:4-6)
Notation. This was a willful and deliberate act against God. Next verse.
(Numbers 15:30): “Anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people.”
Notation. Notice that to sin defiantly is "blaspheming" the Lord. Next verse.
(Ezekiel 20:27) “Therefore son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them: 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed Me by acting treacherously against Me.”
Notation. Again, notice that the Lord was blasphemed by their "actions", of willful sin against Him.
(Hebrews 10:26-27) “For if we SIN WILLINGLY, after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, THERE REMAINETH NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR our SINS. But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”
(John 3:36) “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life but who ever rejects the Son will not see life for God's wrath, remains on him.”
Now, according to this last verse there is only one condition that someone would have no forgiveness. It is only if they are not among the: “Whoever believes in the Son” but instead are among the: “who ever rejects the Son". Rejecting the Son would be defiantly continuing to live life in willful and deliberate sin. By doing this, the gift of the Holy Spirit is rejected and thus blasphemed.
