The Sin Question

Were the disciples given power to absolve sins, otherwise what is meant in John 20:23: — ‘‘Whosesoever sins ye remit; they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained’’?

(1) The means by which sins are remitted is faith in the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:14- 18; John 1:12; Acts 16:31; 1 Cor. 15:1-4). Instrumentally, this saving truth was committed to the church to be preached in all the world to every creature; (2) There is no other way by which sinful humanity can be saved; (3) Any failure on the part of the church to carry out this trust leaves sinners without a knowledge of salvation. The best inspired interpretation of our Lord’s meaning in this passage is in Romans 10:11-17. In other words, it is as if our Lord said, “Now I have committed unto you the way of salvation for the remission of sins. Pass it on, otherwise men will remain in their sins, and you will be responsible.”

Does 2 Corinthians 5:21, ‘‘made him to be sin,”’ justify the thought that Christ was “blackened with imputed sin’’?

The Authorized Version rendering of 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him,” gives the sense of the original more clearly than the Revised Version, but neither the original nor the English translation warrant the use of such expressions as you quote: “Blackened with imputed sin,’ etc. These are the rhetorical extravagances of the earlier theological controversialists. The inspired language concerning the vicarious sacrifice is always most restrained and reverent. “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (lit. “Jehovah hath caused all our iniquities to meet on himself.” Isaiah 53:6); “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” Matthew 26:28; “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”’ 1 Peter 2:24; “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 8:18.

What does it mean to “sin wilfully’? (Hebrews
10:26)?

Sinning wilfully is the conscious doing of a forbidden act. Hebrews 10:26 might be paraphrased, “For, if we consciously do a forbidden act after that we have received the knowledge of the truth (that the sacrifice of Christ has “taken away’ the efficacy of the Old Testament sacrifices) there remaineth no other (the former resource for a sinning Hebrew, that is, the old Levitical sacrifice) sacrifice for sin; it is now Christ, or judgment.

Does carnality apply to Christians?

Yes, there are many saved yet carnal believers (see 1 Cor. 3:1). These Corinthians were carnal, but nevertheless they were “in Christ,” though babes — undeveloped. In fact, none of us but sometimes give evidence of carnality — sometimes puffed up with success, cast down with failure, contentious, easily offended, or self-satisfied, self-righteous — who does not sometimes yield, when not filled with the Spirit, to these carnalities? The only remedy is to keep constantly filled with the Holy Spirit.

Does not the word “‘perfect” in the New Testament mean sinlessness? The word “perfect,” as used in the New Testament has the idea, not so much of sinlessness as of maturity, full growth, “perfect” completion. There are “babes’’ (1 Cor. 3:1, 2), and full grown ones — mature believers. In Hebrews 10:14 we see our standing in Christ is complete. In Hebrews 6:1 we are exhorted to go on unto completeness in the doctrines of Christ, not ever going back to foundational and elementary things, but on to the more complete, more developed doctrines of which Hebrews is so full. Again, in Philippians 3:12 Paul is thinking of his attainment of, or a complete apprehension of, that for which Christ had apprehended — laid hold of him, and so he presses on toward the prize of the upward calling of God, beginning in regeneration and ending in glory; and then he goes on to exhort those who have, like himself, attained Christian maturity (Phil. 3:13; 1 Cor. 2:6; 14:20), still to press onward to the goal.

What is it to sin against the body (1 Cor. 6:18)?

A sin against the body, such as adultery, or intemperance, or over-indulgence of any kind that injures the body, is a defilement of the temple of God.

The point is that Christ’s offering “once for all’’ has so taken the place of the old offerings that they no longer have any efficacy, and the wilful sinner who has received the knowledge of that truth is shut up to the alternative of receiving Christ as his sin offering or of waiting fearfully for judgment.

What are “presumptuous sins” and what is “the
great transgression”? (Psalms 19:13)?

“Presumptuous sins’ are, according to the literal meaning of the Hebrew word translated “presumptuous,” sins due to pride.

“The great transgression” (same verse) is correctly rendered in the Revised Version without the article, ‘““And I shall be clear from great transgression.”

What is the unpardonable sin?

The unpardonable sin, referred to in Matthew 12:24-32, and again mentioned in 1 John 5:16 as the “sin unto death,” is ascribing to Satanic power, rather than to that of the Holy Spirit, the works of Christ.

There are some who teach that the unpardonable sin is unbelief, but this is not scriptural, for pardon full and free is ready for the unbeliever up to the very hour of his death: John 8:16; 5:40; 6:37; Luke 23:43. The company before the great white throne are not there because their sins were unpardonable, except in the rare cases where Matthew 12:31 applies, but because they rejected the pardon for sin which God provided in His Son. Therefore it is unscriptural and also a misrepresentation of the character of God to say that unbelief is the unpardonable sin. It is rather blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, as the context of Matthew 12:31 makes clear.

I have been taught that all children are born in Christ. Is this scriptural?

There is no scriptural authority for saying that “all children are born in Christ’ — or in fact, any children, however godly their parents may be. Psalm 51:5 applies not only to the old dispensation, but to the whole race. This is part of the curse of the sin of our first parents (Rom. 5:18). To be “born in Christ’ requires faith in Him as a Saviour from sin (Acts 16:31) and acceptance of Him (John 1:12). The last passage makes it clear that belief alone makes one eligible to sonship. From such passages as Isaiah 54:18; Acts 2:39; Acts 11:14, the natural inference is that the children of believing parents will be brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” and that when they too come to “believe” and “receive” they will be taken into the body of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Spirit,