The Marks of a True Believer

Here are the notes from the slides of last night's lesson along with the video that we started class with and my notes for Part 2: The Christian and Sin

Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Matthew 7:21-23

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

2 Corinthians 13:5

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

1 John 5:13

Question 1: Do you enjoy being with other believers?

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

Question 2: Do you recognize your sinful state?

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 John 1:8

Question 3: Do you keep His commandments?

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:

1 John 2:3-5

Question 4: Do you love the world?

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

1 John 2:15

Question 5: Do you know who Jesus is?

No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

1 John 2:23

Question 6: Do you look forward to His return?

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

1 John 3:2

Question 7: Do you love other Christians?

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

1 John 3:14

Question 8: Do you love to hear God’s word proclaimed?

We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

1 John 4:6

Question 9: Do you share your faith?

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

1 John 4:15

Question 10: Do you practice sin?

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 3:8

Part 2

The Christian and Sin

In 1 John 1:8 we see the importance of recognizing our sinfulness, and that without this recognition we are not able to come to the Savior. Now we are going to look at the last two verses in chapter one and see what we are to do when we have recognized and acknowledged our sinfulness, repented and come to God, and we then discover that we are still living in a body of flesh that struggles with sin.

Before we get into these verses from First John we have to ask a question, do Christians sin? There are many who would say no, but that is not what we see in the Scriptures. What I want to do here is show that as a follower of Jesus Christ who still lives in a fallen world we still have to deal on a daily (hourly?) basis with the presence of sin. After that I want to look at what John said that we are to do about it.

Do Christians still sin?

To answer this question we need to look at what the Bible teaches about the believer and sin. Since we have already spent some time in Galatians I want to begin to answer this question by looking at what the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians in chapter six of that letter:

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.

Galatians 6:1

There are two important things to point out in this verse: first, in the context of this verse Paul is writing to those who are walking by the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25) in other words, Christians. It is to this audience then that Paul then writes, "if anyone is caught in any transgression" indicating that it is possible for a Christian to fall into sin. The second thing we see here is Paul warning the Christians that he is writing to that they are to proceed with caution when it comes to restoring a sinning brother or sister. Why, because they too can be tempted to fall into the same sin. If it were not possible for a Christian to sin then Paul, writing through the power of the Holy Spirit, would not have given us this warning.

This verse in Galatians is not the only place where we find Christians struggling with sin (it is always dangerous to try and build a theology on only one passage or verse), we can also see this all taught throughout the Bible, so let’s look at two more passages that teach this.

In Romans 7 the apostle Paul writes:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Romans 7:21-23

Here in Romans chapter seven Paul is letting us know, in no uncertain terms, that even as an apostle who loves the law of God and wants to carry it out, he still finds himself doing the very things that he hates. Then in verses 21-23 he gives us the reason; here he tells us that there is still a sin nature that dwells within him; he actually says that it is waging a war and that he is a captive to the law of sin that still resides in his body. In writing on this passage Dr. MacArthur says:

The continuing presence of evil in a believer’s life is so universal that Paul refers to it not as an uncommon thing but as such a common reality as to be called a continually operating spiritual principle. Lingering sin does battle with every good thing a believer desires to do, every good thought, every good intention, every good motive, every good word, every good deed.

The Lord warned Cain when he became angry that Abel’s sacrifice was accepted but his own was not: “Sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.” Sin continues to crouch at the door, even of believers, in order to lead people into disobedience.

I want to look at one last passage on this subject before we move on. In John chapter 13 we read the account of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. This event took place on the last night that Jesus spent with His disciples before His betrayal and crucifixion. In this chapter we read that as they were celebrating the Passover together Jesus laid aside his garments, put a towel around His waist, and took a basin of water and began to wash the disciple’s feet.

When Jesus came to Peter, Peter protested, and Jesus replied: “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” (John 13:8). Then Peter said, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” (verse 9). Jesus then answered Peter with these words:

The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean..."

John 13:10a

Why did Jesus say this? In addition to showing us that we are to all serve one another with humility He was also making the point that when we come to faith in Him and repent of our sin our salvation is secure, but we still get dirty from walking around in this world and need to have our feet washed. There is no need to be re-saved every time we commit a sin, we simply need to come back to the cross and let Jesus wash our feet.

There is a lot more that could be said on this topic, but for the sake of time let's move on to the next question: How does John say that the believer is to respond to sin?

This brings us to one of the most well known verses in the Bible, 1 John 1:9, which says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and then cleanse us from all unrighteousness." This verse brings up at least 3 more questions that we must deal with:

1. What does it mean to confess our sins? 
2. Why does John say that God is "faithful and just" when He forgives us? 
3. What does it mean that He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness?

Let's take these one at a time:

What does John mean when he says we are to confess our sins?

Is confession just saying, "I sinned, I'm sorry." or is there something more involved? The Greek word used here is the word homologéō, which is a compound of two Greek words: homoú, which means together with and légō, which means to say. 

Kenneth Wuest writes on this words use here in this passage in his work Wuest’s Word Studies in the Greek New Testament; he says:

Confession of sin on the part of the saint means therefore to say the same thing that God does about that sin, to agree with God as to all the implication of that sin as it relates to the Christian who commits it and to a holy God against whom it is committed. That includes the saint’s hatred of that sin, his sense of guilt because of it, his contrition because of it, the determination to put it out of his life and never to do that thing again. This is what confession of sin means here. The English word “confess” means “to admit the truth of an accusation, to own up to the fact that one is guilty of having committed the sin.” But the Greek word means far more than that, as was shown above.

