The Jesus Prayer Part 15 - Personal Sin

James 1:14-15
But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

1John 1:8-9
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In my last post, I discussed the fallen nature in which we are all born subject to sin and death because of the transgression of our first parents. At some point in our lives, we all go from simply inheriting the effects of sin to rightfully deserving the effects of sin by committing our own sins. In this post I will discuss how personal sin and its effects are described, how we receive the forgiveness of our sins, and how we are to live in accordance with that forgiveness.

The apostle John defines sin as "the transgression of the law" and James writes "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill.". We are also told that "to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin" and that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin". Our sins are described as "an heavy burden", wounds that "stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness", and "a loathsome disease". We are told that our sins harden our hearts, have dominion over us, give us "disquietness of heart", make us "not able to look up", cause our hearts and strength to fail, and cause affliction and pain. David asks the Lord to "heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee". We are told that "every man shall be put to death for his own sin", "transgressors shall be destroyed together", "workers of iniquity shall be scattered", and that the wicked will "perish at the presence of God".

We know that we cannot hide our sins from God becuase it is written "Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.". It is also written "If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared." and "But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.". How is it that having injured ourselves with our sins, we are able to find healing simply by not causing further injury? It is only because Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people" as it is written "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." and that Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification". When asked how to respond to the message of Christ's death and resurrection, Peter told the people to "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins". Paul writes that we are "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;" and it is written in Isaiah "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.". And when we fall to temptation after having been baptized into Christ and His Church, we are to seek his forgiveness from Him in His Church. We are to follow the example of David who while seeking forgiveness from the Lord also confessed his sin to the prophet Nathan. James tells us to confess our faults one to another, and pray one for another, that we may be healed. Christ told His apostles that "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained" which we see exercised by the apostle Paul  when he writes to the Corinthians "To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ".

How are we to act in response to the forgiveness we receive in Christ? We are told to "walk in newness of life" and to "not serve sin". We are to yeild our "members as instruments of righteousness unto God". We are told "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.". We are to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We are told to give thanks in all things and to pray without ceasing. We are to "have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life." It is only fitting that we should love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself. Christ tells us not to judge because we will be judged by how we judge others and that we must forgive others in order to be forgiven.

I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

The Jesus Prayer Part 14 - Original Sin

Gen 3:23-24
Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

1Cor 15:21-22
For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Part of understanding what it means for us to be sinners is to look at what is meant by Paul when he writes "by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous" and David when he writes in the Psalms "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me".

When God made Adam, Adam was made in God's own image and likeness and God placed him inside the garden of Eden and formed Eve from Adam's rib. It was man's place to be the caretaker over the garden and the animals and to live in communion with God as the source of life. God told Adam to eat from any tree in the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and warned him "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die". Being deceived by the lie from the serpent that "then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil", Adam and Eve ate from the tree. They went from looking to God as their source of life and identity to looking to the created things of this world to give them life and to make them like God. Their first reaction was to see themselves as naked and, being ashamed of what they had done, to hide from God. God told Adam "cursed is the ground for thy sake" and "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return" as the consequences of his actions and placed Adam and Eve outside of the garden. But hope for the future of mankind was given in what God told the serpent "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel", in reference to the Messiah as it is written "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage".

So now mankind, originally created for life in union with God taking care of God's creation, is seperated from God, subject to death, and looking to the created things of the world for life. This disordered nature that was brought about by the fall was transmitted to the entire human race, as it is written that Adam "begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth" and "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned".

The physical effects of the fall include being subject to corruption and death and having bodily desires disordered. There are lines in the Psalms reflecting this in our bodies such as "I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up" and "My days are like a shadow that declineth; and I am withered like grass". And Paul writes "But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members". And not just the human race, but also the creation that mankind was intended to be the head of as Paul writes "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body". We await the undoing of this at the return of Christ when "the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?" and "we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth" accomplished by the power of His own resurrection from the dead. This is why Jesus said "I am the resurrection, and the life" and it is written "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory", that Christ "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself", and "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him". Jesus, as the author and source of life, had to be crucified and raised from the dead in order to restore us to life because we are unable to do it ourselves as the Psalms say "What man is he that liveth, and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave?".

While we await the resurrection of the body, we are given the opportunity in this lifetime to have our spirit renewed in Christ by being baptized into His death and raised up in newness of life, and to repent of our sins and be conformed to Christ. It is in Christ that we are united with God as He Himself said "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" and "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me". It is in baptism that we are born from above after being buried in the likeness of Christ's death. This is why it is written  "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ", "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all", and "The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ". It is in baptism that we are received into God's covenant as His people as it is written "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead". But baptism is not the end of Christian life, but the beginning, where we are introduced to having a right relationship with God that must be continued in through daily self examination and repentence, walking in the Spirit, bearing the fruit of the Spirit, and struggling against the lusts of the flesh in order to grow and mature in becoming conformed to Christ. We are to do this in this life because it is written that all "shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation" and "For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting".

Having been buried with Christ by baptism into His death, that as He was raised from the dead so I could be made to walk in newness of life, may God let me not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of my mind.

The Jesus Prayer Part 13 - Sin as Missing the Mark

Rom 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

In the Jesus prayer, we confess ourselves to be sinners. In this post I am going to discuss the nature of sin as it is defined in Strong's concordance as "properly, to miss the mark".

So what is our mark, or rather "Who" is our mark? Our mark is nothing short of God Himself as the source of our life and very existence. God said in creation "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" and it says "male and female created he them". This makes God our model for who and what we are intended to be, and this applies to all human beings without exception. It is also written that "in him we live, and move, and have our being" bearing witness to God as the cause of our existence and that not only did He bring us into existence, but sustains our existence, which is "in Him". The farther we stray from being in God's likeness, the more we seperate ourselves form what we are intended to be and lose our life, movement, and our very existence. This is why "the wages of sin is death".

Before the coming of Christ, mankind was given two ways of recognizing our standard for living. First, all mankind is given a law written in their hearts with their conscience bearing witness. There was also the law that was delivered to the Jews by Moses, of which Paul wrote "for by the law is the knowledge of sin". Because  the law was given to help recognize God, and not just a checklist of things to do and not do, as our standard of living, James writes "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.". This is why we are told that we are given the choice to yield ourselves as servents "whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness".

With the coming of Christ, mankind received two things. First, we received the full revelation of the One who is our standard of living. Christ Himself said "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father". Paul calls Christ "the image of God" and says that we recieve "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". Not only does Christ, who is "the image of the invisible God", show us what we are meant to be as humans, but  being the Word by which God created all that exists, also has the power to restore us to the image in which we were created but had strayed from through sin. This is why we are "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren". This is why we are to "put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" in baptism.

Two other words used to describe types of sin are transgression and iniquity. Transgress means "to go contrary to" and implies the violation of a command. Iniquity means "without law". These must be understood within the context of God as the source of our very existence and standard for living, as revealed in the Person of Jesus Christ as the One who gives the law, perfectly fulfills it, and heals the damage caused by sin when we turn to Him for healing.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.