hardest sin there is

Jesus Teaches about Lust / 5:27–30 / 53

In his teaching about lust, Jesus literally got to the heart of the matter by explaining that sin begins in the heart. With strong language, Jesus described how his followers must rid themselves of sin. While we cannot be sinless until we finally are with Christ, we must keep a watch on our thoughts, motives, and temptations in the meantime. When we find a destructive habit or thought pattern, we need to get rid of it.

5:27–28 Again Jesus quoted one of the Ten Commandments, “Do not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). According to the Old Testament law, a person must not have sex with someone other than his or her spouse. Jesus said, “But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust in his eye has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Even the desire to have sex with someone other than your spouse is mental adultery and thus is sin. Jesus emphasized that if the act is wrong, then so is the desire to do the act. The word lust denotes the desire for an illicit relationship. To be faithful to your spouse with your body but not your mind is to break the trust so vital to a strong marriage. Jesus was condemning the deliberate and repeated filling of one’s mind with fantasies that would be evil, if acted out.

5:29–30 When Jesus said to get rid of your eye or your hand, he was speaking figuratively. He didn’t mean literally to gouge out an eye, because even a blind person can lust. But if that were the only choice, it would be better to go into eternal life with one eye or hand than to go to hell physically intact. This strong language describes how Jesus’ followers should renounce anything that would cause them to sin or turn away from the faith. Believers must get rid of any relationship, practice, or activity that leads to sin. The reason? Jesus explained that “It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” This is radical discipleship. While none of us will ever be completely free from sin until we get a new glorified body, God wants an attitude that renounces sin instead of one that holds on to it.¹

Jesus Teaches about Divorce / 5:31–32 / 54

Divorce is as hurtful and destructive today as in Jesus’ day. God intends marriage to be a lifetime commitment (Genesis 2:24). People should never consider divorce an option for solving problems or a way out of a relationship that seems dead. In these verses, Jesus was also attacking those who purposefully abused the marriage contract, using divorce to satisfy their lustful desire to marry someone else. Make sure your actions today help your marriage grow stronger rather than tear it apart.

5:31 Jesus again pointed out a law from the Old Testament that his listeners knew well. The law of Moses, in Deuteronomy 24:1–4, said that a man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a letter of divorce. The subject of divorce was hotly debated among the Jews at this time. Some religious leaders took this to mean that a man could divorce his wife for almost any reason. In a culture where husbands viewed their wives as “property,” divorce was fairly easy to obtain. However, other leaders said that divorce could be granted only in cases of adultery.

5:32 “But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery.” The religious leaders permitted easy divorce, as well as remarriage after divorce. But Jesus said that the sacred union of marriage should not be broken and that to remarry after divorce was committing adultery. However, Jesus here gave one exception regarding divorce: “marital unfaithfulness.” For a man to divorce his wife because she has been unfaithful was simply a recognition that his union with her had been ended by her sexual union with another. It would be possible, then, that adultery would be an exception to the prohibition against remarriage. This does not mean that divorce should automatically occur when a spouse commits adultery. The word translated “unfaithfulness” implies a sexually immoral lifestyle, not a confessed and repented act of adultery. Those who discover that their spouse has been unfaithful should first make every effort to forgive, reconcile, and restore their relationship.

However, Jesus would not stand for men tossing aside their wives. Marriage is so sanctified in God’s eyes that anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Notice that while the divorced woman would become an adulteress, the man who divorced his wife would be at fault—he causes her to become an adulteress. Jesus will explain his strong words in 19:3–12 on the grounds that God originally intended marriage to be for life.

God created marriage to be a sacred and permanent union and partnership between a man and a woman. When the husband and wife both enter this union with that understanding and commitment, they can provide security for each other, a stable home for their children, and strength to weather life’s storms and stresses.²

esus noted a contrast between the tradition of the rabbis and His own understanding of the law about murder, and we see His same elliptical approach here in the command against adultery. The prohibition against adultery includes within it every aspect that is part of the broader complex of this particular sin. Again Jesus starts out by contrasting the views of tradition with His own: “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery’ ” (v. 27).

Before we look specifically at what Jesus says, we should note the authority by which He says it. Elsewhere our Lord declares, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matt. 28:18), and, “I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:49). Therefore, the pronouncement that Jesus makes here in Matthew 5 is nothing less than the pronouncement of God Himself.