So what John is telling us here is that confession is not merely saying that you are sorry, it is acknowledging openly to God what we have done and agreeing with Him (saying the same thing) that what we have done was sinful. For example, according to the definition of the word homologéō if you have just realized, for instance, that you have been gossiping about someone and that you need to confess it to God you would say something like this:

I have sinned Father. I have been gossiping about ... and Your word makes it clear that gossiping is a sin and that it is wrong. I agree with what you say and I confess that what I have done is a sin. I repent of this and will not do it again.

Confession is not simply saying that you are sorry; that is obviously involved, but as we have seen confession involves much more than that.

So does this mean that in order to receive forgiveness for our sins we need to confess every single sin we commit and that if we miss one it will not be forgiven? To answer that question I am again going to quote John MacArthur:

Rather than focusing on confession for every single sin as necessary, John has especially in mind here a settled recognition and acknowledgment that one is a sinner in need of cleansing and forgiveness (Eph. 4:32; Col. 2:13).

This ties directly back to the verses that we looked at in the Sermon on the Mount and shows us once again that the heart and the mindset of the genuine Christian is that of one who sees himself as poor in spirit and broken over his sin.

Before we move on there is one more thing that needs to be pointed out here, and it is summed up quite well in the Reformation Study Bible:

God’s forgiveness is given as soon as we admit our need of it, not on the basis of any acts we have done to earn it, but solely because of His grace. The free gift of forgiveness carries with it purification from unrighteousness. God accepts us as righteous because He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. That is, the very righteousness of Christ our sin-bearer is reckoned to our account.

Why does John say that God is "faithful and just" when He forgives us?

Verse nine then goes on to say that when we do confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive our sins, which brings us to our next question: Why does John say that God is "faithful and just" when he forgives us?

To answer this question we only have to go to the book of Isaiah and read what was prophetically written about the death of the Messiah (and I really like the way this verse is translated in the HCSB, so I am going to quote it from there); Isaiah wrote:

But He was pierced because of our transgressions,

crushed because of our iniquities;

punishment for our peace was on Him,

and we are healed by His wounds.

We all went astray like sheep;

we all have turned to our own way;

and the LORD has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:5-6 (HCSB)

According to this verse when Jesus died on the cross He paid the penalty for our sin, so it is just for God to forgive us not because we deserve to be forgiven, but because the penalty for our sin has already been paid. Our faithful God is justified in forgiving us simply because the debt of our sin has already been paid, and to require another payment for our sin beyond what His Son has already paid would be unjust because it would be like a judge requiring a criminal to pay again a fine that has already been paid in full. This is known as the doctrine of Penal Substitution, and in writing on this subject in his book The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness, John MacArthur wrote:

Here is the true doctrine of the Atonement as taught in Scripture: Christ’s death was a substitution for sinners. God imputed the guilt of their transgressions to Christ and then punished Him for it. Christ’s righteousness is also imputed to those who believe…

The Atonement was a full payment of the price of sins, to satisfy both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sins without compromising His own holy standard.

And this is why John then goes on to say that when we confess our sins He cleanses us from all unrighteousness; which brings us to our next question:

What does it mean that He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness?

John has already told us (1 John 1:8) that we are not to deceive ourselves by thinking that we are sinless, and he told us that we are to confess our sins to God. Now he is going to show us the wonderful truth that as we confess to God every sin of which we are aware, that because He is faithful and just, and because Jesus has already paid the penalty for our sin with His blood, that God will forgive not only the sins that we know of and confess to Him, but He will forgive ALL of our sins – He will cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness!

We must remember here that the context of this chapter, and therefore this promise, is that of fellowship with God and with each other. So on the one hand what we see here is the absolute promise that the confession of our sins results in the forgiveness of our sins and our cleansing from all unrighteousness, but we also need to remember that the Bible identifies only one kind of person – sinners – and that all sinners are in one of two classes: forgiven; or unforgiven. Therefore when we initially saw ourselves as the sinful person we are, repented of that sin, and placed our faith in the completed work of Jesus on the cross as payment in full for our sin we were forgiven for all sin, past, present, and future. So with that in mind I think that John may actually have something more in mind here than what we see on the surface and that has to do with what he has been talking about throughout this chapter; fellowship with God and fellowship with each other. William MacDonald explains it this way:

The forgiveness John speaks about here is parental, not judicial. Judicial forgiveness means forgiveness from the penalty of sins, which the sinner receives when he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It is called judicial because it is granted by God acting as Judge. But what about sins which a person commits after conversion? As far as the penalty is concerned, the price has already been paid by the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary. But as far as fellowship in the family of God is concerned, the sinning saint needs parental forgiveness, that is, the forgiveness of His Father. He obtains it by confessing his sin. We need judicial forgiveness only once; that takes care of the penalty of all our sins—past, present, and future. But we need parental forgiveness throughout our Christian life.

From this we can clearly see the correlation between confession and fellowship.

John then wraps up this chapter in verse ten where he once again reminds us that we have all sinned. He goes even further this time and says that those who deny this fact are actually calling God a liar.

Why is claiming to be without sin the same as calling God a liar? It is because the Bible is full of references to the fact that we are all sinners. And since the Bible is the very words of God, to say otherwise is to say that God does not tell the truth. This is not only a jab against His character it is actually blasphemy (which is, in itself, a sin and shows who the liar really is).

So what John has told us here is that we are to come into the light and when we do we will have fellowship with God and the blood of His Son Jesus will cleanse us from all sin. However, we are not to presume that we are now perfect; we still live in a fallen world and we will get dirty from walking around in it. And when that happens we are to confess our sins to God – who will forgive us – and not deny that they happened, because it is only when we see God for who He is, see ourselves as we really are, and come into the light that we will experience the fullness of joy that John told us could be ours in verse four.