It has been my lot to find out, first hand, the results of those that teach sinless perfection in the flesh; that God changes our sinful flesh nature. The result of this teaching causes many to give up hope and turn away from Jesus.
When I was about 25 years old I worked for a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. One night when I was working the third shift the security guard came and told me that a man was at the gate wanting to talk to me.
It was a fellow worker at the plant who worked on the first shift and he was very distraught about Christianity. He said he wanted to be a Christian but it just didn't seem to work for him because he didn‘t feel he had changed.
I found that he had been talking to some Christians who were telling him that if he was a Christian he would stop sinning; that he would be changed. He wanted to stop sinning but said he couldn't because he still had those fleeting thoughts of sin in his mind and, of course he was told that if you think it you have done it. He wanted to know what I believed about it.
I told him that Jesus came to save those that could not save themselves and keep the Law of Moses; to do for them what they could not do for themselves, that to believe in Jesus is to believe in what He did on the cross and to believe and trust that it has saved you.
I also told him that I still sin (I was being honest) and that everyone sins. He said what he had been told by other Christians, that if he sinned he was not a Christian and that I must not be one either since I said I still sinned. A week later this young man killed himself.
It is obvious that this young man had emotional problems. It is also obvious that the Holy Spirit was convicting him of his sins so that he would turn to Jesus. But I saw, first hand, what the message of “”“change“”” does to those that are seeking to be a Christian. To me it is a self righteous message. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matt. 23: 11 13.
Matt 23:11 13 (NKJ)
11 "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
As for me if I show anything to the world let it be the love of Jesus Christ for mankind and what He has done on the cross for all that will place their belief and trust (faith) in Him. Let me show where I have placed my faith.
Now if anyone wishes to say that I should have told him I no longer sin in the flesh because God has changed me, then I would be bearing false witness just as those that did it to him and those that do it today. The only change for a child of God is that Jesus has imputed righteousness to their Spirit by paying for all their sins of the flesh on a cross. The sinful nature of the flesh remains.
Rom 7:24 25
4 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
NKJV
1 John 1:8 (NKJ)
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
I firmly believe that when David wrote Psalms 23:4 the words “shadow of death” meant the judgment for his own sins of the flesh which he continued to do.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
When I was about 25 years old I worked for a factory in Chattanooga, Tennessee. One night when I was working the third shift the security guard came and told me that a man was at the gate wanting to talk to me.
It was a fellow worker at the plant who worked on the first shift and he was very distraught about Christianity. He said he wanted to be a Christian but it just didn't seem to work for him because he didn‘t feel he had changed.
I found that he had been talking to some Christians who were telling him that if he was a Christian he would stop sinning; that he would be changed. He wanted to stop sinning but said he couldn't because he still had those fleeting thoughts of sin in his mind and, of course he was told that if you think it you have done it. He wanted to know what I believed about it.
I told him that Jesus came to save those that could not save themselves and keep the Law of Moses; to do for them what they could not do for themselves, that to believe in Jesus is to believe in what He did on the cross and to believe and trust that it has saved you.
I also told him that I still sin (I was being honest) and that everyone sins. He said what he had been told by other Christians, that if he sinned he was not a Christian and that I must not be one either since I said I still sinned. A week later this young man killed himself.
It is obvious that this young man had emotional problems. It is also obvious that the Holy Spirit was convicting him of his sins so that he would turn to Jesus. But I saw, first hand, what the message of “”“change“”” does to those that are seeking to be a Christian. To me it is a self righteous message. It reminds me of what Jesus said in Matt. 23: 11 13.
Matt 23:11 13 (NKJ)
11 "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.
12 "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
As for me if I show anything to the world let it be the love of Jesus Christ for mankind and what He has done on the cross for all that will place their belief and trust (faith) in Him. Let me show where I have placed my faith.
Now if anyone wishes to say that I should have told him I no longer sin in the flesh because God has changed me, then I would be bearing false witness just as those that did it to him and those that do it today. The only change for a child of God is that Jesus has imputed righteousness to their Spirit by paying for all their sins of the flesh on a cross. The sinful nature of the flesh remains.
Rom 7:24 25
4 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
25 I thank God — through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
NKJV
1 John 1:8 (NKJ)
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
I firmly believe that when David wrote Psalms 23:4 the words “shadow of death” meant the judgment for his own sins of the flesh which he continued to do.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