A Promiscuous Age

We are living in an age in which God’s opinion is considered merely that—a solitary opinion easily cancelled out by a majority report that contradicts His opinion. Our culture has undergone a moral revolution, which originated with the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Many factors were involved in that particular cultural revolution. Gael Greene, in her book Sex and the College Girl, stated that she had discovered a radical shift in the mores or the behavioral pattern of the coeds. Her findings indicated a change in conscience among college girls. In the 1950s, Green noted, if a single girl was known to be active sexually, it destroyed her reputation, but when the sexual revolution of the 1960s came along, everything reversed so that a woman feared that her reputation would be destroyed as a result of not being sexually active. Virginity had become the great shame of the unmarried young woman.

When I taught 1 Corinthians to college students, I reminded them of the rationale their parents had given them about sexual ethics: they were to be chaste in order to avoid venereal disease or unwanted pregnancy or cultural shame. But in a short time all that changed. Modern medicine can effectively treat sexually transmitted diseases, and there are a variety of birth control methods to prevent unwanted pregnancy, and, if those fail, abortion is readily available. Additionally, the fear of cultural shame is no longer a factor. So, I asked them, what is left to keep them from engaging in premarital sex? The only thing is that it is an offense against the holiness of God, and that God, who has the eternal authority to command our obedience, prohibits this behavior. That discussion was like a lightning bolt hitting the classroom. My student counseling load multiplied significantly afterward.

Like no other time in the history of Western culture, people today are bombarded with erotic stimuli. Where can we go and not be exposed to sexually suggestive, erotic literature and images? Certainly not to Hollywood movies, television, modern novels, or the Internet. The church today must deal with the pervasive problem of addiction to pornography. The problem is prevalent not just in the secular culture but also in the church. Paul taught that biological urges are strong and intense. The natural passions with which we have been created can be so intense that it feels like we are set aflame. If the sexual urge was burning in the first century, how much more have the incendiary influences of our culture intensified it?

As a pastor, I have to skate carefully between two things. On the one hand, it is my duty to make clear to everyone in my flock what God commands with respect to premarital and extramarital sexual relationships. At the same time, I have to be acutely conscious of people’s frailty and the difficulty of the battle for chastity—a battle, it seems, that more Christians are losing than winning. We must hold to the biblical standard while at the same time administering the mercy of God to fallen people.

One student, a senior who was engaged to be married, came to talk to me. She told me she was overwhelmed with guilt because she had been sexually involved with her fiancé before their marriage. She had spoken to the college chaplain about it, but he told her that her guilt sprang from trying to live by an outdated, puritanical ethic. She would be free from guilt, he said, if she would accept that her sexual activity was simply an expression of mature adulthood. Despite what the chaplain told her, she still felt guilty, which is why she had come to me. I told her, “It is possible, as the chaplain indicated, to have a false sense of guilt. However, the reason that you feel guilty is that you are guilty.” The solution for guilt is not to deny it or rationalize it. The only solution for real guilt is real forgiveness, and the necessary condition for real forgiveness is real repentance. This young woman needed to repent and seek the forgiveness of God.

Radical Commitment

“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (v. 28). Jesus is not saying that it is just as evil to lust as it is to actually commit adultery, but He is saying that even if you have refrained from actual adultery, you haven’t necessarily fulfilled the full dimension of God’s law.

This is where Jesus gets radical: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (v. 29). Jesus focuses here on the offending eye, because He understands how adultery begins. It usually begins with a glance, a look. King David, a man after God’s own heart, just happened to be walking outside on his roof when he looked over and saw the nude Bathsheba on an adjacent roof. From that look came lust, and from lust came adultery. The visual aspect of erotic stimulation must not be minimized.

Every marketer in America understands that sex sells, which is why seductive women are used as props to sell everything from automobiles to Eskimo Pies. That is why there is so much focus on erotic images on television and in the movies, and nowhere is this more prevalent than on the Internet. Jesus says we have a problem here—a radical problem that requires a radical solution: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.” There are few, however, who are so committed to chastity that they inflict themselves with blindness to ensure it. Jesus is speaking hyperbolically here. He is not saying that if we have a lustful look, it is time for eye surgery. Rather, He is saying that preserving chastity is so important that we must do whatever it takes to accomplish it.

