Level 1 Lesson 11 WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN SINS

Level: 1, Lesson: 11
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN SINS?
OUTLINE

I John 1:7-8: "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

We will stumble and commit sin as a Christian. Now that we have a new nature, it grieves us when we sin.

Romans 4:2: "For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God."

If we could gain justification or righteousness by what we do, then we could brag, but there will be no pats on our backs in eternity. There is no glorying or boasting on man’s part.

Romans 3:27: "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith."

What Jesus has done for us cleanses us.

Romans 4:2: "For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God."

How are you saved? By your own performance? No, you believe in God and it’s accounted to you as righteousness.

Would I perish if I sinned and died immediately afterward? No, not if I am believing Jesus to keep me in a position of righteousness before God. Jesus bore all my sin on the cross. I have faith that his sacrifice was perfect.

Hebrews 10:1-2: "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins."

The Old Testament Law could not make us perfect, without defect or flaw. A perfect sacrifice eliminates even the consciousness of sin.

Hebrews 10:14: "For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified." Jesus was our perfect offering to God.

Romans 4:6-8: "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." In the original Greek language this is an emphatic negative - God will never not ever impute sin to us.

Hebrews 10:17: "And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more."

By my faith in Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice and forgiveness through Him, I’m a blessed man to whom the Lord will NOT impute sin. Just as in a marriage relationship, when one does something wrong to his mate, he confesses his sin to clear the air, yet the sin does not make him unmarried; neither does our sin change our right standing with God.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN SINS?
Lesson Text

Have you ever considered the type of person that God justifies, that is, declares righteous? The scripture tells us that it is the UNGODLY. "But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who JUSTIFIES THE UNGODLY, his faith is reckoned as righteousness" (Romans 4:5; NASV).

The context surrounding this passage speaks of the man, Abraham. Abraham did many ungodly things, such as giving his wife to another man, lying, and so forth. (see Genesis 20). But never did Abraham have to worry about where he stood before God. You see, although God may have approved or disapproved of the things that Abraham did, Abraham’s acceptance before God was not based upon his performance, but rather upon his faith and trust in God. Even though Abraham was a sinner, as all of us are, when Abraham put his trust in God, God put something to his account that he did not have before, and that was righteousness.

You see, ABRAHAM WAS CREDITED AS RIGHTEOUS EVEN AT A MOMENT WHEN HE WAS UNGODLY. Justification is not the act of making righteous, but rather declaring a BELIEVER as righteous even though he is in a sinning state (I John 1:8).

In Romans, chapter four, it further states that the words "he (Abraham) was accepted as righteous" were not written for him alone. They were written also for us who are to be accepted as righteous, who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from death. He was given over to die because of our sins, and was raised to life to put us right with God (Romans 4:23-25; TEV).

Do you understand? God is willing, because of Jesus’ death upon the cross, to declare you forgiven, in right standing and righteous in His sight. God does this because He wants to and can legally do so because of Jesus’ death for our sins.

The Bible states in Romans 4:6-8 "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord WILL NOT impute sin."

The Greek word that is translated "will not" in verse eight is what is called an emphatic negative and it means "not ever." This is the strongest language possible that says those who receive forgiveness will not ever have their sins held against them. He didn’t just say "did not" or "does not" but "will not" implying that even future tense sins have been dealt with through the sacrificial offering of Jesus once and for all (Hebrews 10:10,14).

Most Christians have the concept that the sins that they committed before they professed faith in Christ were forgiven at salvation, but any sins that are committed after that time are not forgiven until they are confessed.

All our sins - past, present, and future - were forgiven us through the one offering of Jesus.

If we had to confess every sin committed after our born-again experience to maintain our salvation, no one would ever make it. What if we forgot to confess some sin? That puts the burden of salvation back on us.

I will state it once more. Justification is not the act of being made righteous by the things that you do, but rather, it is being declared righteous because Jesus’ blood was shed for you. This gift of righteousness is yours (to those who receive it by faith) and gives you a right standing before God, even though in your daily life you still make mistakes and sin (I John 1:8).

Can you see it? Jesus wants to be your personal Saviour and Lord. Have you ever considered what a saviour really is? If you were drowning in the ocean and I tossed you a book on "How to Swim," would I be your personal saviour? Of course not! If I got out of a boat and showed you how to swim, would I be your personal saviour? No, I would only be your example. You see, a saviour is someone who rescues you and takes you safely all the way to the shore. To trust Jesus as your personal Saviour means that you must trust Him to take you safely all the way to heaven or you have not trusted Him as your Saviour.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN SINS
(Additional Information)

Romans 10:14: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?"

Paul had just conclusively proven that salvation was not according to a person’s performance but according to his acceptance of God’s grace by faith in Christ Jesus. This is great news! Yet this great news will not do anyone any good if they don’t know it. The gospel has to be heard to release its power (Romans 1:16).

Verses 14 and 15 of Romans, chapter 10, show a number of things that must happen for a person to be born again. The individual must believe, but he needs to have something or someone to believe in. Therefore, someone has to share the gospel with him. But for that to happen, others have to send the ministers to the uttermost parts of the earth. So there are three areas of responsibility for salvation. An individual has to believe, someone has to preach, and others have to send. Satan tries to harden a person’s heart through the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3:13), to the point that the gospel will not penetrate. If people are faithful to the two other responsibilities, salvation still will not occur if the individual rejects the good news.

