Reference: I John 3:4
We hear much today about the subject ofsin, but on the other hand we hear hardly nothing about what sin actually is.Now according to the word of Almighty God, sin is the transgression of the law,but we must understand what the word transgression means and what the lawis that's referred to in the above verse of scripture.
Now the word transgress means to goagainst or to disobey a direct command or a law. Therefore to break the lawmeans to do what a law says not to do. Now the law referred to in the abovescripture is referring to the law of God, which are the laws contained in theTen Commandments. To break any of the Ten Commandment laws is a sin in thesight of God. Now the law itself is not sin, but rather these laws describesand tells us what is considered to be sin.
It is a sin to kill a person and take hisor her life. It is also a sin to commit the act of adultery. Looking at the TenCommandments we can see that the first four are directed toward God and thelast six are directed toward our fellow man. To disobey any of thesecommandments is sin in the sight of God. Now there has risen today a lot ofcontroversy as to what exactly can be called sin and what should not be calledsin.
By this I mean that a lot of things thatpeople are doing today is considered not to be sin and also there are somethings that people do that a lot of people will call sin, but we must have theword of God prove out what is sin and what is not or else we would be makingour own commandments. Jesus said that many would lay aside the commandments ofGod and keep their own commandments. The commandments of men are certain lawsand rules that man has made thinking they are being justified by keeping them,but Jesus said this would be worship in vain. There is also in the religiousworld today a lot of controversial teachings concerning the laws of the TenCommandments. Many are saying today that these laws are not to be kept andobeyed and the reason they are saying this is simply because they think thatChrist's coming to this earth did away with keeping the law.
On the other hand there are many who teachthat these laws must be obeyed, but both of these teachings are not in accordwith what the word of God truly teaches about the subject of sin and lawkeeping. People who think and believe that the commandment laws are not to beobeyed will break these laws thinking that they are yet children of God undergrace and that God excuses their sins because Christ's blood covers them andGod can only see his blood as the atoning cover.
They think that Christ did away with thelaw and brought grace and that everybody is under this grace as long as theyaccept the atoning blood of Christ. How they can accept this as being the truthof the matter, seeing how much the word of God speaks about how sin is the verycause of thousands of people to end up being lost, is beyond my imagination.
The word of God plainly teaches that sinwill not enter the kingdom of God and eternal life. Now the thousands of otherpeople who say and teach that the law must be kept and obeyed are beingdeceived just as the non law keeper are being deceived. Satan is deceiving themby blinding their minds from the truth as to what will justify a person in thesight of God.
The law keeper is desperately trying andstruggling to keep the law using it as their basis of justification, but thelaw cannot and will not justify a person no matter how hard they try to keepand obey it. The law's only purpose is to let us know what sin is. This lawdoes not have a duel purpose of letting us know what sin is and also the meansof observing it and expect to be justified by it at the same time. What today'slaw keepers are being blinded from is that the law will absolutely be obeyed,but not in the way they are teaching it.
The word of God plainly tells us that weare justified by faith and not by the works of the law, but very few peopletoday truly understands what faith is and how we are justified by this faith.The law keeper will say that he is not using the law as his means ofjustification based on the fact that they were justified by faith when theyconfessed to have accepted Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour, but rightat this point is where they are being deceived.
You are not justified by a mere acceptanceof Christ as Lord and Saviour as thousands of people have been led to believetoday. The law keeper is thinking he is justified by his acceptance of the LordJesus as his Lord and Saviour and then they are taught to keep the law and obeyit using it as their guide and way of life. Since they are not justified likethey think they are, they are in reality just observing the law and trying tokeep it because they know that sin is the transgression of that law, but whatthey are blinded from is the fact that the law will automatically be obeyed aswe are led of the Spirit into all truth revealed in the gospel and it is thistruth that sets us free.
It is the revealed word of truth that willjustify us from all sin and perfect holiness within our being, but the lawkeeper struggles to obey the law using it as their means and way of life. Sinis certainly breaking any of the laws, but this does not mean that we keep thelaw using it as a means of justification. A true child of God is set free fromsin's power through and by the power of the Holy Ghost in their heart and life.As far as the law is concerned in the life of the true christian, all that theydo is not to break any of those laws, but they do not observe them and strugglenot to break them simply because those laws are not consciously thought onusing them as a guide in life like the law keeper will use them for.
The child of God is led of the Spirit intoall truth and the law is not brought into focus as a means and way of life.Those laws will automatically be obeyed because the life that the true child ofGod lives is a life of righteousness that far surpasses any law keeping. Achild of God lives in a realm where he does not worry about the law. He is ofcourse taught that sin is to transgress the law, which he can do if he fails tobe obedient to the leading of the Spirit.
There will of course come a time when achild of God can't sin because Christ has been perfected in him and it willthen be Christ manifested once again in the flesh. If we are set free from sinthen it is easy to see that we can abstain from it, but we don't use the thelaw as a means of trying to be justified like many law keepers are doing today.We are set free by the power of God, but today's law keepers are struggling tokeep the law thinking that they are doing it to please God, but God's word saysthat by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.
We can only be justified by the faith ofJesus Christ and no law keeping, using it as a schoolmaster, will meritanything toward being justified in God's sight. The christain lives in a realmwhere there is peace and quietness and no struggling is being done whatsoever.We are admonished by the apostle Paul that the servant of the Lord must not struggle(or strive); but to be gentle unto all men, apt to teach etc. (II Timothy 2:24)
We must struggle to enter into God'skingdom, but not to struggle with the law trying to keep it thinking it willmerit anything with God. If a person observed the law and kept it perfectly itwould still fail to justify him in God's sight because we are justified byfaith, not law.