1 John 1:7-8 “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. (8) If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
We have stated that in order for us to understand how to walk free from sin we need to have an understanding of the make-up of man, which we have discussed briefly in the previous sections. There is one further truth that we need to understand if we are going to learn how to walk free from sin. The truth we need to understand, and which we will discuss in this section, is that scripture lists two categories of sin and treats each category differently. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle John seems to contradict Himself when He states that Christians deceive themselves if they say that they have no sin. Because we read earlier that the same Holy Spirit has also taught us that the born-again believer does not sin. So how do we reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements? We have partly explained the contradiction by explaining that it is the spirit of the born-again believer that cannot sin. But that explanation doesn’t adequately address the comment made by the Holy Spirit in the passage quoted above, for He plainly tells us that we all have sin. Some have gone into the ditch on the one side of the road by trying to explain that our flesh has sin but not our spirits, and so God does not hold us accountable for the sin in our flesh because our flesh is not the real person. But that is not what the Holy Spirit said, for He said we all have sin. And so, He does not differentiate between our flesh and our spirits in this area, for God deals with us as a whole person when it comes to sin. In other words He holds us fully accountable for sin. God understands that the sin originates from our flesh, for He is the one who taught us that truth in the first place. Nevertheless the Holy Spirit did not say “if we say we have no sin in our flesh, we deceive ourselves”, He said “if we say we have no sin (period), we deceive ourselves”. Clearly He is speaking about the whole man in this statement, i.e. spirit and flesh combined. And so we get those who have gone into the ditch on the other side of the road by saying this just proves that we cannot walk free from sin, because God Himself has said that we all have sin and to say otherwise is to deceive yourself. Nevertheless as we will see in this section, when we understand the two categories of sin it becomes very easy to reconcile the statements that the one who is born of God does not sin while at the same time saying that we all have sin.
Hebrews 9:7 “But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.”
So what are the two categories of sin? The one category is known sin, i.e. sin which we knowingly commit and the other category is unknown sin, i.e. sins that we commit in ignorance. We will first discuss the category of unknown sins that believers commit, and how God deals with those sins. Under the Old Covenant when they committed sins that they knew about, the children of Israel where required to offer various sacrifices to God in order to have their sins forgiven. Those sacrifices were offered to the Lord throughout the year as and when those sins were committed. So how did God deal with the unknown sins committed by the children of Israel? In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us that once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would offer an atoning sacrifice for the whole nation of Israel, for all the unknown and unintentional sins that had been committed by the people throughout the year. And so even though the people had no knowledge of those sins nevertheless they had been committed and thus needed to be dealt with, and God used the Day of Atonement to deal with them. Under the New Covenant the sins have not changed, for as born-again believers we still commit both known sins and we also commit unintentional sins all the time, which is why the Holy Spirit says in the previous passage of scripture that we all have sin. What has changed under the New Covenant however is the sacrifice for our sins. We do not offer sacrifices of bulls and goats for our sins, for Jesus offered Himself to God once for all as the perfect sacrifice for all of our sins (Hebrews 9:12). So how does God deal with our unintentional sins under the New Covenant, because we don’t have a Day of Atonement? The passage of scripture that we read earlier states that the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us (present tense) from all sin. And so we see that under the New Covenant our sins of ignorance and unintentional sins are constantly being cleansed the moment they are committed. God needs to do that so that we can remain in fellowship with Him for in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5). And so even though, because of our ignorance, we do not know about these particular sins, nevertheless they have been committed and must be dealt with and God does that by automatically applying the cleansing blood of Christ to those sins.
1 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.”
We have seen thus far that under the New Covenant the blood of Christ automatically cleanses us from all unknown sins the moment they are committed. However, there is a condition that must be met in order for the blood of Jesus to cleanse the believer from all unknown sins. And so this brings us to the second category of sins that believers commit i.e. known sins, and how God deals with those sins. The scripture states that the condition that must be met in order for the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin is that we must be walking in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7). We can only walk in the light when we are walking in righteousness, i.e. when we are not walking in any known sin. And so if a believer is walking in known sin then they are not walking in the light as He is in the light, and therefore His blood no longer cleanses them from all the sins they are committing unintentionally and in ignorance. God holds us accountable for known sins that we commit and it is for these sins that He expects us to ask forgiveness for. In the passage of scripture quoted above the apostle John teaches us that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. We can only confess those sins that we know about and it is those sins that are then forgiven us. The moment that happens we once again step into the light as He is in the light and His blood then cleanses us from all the unknown sins that we have committed, and we are once again restored to fellowship with Him.
Ephesians 5:8-10 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (9) (for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), (10) finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”
The younger we are in the Lord the more sins of ignorance we commit. The reason for that is because we are still learning about this Christian walk, and so consequently our knowledge of what is considered sinful is limited. Obviously during this period we therefore commit fewer known sins. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that as children of light we are to find out what is acceptable to the Lord and what is not. And so as we grow in the Lord our knowledge of what is acceptable increases and thus our capacity for committing known sin also increases.
Hebrews 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds, I will write them.”
Once we know what is acceptable to the Lord we never lose that knowledge. We may choose to ignore that knowledge but we still know what is acceptable and what is not. In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us that under the New Covenant God writes His laws into our minds and He puts them into our hearts. He does that as we grow in the Lord and once His word has been written in our hearts and our minds that word is never erased, for His word is eternal. Let me illustrate this point by means of an example. When someone is newly saved they may have an understanding of God’s word that it is a sin to commit adultery. And so they choose to refrain from committing adultery even though they may have committed adultery before they were saved. This is a known sin to them and the Lord would hold them accountable for that sin if they were to commit it. But at that stage they may not yet have seen the truth in God’s word that to look at a woman to lust for her is already committing adultery with her in their heart. And so while they are still ignorant of that truth and they look at a woman to lust for her, even though that is sin, to them it is a sin of ignorance and the Lord does not hold them to account for it. However as they grow in the Lord and this truth becomes known to them, if they were then to commit that sin the Lord would hold them accountable. This is one reason why the Christian walk is one of progressive sanctification, because as more of God’s truth is revealed to us He then expects us to walk in the light of that truth, and thus holds us to an ever-increasing degree of account. And so as we have seen in this section, as long as the believer either stays away from known sin or immediately confesses known sin when committed, then God deals with all their sins of ignorance, and in this manner the believer is able to walk free from sin and thus walk in the light even as He is in the light.
Michael E.B. Maher
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