Odysseus, traveling in his ship on the way home from Troy, had himself lashed to the ship’s mast to avoid the temptation of the sirens’ song. He knew how easily he could veer off course and sail his ship into ruin. Sometimes that sort of radical action is necessary.

If you are addicted to pornography, find a way to keep it off your computer, but if you cannot, throw the computer in the garbage. Do not think that you cannot live in the twenty-first century without a computer. Sometimes the benefits of technology can offer as much peril as blessing. Jesus is saying that we must do a self-evaluation and consider which is more important: our soul or our computer? Our sanctity or our erotica? We cannot have both. Today we have become jaded. Our consciences have been seared. We have experienced what Jeremiah said to the people of Israel: “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush” (Jer. 6:15; 8:12).

Luther, who was every bit a man, admitted that he struggled with lust, but he dealt with it, saying, “I cannot help it if birds fly around my head, but I can keep them from nesting in my hair.” Just so, Jesus says we are to take every opportunity to keep our chastity before and after marriage. “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell” (v. 30). Better to go through life maimed than to have your soul delivered into hell. One theologian said it is better to limp into heaven than to leap into hell. One of the greatest enticements to sexual sin is that everyone else is doing it. Another is the cultural acceptability of such sin. It takes moral courage to march against the tide, but Jesus is the one who calls us to this, and He never rescinded that call.

In the second century the apologist Justin Martyr defended Christianity before the emperor Antoninus Pius, and in his apology he said, “If you want to see visible proof of the truth of Christianity, observe our chastity.” He pointed to the Christian ethic of chastity as proof of the power of the gospel. No apologist today could ask critics of Christianity to examine our sexual behavior as proof of the gospel.

If the Word of God reveals that you have been in sin, get it cleansed. Young women, if you are not married, yet you are no longer a virgin, you can become a virgin again in the sight of God, because when He forgives us our sins He makes us clean.³

5:27, 28. Thou shalt not commit adultery was the demand of the Old Testament Law (Ex. 20:14). Jesus goes beyond this outward command to reveal that its act is the result of an inner attitude of lust. Whosoever looketh characterizes the man whose glance is not checked by holy restraint and results in an impure lusting after women. The act would follow if the opportunity were to occur. By taking His listener beyond the outward statement of the law to its real intention, Jesus was trying to get the listener’s attention off the physical and onto the spiritual.

5:29, 30. The statement of cutting off one’s hand or plucking out one’s eye definitely is not to be taken literally. What Jesus implies is that if thy right eye offend thee, then the logical thing to do would be to pluck it out. His point is not that one should literally pluck out his eye, but that one should recognize that the source of lust comes from within the mind and heart of man, not from the physical organ itself. The right eye is not the source of sin; the heart of man is that source. The seriousness of the sin of lusting is thus illustrated by this graphic comparison. Ultimately, it would be better for a person to be physically maimed than to go to hell forever. However, doing physical damage to oneself does not in any way guarantee entrance into heaven. Jesus is simply teaching that man must bring the passions of his heart under the control of the Spirit of God.⁴

5:27 adultery. Sexual infidelity to one’s spouse violates the seventh commandment (Exod 20:14), and adultery can even be committed in one’s “heart” (v. 28). The two are not equally bad, but they are both sinful. YES THEY ARE BOTH THE SAME BAD. SIN IS SIN.

5:27 Adultery was considered an extremely serious offense (cf. Ex. 20:14) because, in addition to violating another person, it broke the marriage covenant (Mal. 2:14) that was a reflection of the relationship between God and his people.

5:28 with lustful intent (Gk. pros to epithymēsai autēn, lit., “for the purpose of lusting for her”). Lust begins in the heart, the center of a person’s identity and will. It is not enough to maintain physical purity alone; one must also guard against engaging mentally in an act of unfaithfulness. Jesus is not adding to OT law but correctly interpreting it, for even in the Ten Commandments God had required purity of heart (Ex. 20:17; cf. 1 Sam. 16:7; Ps. 19:14; 24:4).

5:29–30 right eye … right hand. The right side often stood for the more powerful or important. The eye is the medium through which one is tempted to lust, and the hand represents the physical actions that result from lusting. cut it off. Jesus uses deliberate overstatement to emphasize the importance of maintaining exclusive devotion to one’s spouse. Even things of great value should be given up if they are leading a person to sin. See note on Mark 9:43–48.

