The Resurrection is Past: Saying We have no Sin

[robert derrick]

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

This Scripture is speaking to all freshly washed and sanctified saints, now walking in the eternal life of fellowship and light of Christ, and not in the death and darkness of sins and trespasses.

Such saints, as John says of himself, are not too think too highly of themselves, that we think we have no more sin to resist from the devil: That we are no longer, nor can be, tempted at all to sin with the devil against God.

Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect.

Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

The saints pure in heart, clean in conscience, and being preserved in spirit and soul and body blameless on earth, will only in the resurrection of the body, will our spirit, mind, and body be perfected.

Our hearts are made wholly perfect and single towards God in Christ Jesus, but our spirits are only quickened with renewed minds, to now fight the good fight of faith in Jesus, with divine power to resist and take no thought to heart for any and all fiery darts of unwanted, unrighteous, and vain imagination from the devil.

Our minds must be continually renewed and cleansed from any such thoughts appearing to tempt us to lust for the world, and sin against God whether in word or deed.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

And our spirits by Christ, are quickened with power of God to swiftly do so.

The ongoing endurance of the saints is simply to continue enduring such tempting thoughts, which will not end while still being in mortal flesh, even as Jesus did endure all such unrighteous thoughts in the days of His flesh.

The fact that they still appear in our renewed minds, is only proof that are spirits are not yet made perfect, and the fact that they are not cast down at once, as in the twinkling of the eye, does not mean the saints are still sinning and enemies of God in their minds:

And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled.

Being tempted with tempting thoughts in the mind, is not being the enemies of God that do the wicked works, that all men can be tempted to do by lusting from the heart and so enticed of the devil.

Being the flesh and bones of Jesus on earth today, is to endure the tempting thoughts of all men in flesh, but without sinning, and that enduring good fight is unto the end, at the blessed resurrection and perfecting of our spirits, minds, and bodies.

The warning of Scripture in 1 John 1, is to not think we have become so perfect in our enduring, that the devil doesn't even bother knocking at our door any longer.

Jesus was tempted in all points as all men are, including while on the cross to revile them that were reviling and wagging their tongues at him hanging there.

 

[robert derrick]

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.

While having tempting thoughts are neither good nor wanted, because they are heaviness of mind, Scripture does say that we are blessed to endure such temptation, and should rejoice when overcoming temptation, especially when in manifold points, for then we are truly walking righteously like Jesus, who endured all points of temptation, yet without sinning by them.

The proof that we love God is not by being tempted, which only proves we have not arrived in the resurrection of the body, but is by overcoming and casting aside all such tempting thoughts by our quickened spirit, so soon as they appear in our renewed and cleansed mind.

That is the blessed peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, for them that today take no tempting thought whatsoever to heart and lust for them.

 

[robert derrick]

But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

We first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, by first resisting and being rid of any unwanted thought or unrighteous imagination from our minds, so soon as they do appear from the devil to tempt us away from walking in the fellowship and light and kingdom of Christ within us.

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

Those who think they have arrived with perfected mind and spiritual bodies in heavenly places, think those heavenly places we sit in are high above the earth in heaven.

The heveanly places the saints sit in now, is where Jesus now is in His kingdom and on His throne within us, within our souls that remain still within our earthen vessels on earth:

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

We are translated, not transported, from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. Our souls are converted from walking in darkness with the flesh on earth, to walking in the light bodily on earth.

And so, by overcoming any temptation of thought and imagination in this life, we are being preserved by knowing Jesus and the power of His resurrection in spirit, soul, and body on this present earth:

And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Thinking we have arrived in our own perfected heavenly place, is not the soundness of mind of knowing we are still, for now, in His heavenly kingdom within us, but only if we are now still fighting the good fight of faith against being tempted to sin against Him on earth.