Yet many times people are hungry and ripe for salvation, and still there is no one to share the good news with them. If Satan can stop people from preaching the gospel, because of a lack of preachers or a lack of people who will send them, then he can stop the individual from being saved.

As Christians we cannot take responsibility for people’s reactions to the gospel, but we must take responsibility for preaching the gospel and giving so others can preach the gospel.

Romans 3:26-27: "To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith."

(Romans 3:26) Paul restates this amazing truth that it is the righteousness of Jesus that has been given us. We don’t just have enough righteousness to slip into heaven. We have been given Jesus’ righteousness. I Corinthians 1:30 says, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." Jesus is my righteousness! II Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

(Romans 3:27) Boasting, bragging, or pride about our holiness or spiritual accomplishments are sure signs that we don’t understand justification by grace through faith as Paul taught in this verse. If we acknowledge that we are no better than anyone else, regardless of our conduct, and that the only way we obtained peace with God was through putting faith in what Jesus did for us, then there is no room for boasting about our achievements. It was the accomplishments of Jesus that saved us.

Pride is the root of all divisions in the church today. Therefore, the prevalence of division in the church is a painful testimony to the lack of this foundational truth of justification by grace through faith.

Notice that Paul refers to the Law of faith. Faith is governed by law, just as gravity or electricity is. If we would view faith as a law, rather than something that sometimes works and other times doesn’t, we would begin to get very different results.

The law of electricity has been on earth since creation. Man has observed it in such things as lightening and static electricity, but it was not until someone believed that there were laws that governed the activity of electricity that progress was made to put it to use. Likewise, none deny the existence of faith, but it is only when an individual begins to understand that there are laws that govern faith and then begins to learn what those laws are, that faith begins to work for him.

Romans 4:1-2: "What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? 2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God."

(Romans 4:1) The question is, "What good then were Abraham’s works?" Paul answers this indirectly. Paul states what Abraham’s works were not good for. They were not good enough to grant him justification in the sight of God. That came by faith. He shows that Abraham’s works or efforts didn’t earn him anything from God. Abraham was justified by faith for over 13 years before he performed the act of circumcision that the Jews insisted was necessary for right standing with God.

(Romans 4:2) Our own good works will only allow us to boast if we’re comparing ourselves with other people. However, in the sight of God, not one of us has anything to brag about. We have all come short of the glory of God.

Romans 4:6-8: "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7 saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."

(Romans 4:6) King David was living under the old covenant of law. However, this scripture that Paul quotes from Psalm 32, as well as the things David wrote in Psalm 51 when repenting for his sins against Uriah and Bathsheba, show that he had a tremendous revelation of the salvation by grace through faith that was coming with the Messiah.

(Romans 4:8) The Greek word that is translated "will not" in this verse is what is called an emphatic negative and it means "not ever." This is the strongest language possible that says that those who receive forgiveness will not ever have their sins held against them. He didn’t just say "did not" or "does not" but "will not" implying that even future tense sins have been dealt with, through the sacrificial offering of Jesus, once and for all (Hebrews 10: 10,14).

All our sins - past, present, and future - were forgiven us through the one offering of Jesus. If God can’t forgive future tense sins, then none of us can be saved because Jesus only died once, nearly 2,000 years ago, before we had committed any sins. All our sins have been forgiven.

Why then, I John 1:9? "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This is not speaking of the eternal salvation of our spirit but rather the salvation of our souls (James 1:21; I Peter 1:9). It’s our spirits that get born again at salvation, and sin will never be imputed to our born-again spirits. They have been sanctified and perfected forever (Hebrews 10:10,14; 12:23), and cannot sin (I John 3:9).

However, we are still in the process of saving our souls (James 1:21; I Peter 1:9). When we sin, the devil has a legal right to bring his forms of death into our soulish area (Romans 6:16). How do we get the devil out once he has come in? We confess our sin, then God brings that forgiveness that is already a reality in our born-again spirits out into the soulish realm and the devil has no right to stay.

We must remember that "God is a Spirit" (John 4:24) and we must worship Him through our new born-again spirits. Therefore, we truly are blessed because God will not hold any sin against our spirit. Our spirits are clean and pure (Ephesians 4:24; Hebrews 12:23; John 4:17) and will not change due to our performance.

Here are some questions to think about for this lesson

Level 1 Lesson 11 Questions
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A CHRISTIAN SINS?

According to Romans 4:5, what is the only kind of person that God can justify?
According to Romans 4:2-3, God put something to Abraham's account (when he believed) which he did not have before. What was this?
According to Romans 4:22-24, if we believe as Abraham did, what will be put to our account?
According to Romans 4:6, believers are imputed righteousness before God without what?
According to Hebrews 10:14, how long are believers perfected before God?
According to Romans 5:17, how is righteousness received?
What does the word "gift" imply?
To trust Jesus to be your personal Saviour you must trust Him to take you all the way to where?

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