5:31–32 A certificate of divorce in the ancient world gave a woman the right to remarry (e.g., Mishnah, Gittin 9.3: “The essential formula in the bill of divorce is ‘Lo, thou art free to marry any man’ ”) and reflects the fact that divorce and remarriage were widely accepted and practiced in the first century world. But I say to you indicates that Jesus does not accept the practice of easy divorce represented in v. 31. Because divorce was widespread in ancient times, God had instituted a regulation through Moses that was intended to uphold the sanctity of marriage and to protect women from being divorced for no reason. (See notes on Deut. 24:1–4; Matt. 19:8.) Here and in 19:3–9, Jesus bases his teaching on God’s original intention that marriage should be a permanent union of a man and woman as “one flesh” (Mark 10:8). Divorce breaks that union. Sexual immorality (Gk. porneia) can refer to adultery (Jer. 3:9; see also the use of the term in Sir. 23:23), prostitution (Nah. 3:4; 1 Cor. 6:13, 18), incest (1 Cor. 5:1), or fornication (Gen. 38:24; John 8:41). Scripture prohibits any kind of sexual intercourse outside of marriage (thus forbidding the practice of homosexuality and bestiality as well). Except on the ground of sexual immorality. This implies that when a divorce is obtained (by the injured party) because of the sexual immorality of one’s spouse, then such a divorce is not morally wrong. But when a man divorces his wife wrongly (i.e., when his wife has not been sexually immoral), the husband thus makes her commit adultery. Even though some female Jewish divorcees would have gone back to live with their parents in shame, many would have sought to remarry (which seems to be the typical situation that Jesus is addressing here). Jesus is thus indicating that such second marriages begin with committing adultery, since the divorce would not have been valid in God’s eyes. (On whether the adultery is onetime or continual, see note on Matt. 19:9.) But Jesus places primary blame on the husband who has wrongly divorced his wife, by stating that he (the husband) “makes her commit adultery.” Whoever marries a divorced woman is not an isolated statement that applies to all divorced women, or it would contradict the “except” clause that Jesus had just given (as well as the further exception in 1 Cor. 7:15). The statement rather continues the same subject that Jesus had mentioned earlier in the sentence, and thus means, “whoever marries such a wrongly divorced woman commits adultery.” See also the notes on Matt. 19:3–9; Mark 10:2–12; Luke 16:18; 1 Cor. 7:15; and Divorce and Remarriage

5:28 to lust for her: A man who gazes at a woman with the purpose of wanting her sexually has mentally committed adultery.

5:29, 30 The hyperbole (exaggerated saying) about tearing out one’s eye is similar to the phrase in Prov. 23:2, “put a knife to your throat if you are a man given to appetite.” In striking overstatement, Jesus advises removing every temptation to evil, no matter what the cost. The warning of hell (v. 22) indicates that those whose lifestyle is characterized by uncontrolled immorality are not heirs of the kingdom (see 1 Cor. 6:9, 10).

5:31, 32 Sexual immorality is a general term that includes premarital sex, extramarital infidelity, homosexuality, and bestiality (19:3–12).⁵

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1 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (p. 27). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

2 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (pp. 27–28). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

3 Sproul, R. C. (2013). Matthew (pp. 111–115). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

4 King James Version study Bible . (1997). (electronic ed., Mt 5:27–29). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

5 Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1997). The Nelson Study Bible: New King James Version (Mt 5:28–32). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

if you confess

1:9 Having described his opponents’ claim (to be without sin) and the concomitant reality (their self-deception), the author now puts forward a counterhypothesis in another conditional sentence. The sentence begins with the words, If we confess our sins.… The author projects a situation in which people acknowledge their sins in an ongoing way. He portrays authentic Christian living as involving honest and ongoing acknowledgement of one’s sins.²⁶

Confession of sin is not a theme that is found often in the NT. It is found in only four other places. It occurs in the Synoptic accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist when people came confessing their sins to be baptised by him (Matt 3:6; Mark 1:15). It is also found in James 5:16, where, in the context of praying for the sick, people are urged to confess their sins and pray for each other that they may be healed. People in Ephesus confessed their ‘evil deeds’ and burned their magical books during the ministry of Paul in that city (Acts 19:18). In each of these cases confession of sin was public, not private (i.e., not just between the individual and God). It may then be the case that here in 1:9 the author also has in mind public confession of sin.

