XV. Of Christ alone without Sin
Christ in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh, and in his spirit. He came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacrifice of himself once made, should take away the sins of the world; and sin (as Saint John saith) was not in him. But all we the rest, although baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
Essential?
Absolutely essential … if sinful then the blood of the new covenant is vain. If sinless then his blood ratifies it.
I couldn’t be more happy that this is back!
And yes, this article is close to being THE essential article. Beautifully said and precise. There are a lot of things we can all disagree on, but this isn’t one of them.
Essential yes–and I am so happy you are back! God bless you Reuben…
Joining the chorus of those glad to see Reuben back and posting this series again.
And yes, I also agree with this one being an essential. If someone claims to be a Christian but would have disagreement with the main tenets of this article, then I would think their faith is on quite shaky grounds.
Thank you, Reuben…and yes, this is essential.
Essential. Welcome back Rubes.
Just fininshed reading through Hebrews, where Jesus as the “better sacrifice” is all over the place. Part of His “being better” is the fact that he doesn’t need to offer sacrifices for Himself, as He is the better sacrifice.
Curious disctinction between the His flesh and Spirit. Made me think of of the various heresies about His natures, and here’s a WIki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christian_heresies
Could this be the “unity” we were looking for yesterday? 🙂
essential? yes, in agreement on this one
the ponder is that He became the sin bearer – i guess i’d ask is a grasp of this phenomena essential?
Essential.
Christ in the truth of our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin only except, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh, and in his spirit. Without this he could not have been humanity’s kinsman and being the lamb without spot makes him worthy to redeem. Thus the kinsman redeemer.
Absolutely essential! Thanks Reuben!
Nonnie, I would think so.
Thanks, Reuben, for returning this series.
This one really seems like a no brainer to me.
‘if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.’
One of the things I fell in love with when I became a Lutheran is that the first thing we do in a Divine Worship Service is confess our sins — in fact, the phrase (from Scripture) that I extracted is part of the opening liturgical confession.
I’ve learned reverence — you don’t just saunter into the presence of the Other.
I believe that the closer we are to Christ the more clearly we see the horror of our sin. As a young Christian I remember looking at some of the old timers and thought that after all their years in Christ they must feel so much liberated from their sinful nature that their walk with God must be so much easier for them to draw near The Lord , but now I am an old timer and I find that my sin is far more ugly than it was as a young Christian… I now know that my sinful nature has not been improved on in the least, as a matter of fact I have a few new sins that I didn’t have as a young man. When we are born again our new nature needs no improvement, and our old nature has actually become more dangerous than ever. The old cannot be fixed, it must be put to death, our new nature simply needs to be moved into like a fully furnished house that lacks nothing, yet I still find myself in a daily battle to resist the temptation to move back into that old garbage pit. You see our only real choice is a choice that must be continually made day by day, hour by hour, so my early impression that there was a point in our Christian that we could put on the cruse control and enjoy the view, instead of cruise control I find myself in the hardest battles ever.. The closer we get to him, the brighter is the light of His Glory, and our sin nature is exposed with such clarity. Paul went from a sinner, and later in life made the rank of the chief of sinners…. Open our eyes Lord we want to see Jesus
Lutheran, I’ve often felt that confession should at least be one of the first things that takes place in the contemporary “liturgy.” Somehow, five songs with announcements, handshake and an offering just seems to so shallow.
DMW, the sin may have grown worse, but the wisdom has exponentially increased. Thank you for sharing your perspective.
to BE so shallow…grrr
#12 – good words, listen to what this man is sharing – IMHO
DMW – we have no cruise control or auto pilot, but what is easier, i think, is – to quote you, “I believe that the closer we are to Christ the more clearly we see the horror of our sin.” because we see it through His love and grace, His provisions to get us through all this
CK, another amen here … waaay back when you’d see a motto up front in the church i attended: “The Lord is in His holy temple – let all the earth keep silent before Him.” once you’d walked into the sanctuary and the organ prelude was softly playing in the background, you found a place to sit, you bowed your head and counted your sins and blessings and whatever else you needed to do to prepare your heart for worship and learning… way back when… “sanctuary” is such a nice sounding word
Good words from Em, DMW and CK! Thank you each for the wisdom in your comments and for blessing me so.
Em, I too remember church services when I was young with a similar focus before the service. My favorite memory is of a Free Methodist congregation that was like that.
Em, I think that reverence…that awe, that attitude of entering the sanctuary before a holy God….I believe that is what many “evangelicals” are longing for in our services.
reading Lutheran’s and Nonnie’s affirmation of day when we entered into the presence of a holy God when we gathered…
then came the scorners – the ones who mocked us – claiming that we were phonies sitting there all quiet trying to look holy and all the time we were all thinking about how much we disliked the person next to us, the pastor’s sermons, the choir’s shrill sopranos, the best place to go for dinner after the service and how to beat the crowd getting there … and we bought it …
they’re always there somewhere … Luke 7:31-35
“…and all the time we were all thinking about how much we disliked the person next to us, the pastor’s sermons, the choir’s shrill sopranos, the best place to go for dinner after the service and how to beat the crowd getting there …”
What the scorners failed to admit is that they were doing the same, just not while sitting quietly. I know because I’ve been one. Lord, have mercy.
DMW, I prayed for you and am wondering how you are doing now, if you can say? You may have already and I missed it.