Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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It wasn't always in sermons and testimonies during meetings of the saints that we were taught good things of God by the old saints. Often, sitting in someone's living room, or in some other informal atmosphere, the conversation contained jewels of truth and wisdom. One such memory has to do with a most misunderstood verse, 1John 1:8. In that verse, John wrote, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Many have misunderstood that verse. They read it as if it said, "If we say that we are not sinning, we are deceived, and the truth is not in us." But that is not what John wrote. "Having sin" and "committing sin" are not necessarily the same thing. Besides, if we are all now sinning, then how are we to understand John's later verses, such as, "He that committeth sin is of the devil" (1Jn. 3:8), and "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not" (1Jn. 3:1)? If we all are sinning, as many teach, and if all who are sinning are of the devil, then according to the teaching of many Christian teachers, we all are of the devil! That just won't work.
When John wrote 1:8, he was not saying that we are all presently sinning, just that we all do have sin. And we all have sin, just as John said, because we all have committed sins in the past. John himself, and all of Jesus' other apostles, had sins, but they were not still sinning. John would have agreed with Paul when he wrote, "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." John himself told the congregation of the Lord that "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us" (1Jn. 1:10). Yes, we all have sinned, and because of that, we all have sins that are ours, but that fact does not demand the conclusion that we are all still sinning.
The sins you have committed are yours, not mine. The sins I committed as a foolish young man are mine, nobody else's. We all have sins that we once committed. But where is the Biblical demand that we should confess that we are all still sinning? Whoever is still sinning is of the devil, as John said, but if we are all still sinning, then who are the people to whom John was speaking when he said, "Ye are of God, little children . . ." (1Jn. 4:4). "Ye" cannot be "of God" if ye are still sinning because if "ye" are still sinning, then "ye" are of the devil, according to John. The typical interpretation of 1John 1:8 requires that no one on earth is "of God" because no one can cease from sinning, but Peter taught us that children of God who have turned from righteousness and cannot cease from sin have been cursed by the Father (2Pet. 2:14). Can we really believe that all of God's children are cursed? We must conclude that, if none of us can cease from sin.
The real issue, my dear friends, is not whether we have sins or not; we all do have them. I do not question that. The issue is, "Where are the sins that are yours?" Paul said that some men's sins go before them; that is, they are confessed and repented of. Other men's sins, Paul continued, follow them to the Judgment of God (1Tim. 5:24). That is to say, some men have not repented of their sins and have not been cleansed from them by the blood of Jesus, and when they meet God on the Day of Judgment, their sins will also come up at the Judgment to be accounted for.
Where are your sins? Have you confessed them to God and been cleansed from them by the washing of the holy Ghost baptism (Tit. 3:5)? If so, your sins have gone on before you, to be blotted out before you stand before Christ in the Day of God's wrath. Even so, they are still your sins; nobody else committed those sins for you. They are still yours even if you have been forgiven for committing them. Likewise, sins that men have committed and have not repented of are theirs. The difference is only that the sins not confessed and forsaken are still following the sinner to the Judgment.
When David sinned in the matter of Bath-sheba, his conscience bothered him day and night. The tormented king finally cried out a heart-felt confession to God, saying,"My sin is ever before me!" This is the heart's cry of every child of God who loves righteousness and peace. He cannot rest at night because the footsteps of sins following him to the Judgment Seat of Christ fill him with the terror of God.; he must confess his transgression to God and be forgiven.
You have sins, and I have sins. Only a stubborn and proud man would even attempt to deny that fact. Jesus came to wash us from the stains of our past sins, but not only to do that. He also came to save us by his strength from committing any more sins. That done, we can make our boast in his strength, not our own, as the apostle said, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1Cor. 1:31).
The misinterpretation of 1John 1:8 is just a small part of Satan's cruel campaign to discourage the children of God from serving their Father acceptably in true holiness. It is designed to rob you of faith in God's power to save from the dominion of sin. Do not be intimidated, my dear brother, by Christian ministers who reject your confession of living a godly life. They will sarcastically ask, "So, you think you can live without sin?", as if to do that were an evil thing. But they do not believe in the power of Jesus to save from sin because he is not saving them from sinning. They are merely teaching what they have experienced themselves. Poor, blind men, who proclaim liberty to others and "they themselves are the servants of corruption" (2Pet. 2:19). Who wants their gospel of hopeless bondage to wickedness?
Living without sin is not difficult when we submit ourselves to God. The Bible says that "the way of the transgressor is hard", not the way of the upright. Quite the contrary; Jesus said, "My yoke is easy, and my burden light."
Jesus' yoke is easy, not because God requires nothing of us, but because he demands sinless living, and then, by his Spirit lives for us, so that we can be sinless. Paul said, "The life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God" and "I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me." And, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me." Are we to understand Paul's last statement here to mean, "I can do all things through Christ except cease from sin"? The life of a child of God is a life of peace and victory over sin, not one of bondage and constant frustration.
If you are still sinning, why don't you get out of the way and let Christ live in you? If you are not now sinning, it can only be because the sinless One already dwells in your heart, living your life for you and letting you rest from your own opinions and labors.
The Lord lamented through the ancient prophet Jeremiah that His people had "forgotten their resting place" (Jer. 50:6). How much more must He be grieved today at the teaching of sin to God's children, the teaching that would steal their faith in His saving power so that they can never rest? Be courageous, dear child of God! Trust in His care for you and withstand the tide of error that vainly beats against the simple truth of Christ, who reminded us of the precious invitation of God to man: "Be ye holy, for I am holy."