The conditional sentence is then completed: [If we confess our sins,] he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Here the author sets forth two aspects of God’s response to people who confess their sins: God forgives their sins and purifies them from all unrighteousness. God’s forgiveness means that he no longer holds people’s sins against them; he cancels their ‘debt’ (cf. Matt 6:9–15; 18:21–35). God’s purifying them ‘from all unrighteousness’ (cf. 1:7, ‘purifies us from every sin’) means that he removes the defilement which their sins had produced. When the metaphor of defilement is unpacked, it also denotes the removal of the impediment to fellowship with God through forgiveness of sins (cf. Ps 51:1–2). Both verbs, being aorist subjunctive in form, portray forgiveness and purification as complete, rather than ongoing actions.

In forgiving and purifying, the author says, God is both ‘faithful’ and ‘just’. The context does not make exactly clear what the author means by saying that God is ‘faithful’ (pistos) when he forgives and purifies. In the OT individuals speaking in later books (Num 14:18; Neh 9:17; Pss 86:15; 103:8; 145:8; Joel 2:13; Jonah 4:2; Nah 1:3) keep harking back to Exodus 34:6–7 (‘The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin’) because they know God will be faithful in fulfilling his promise to forgive. In the NT there are only three places where God is said to be faithful in doing something or other. These are 1 Corinthians 1:9; 10:13 and 2 Corinthians 1:18. In each case God’s faithfulness is expressed in providing for his people in various ways (presenting believers blameless on the Day of our Lord Jesus; providing a means of escape from temptation; and remaining true to his word by fulfilling his promises). It would seem reasonable, then, to infer from these references that God’s faithfulness is his trustworthiness in fulfilling the commitments he has made to his people. A similar meaning would be entirely appropriate here also: God is faithful to believers in that he is carrying through on his commitment to forgive and purify those who confess their sins, something which necessitated the giving of his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for their sins (4:9–10, 14).

The author says that God is not only faithful but also ‘just’ (dikaios) when he forgives and purifies those who confess their sins. The adjective ‘just’/‘righteous’ (dikaios) is found in four other places in this letter (2:1, 29; 3:7, 12). In 2:1 Jesus Christ, who speaks to the Father in our defence, is described as ‘the Righteous One’ (dikaios). In 2:29 the readers are reminded that if, as they know, God is righteous (dikaios), they may also know that ‘everyone who does right has been born of him’. What we find in 3:7 is very similar: ‘He who does what is right is righteous (dikaios), just as he [God] is righteous (dikaios)’. And finally in 3:12 Cain is said to have murdered his brother, ‘because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous (dikaios)’. From the author’s use of dikaios elsewhere in this letter, it is clear that to be righteous means to act in a righteous way. So when he says that God is righteous when he forgives sin and purifies sinners, he means that in doing so God is acting righteously. What seems to lie behind this is the problem of how God can be said to be righteous when he forgives the guilty. It is a problem which the apostle Paul had to deal with when explaining his gospel in Romans 3:21–26, and his resolution of the problem was that God can be both just and the justifier of sinners because he set forth Christ as the atoning sacrifice (hilastērion) for their sins. The author of 1 John does not state the matter as clearly as Paul does, but it is plain that he, too, understands God to be righteous in forgiving those who confess their sins because he sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice (hilasmos) for those sins (cf. 2:2: ‘He is the atoning sacrifice [hilasmos] for our sins’; 4:10: ‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice [hilasmos] for our sins’).¹

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness [1 John 1:9].

“If we confess our sins.” Here is another one of our “if’s.” We have seen several of them: “If we say that we have fellowship” (v. 6); “If we walk in the light” (v. 7); and “If we say that we have no sin” (v. 8). Now here is the right method for bringing together a sinful man and a holy God: confession of sins.

What does it mean to confess our sins? The word confess is from the Greek verb homologeo, meaning “to say the same thing.” Logeo means “to say” and homo means “the same.” You are to say the same thing that God says. When God in His Word says that the thing you did is sin, you are to get over on God’s side and look at it. And you are to say, “You are right, Lord, I say the same thing that You say. It is sin.” That is what it means to confess your sins. That, my friend, is one of the greatest needs in the church. This is God’s way for a Christian to deal with sin in his own life.

