Study in Sin Consciousness

STUDY IN SIN CONSCIOUSNESS

TO Sin Consciousness can be traced the reason for practically every spiritual failure. It destroys faith. It destroys the initiative in the heart. It gives to man an inferiority complex. He is afraid of God. He is afraid of himself. He is ever searching to find someone that can pray the prayer of faith for him. He has no sense of his own legal right to stand in the Father’s presence without condemnation.

The inferiority complex that is bred of Sin Consciousness is faced everywhere in the church. It has been said to me many times, “If I could get rid of this Sin Consciousness, I’d get my healing. I’d be a power for God, but I can’t get rid of it.” Has God provided a Redemption that cures this sin disease? I am sure He has. If He hasn’t planned to take it out of man during his earth walk, man can never stand right before God because Redemption works only in this age.
God has made provision to make a New Creation. He has planned to impart His own nature to him-taking out the old sin nature and replacing it with His own nature. This will destroy Sin Consciousness. Few theologians have recognised the fact that Sin Consciousness is the parent of practically all human religions. Man has sought to heal this awful disease. The sense of unworthiness destroys faith, robs us of our peace of mind, makes ineffectual the most earnest and zealous prayer life.

It robs us of all fellowship and communion with the Father. Our theologians since Luther have never found a cure for this condition. The Holiness people have attempted bravely to meet this issue, but so far they have never been able to permanently cure a patient.
Man’s cure has been repentance of sins, sorrow for sins, and deep agony in prayer.
Others have tried to quiet their consciences by going to church, doing penance, fasting, giving money, saying prayers, doing good deeds, giving up pleasures, confessing their sins, fighting bad habits, putting themselves under discipline of self-denial and self-abasement, by neglecting the body. Some have even gone so far as to lacerate their bodies. Others have taken long pilgrimages. All these methods have been tried. Every earnest spirit has attempted some of them.

A new movement has just arisen in which men and women are finding temporary relief in confessing their sins to one another. Confessing sins may bring temporary relief from the pressure that is upon them, but no works of any kind whether they be works of self-abnegation, repentance, penance, saying of prayers, or self-denial can ever rid the heart of Sin Consciousness.

There are two kinds of Sin Consciousness. One is the man who has never been Born Again. The other is the undeveloped believer-one who has never grown beyond the state of babyhood, doesn’t know his rights and privileges in Christ. Where is the difficulty? It is this. The natural man is a sinner, but he is more than that. In 2 Cor. 6:14 he is called “iniquity.” In other places, he is called “sin”. He is more than a transgressor. He is more than a violator of the law.

He is by nature a child of wrath. He is spiritually dead. He is united with Satan as the believer is united with God. The believer has become a partaker of God’s nature, the natural man is a partaker of Satan’s nature. The problem is: How can God legally deal with the sin problem and the sins problem? How can He deal with this Satanic nature that is in man?

God’s Cure

God has wrought a Redemption that covers every phase of man’s need, perfectly restores his fellowship with the Father so that there is no sense of guilt or sin, no memory of past wrong-doing. The believer stands complete in Christ. He has partaken of the fullness of God in Christ. John 1:16 “For of his fullness have we all received, and grace upon grace.” If you read Hebrews 10:1-19 carefully, you will see that under the First Covenant, there was a remembrance made of sins year by year, but in the New Covenant a man who has accepted Jesus Christ loses the sense of sin and in its place receives a sense of his oneness and fellowship with the Father.

Col. 1:13-14, “Who delivered us out of the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love; in whom we have our redemption, the remission of our sins.” Notice in this Scripture that He “delivered us out of the authority of darkness”-that is Satan’s dominion-and at the same time “translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love.”

There are four facts here. First, we are delivered out of Satan’s dominion. Second, we are born into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The third is, “In whom we have our redemption.” That is a Redemption from Satan’s dominion. Satan has no legal right to reign over the man who has accepted Christ as his Saviour. That man has been delivered out of Satan’s dominion, Satan’s family, Satan’s authority. He has been born into the family of God, the kingdom of the Son of His love.

When this was done the Redemptive work that Christ wrought became a reality. Fourth, He not only redeems us out of Satan’s dominion, but there is also a remission of our sins.
He redeems us.
He recreates us.
He delivers us out of Satan’s authority.
He remits all that we have ever done.