 The Neo-Pharisees message is one of condemnation – it brings you into guilt. They wrongly call this guilt ‘the conviction of the spirit’ when indeed the accuser of the brethren is not the Sprit of God!
Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit“has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”. Fellow Believer, this is not you! He convicts the world of sin.
How do we know that Jesus is not referring to believers? Continue reading within the context of the verse:
“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:7-11)
Let’s break it on down again… How do we know that this “conviction” does not apply to you? Because He says “of sin, because they do not believe in Me;" Do you believe in Jesus?
This conviction only applies to those who do not believe in Jesus. So then, you may only apply this verse to your situation if you do not believe in Jesus.
So, What about sin; where does sin fit this picture?
Sin, according to the Apostle John, is the transgression of the law:
“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4)
As we have already seen, we are no longer under the law but under grace:
“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)
“What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator” (Galatians 3:19)
The Purpose of the Law has always been to reveal our sin and our need for Christ. This purpose continued until “the Seed should come to whom the promise was made”. The Seed – Jesus has come!
Jesus Himself said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:17, 18) Thank God all has been fulfilled! Jesus has fulfilled the law!
Sin is the transgression of the law but where there is no law there is no transgression:
“For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Romans 4:14-16)
The fact of the matter is that sin is not charged to your account as a believer.
“For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law” (Romans 5:13)
But if sin is no longer charged to our account (imputed) then wouldn’t we just go on sinning? No. Paul addressed this question too:
“And why not say, “Let us do evil that good may come”?—as we are slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say. Their condemnation is just”. (Romans 3:8)
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2)
We do not teach that sin is nonexistent; we teach that sin is not charged by God to our account because Jesus has become the full satisfaction of the law fulfilling both the law and the prophets. The present Neo-pharisaic teaching that sin separates one from God is true of the Old Testament (Isaiah 59:1) but is no longer the case in the New. Today sin becomes an issue on two levels – internally when our hearts condemn us, and laterally between one another.
So then, what if we do sin? What shall we do if our heart condemns us knowing we have transgressed the law and hurt another or hurt ourselves by doing so?
The New Testament makes provision for this too:
“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 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. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (1John 1:5-2:2)
My dear friends, let us be very clear; we do not say that we do not have sin and we do not say that we have not sinned; in fact we believe to the contrary. What we do say is that the sin we might commit is no longer charged by God to our account.
The sins we commit toward one another are also addressed elsewhere in the scripture.
The bottom line today is that Jesus is the propitiation for our sins; they are covered by His shed blood on the mercy seat.
He died for our sins, was raised for our justification, and ever lives to make intercession for us.
The modern Neo-Pharisaic belief that sin breaks our fellowship with God is a despite to the Spirit of Grace.
We do not teach that grace is a license to sin but we teach that grace enables us to have dominion over our sin.
Many today have been taught that confession cleanses us from sin. But we believe that Jesus Christ the Righteous, (our advocate, whose blood speaks better things than that of Abel,) provides both forgiveness and cleansing from sin.
The scripture reveals the excesses of those who hear this message wrongly saying:
“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4)
Another bible version states it this way:
“For certain men whose condemnation was written aboutlong ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” (NIV)
Men who would use this grace as a cloak to commit lewdness deny our Lord. We do not turn this wonderful grace into lewdness or an occasion for the flesh. Instead we take this grace and come boldly into the presence of the Father knowing that our hearts have been sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water – we come boldly to the throne of grace! We come to Him knowing that the blood of Jesus was sufficient and that we have nothing we can add to it. We enter the Holiest of All, not having our own righteousness but the righteousness that comes from God by faith.
So then, Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid!
“Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:6-13)
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