The other day I talked to a man who got into deep trouble. He divorced his wife—he found out that she had been unfaithful. He lost his home and lost his job. He was a very discouraged man. He said to me, “I want to serve God, and I have failed. I am a total failure.” I very frankly said to him, “Don’t cry on my shoulder. Go and tell God about it. He wants you to come to Him. Tell Him you have failed. Tell Him you have been wrong. Tell Him that you want to say the same thing about your sin that He says about it. Seek His help. He is your Father. You are in the family. You have lost your fellowship with Him, but you can have your fellowship restored. If you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins.”

After we confess our sins, what does God do? He cleanses us. In the parable, the Prodigal Son came home from the far country smelling like a pigpen. You don’t think the father would have put a new robe on that ragged, dirty boy, smelling like that, do you? No, he gave him a good bath. The Roman world majored in cleanliness, and I am confident that the boy was bathed before that new robe was put on him. The next week he didn’t say, “Dad, I think I will be going to the far country and end up in the pigpen again.” Not that boy.

When you have confessed your sin, it means that you have turned from that sin. It means that you have said the same thing which God has said. Sin is a terrible thing. God hates it and now you hate it. But confession restores you to your Father.²

We Can Confess Our Sins (1 John 1:7, 9)

John gives two interesting titles to Jesus Christ: Advocate and Propitiation (1 John 2:1–2). It’s important that we understand these two titles because they stand for two ministries that only the Lord Himself performs.

Let’s begin with Propitiation. If you look this word up in the dictionary, you may get the wrong idea of its meaning. The dictionary tells us that “to propitiate” means “to appease someone who is angry.” If you apply this to Christ, you get the horrible picture of an angry God, about to destroy the world, and a loving Saviour giving Himself to appease the irate God—and this is not the Bible picture of salvation! Certainly God is angry at sin; after all, He is infinitely holy. But the Bible reassures us that “God so loved [not hated] the world” (John 3:16, italics added).

No, the word “propitiation” does not mean the appeasing of an angry God. Rather, it means the satisfying of God’s holy law. “God is light” (1 John 1:5) and, therefore, He cannot close His eyes to sin. But “God is love” (1 John 4:8) too and wants to save sinners.

How, then, can a holy God uphold His own justice and still forgive sinners? The answer is in the sacrifice of Christ. At the cross, God in His holiness judged sin. God in His love offers Jesus Christ to the world as Saviour. God was just in that He punished sin, but He is also loving in that He offers free forgiveness through what Jesus did at Calvary. (Read 1 John 4:10, and also give some thought to Rom. 3:23–26.)

Christ is the Sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but He is Advocate only for believers. “We [Christians] have an Advocate with the Father.” The word “advocate” used to be applied to lawyers. The word John uses is the very same word Jesus used when He was talking about the coming of the Holy Spirit (John 14:16, 26; 15:26). It means, literally, “one called alongside.” When a man was summoned to court, he took an advocate (lawyer) with him to stand at his side and plead his case.

Jesus finished His work on earth (John 17:4)—the work of giving His life as a sacrifice for sin. Today He has an “unfinished work” in heaven. He represents us before God’s throne. As our High Priest, He sympathizes with our weaknesses and temptations and gives us grace (Heb. 4:15–16; 7:23–28). As our Advocate, He helps us when we sin. When we confess our sins to God, because of Christ’s advocacy God forgives us.

The Old Testament contains a beautiful picture of this. Joshua (Zech. 3:1–7) was the Jewish high priest after the Jews returned to their land following their Captivity in Babylon. (Don’t confuse this Joshua with the Joshua who conquered the Promised Land.) The nation had sinned; to symbolize this, Joshua stood before God in filthy garments and Satan stood at Joshua’s right hand to accuse him (cf. Rev. 12:10). God the Father was the Judge; Joshua, representing the people, was the accused; Satan was the prosecuting attorney. (The Bible calls him the accuser of the brethren.) It looked as if Satan had an open-and-shut case. But Joshua had an Advocate who stood at God’s right hand, and this changed the situation. Christ gave Joshua a change of garments and silenced the accusations of Satan.

This is what is in view when Jesus Christ is called our “Advocate.” He represents believers before God’s throne, and the merits of His sacrifice make possible the forgiveness of the believer’s sin. Because Christ died for His people, He satisfied the justice of God. (“The wages of sin is death.”) Because He lives for us at God’s right hand, He can apply His sacrifice to our needs day by day.

All He asks is that when we have failed we confess our sins.

What does it mean to “confess”? Well, to confess sins means much more than simply to “admit” them. The word confess actually means “to say the same thing [about].” To confess sin, then, means to say the same thing about it that God says about it.

A counselor was trying to help a man who had come forward during an evangelistic meeting. “I’m a Christian,” the man said, “but there’s sin in my life, and I need help.” The counselor showed him 1 John 1:9 and suggested that the man confess his sins to God.

“O Father,” the man began, “if we have done anything wrong—”

“Just a minute!” the counselor interrupted. “Don’t drag me into your sin! My brother, it’s not ‘if’ or ‘we’—you’d better get down to business with God!”

The counselor was right.

Confession is not praying a lovely prayer, or making pious excuses, or trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin—calling it by name what God calls it: envy, hatred, lust, deceit, or whatever it may be. Confession simply means being honest with ourselves and with God, and if others are involved, being honest with them too. It is more than admitting sin. It means judging sin and facing it squarely.

When we confess our sins, God promises to forgive us (1 John 1:9). But this promise is not a “magic rabbit’s foot” that makes it easy for us to disobey God!

“I went out and sinned,” a student told his campus chaplain, “because I knew I could come back and ask God to forgive me.”

“On what basis can God forgive you?” the chaplain asked, pointing to 1 John 1:9.

“God is faithful and just,” the boy replied.

“Those two words should have kept you out of sin,” the chaplain said. “Do you know what it cost God to forgive your sins?”

The boy hung his head. “Jesus had to die for me.”

Then the chaplain zeroed in. “That’s right—forgiveness isn’t some cheap sideshow trick God performs. God is faithful to His promise, and God is just, because Christ died for your sins and paid the penalty for you. Now, the next time you plan to sin, remember that you are going to sin against a faithful loving God!”

Of course, cleansing has two sides to it: the judicial and the personal. The blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross, delivers us from the guilt of sin and gives us right standing (“justification”) before God. God is able to forgive because Jesus’ death has satisfied His holy Law.

But God is also interested in cleansing a sinner inwardly. David prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps. 51:10). When our confession is sincere, God does a cleansing work (1 John 1:9) in our hearts by His Spirit and through His Word (John 15:3).

The great mistake King David made was in trying to cover his sins instead of confessing them. For perhaps a whole year he lived in deceit and defeat. No wonder he wrote (Ps. 32:6) that a man should pray “in a time of finding out” (lit.).

When should we confess our sin? Immediately when we discover it! “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13). By walking in the light, we are able to see the “dirt” in our lives and deal with it immediately.³

1:9 Though John uses we primarily to refer to himself and the other apostles as eyewitnesses of Christ (v. 1), here the term includes all believers who confess (acknowledge) sin. God says that we are sinners in need of forgiveness. To confess is to agree with Him, to admit that we are sinners in need of His mercy. If a believer confesses his or her specific sins to God, He will cleanse all unrighteousness from that person. The believer need not agonize over sin of which he is not aware. Forgiveness and cleansing are guaranteed because God is faithful to His promises. Those promises are legitimate because God is just. God can maintain His perfect character and yet forgive us because of the perfect and righteous sacrifice of Jesus, His own Son (2:2). Our salvation costs us nothing; it is a gift of God. But salvation is costly; it cost God the death of His Son. Since John is speaking to believers, the forgiveness here is not for their initial justification-salvation. His concern is sanctification-salvation. Christ accomplished the first portion of our salvation on the Cross while on earth (John 17:4). The second part of our salvation is before the throne of God, where Christ makes intercession for us (Heb. 4:15, 16; 7:23–28). the sins: The Greek text does not really say “our” sins, as is indicated by the italics in the English text. Literally the text reads, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us the sins.” It is probably that the sins of which John speaks are those we confess, not just any and every sin we commit. John proceeds on to say that Christ also, along with this forgiveness, cleanses us from all unrighteousness in our hearts. We should be careful to distinguish this family forgiveness of the Father for His children from the forgiveness we received at our redemption. This passage is written to those who are already saved from eternal judgment due to their sins but now are children of God in need of forgiveness for failures in their children walk.⁴

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But on the contrary, if we confess our sins, if we apply ourselves to him suitably to the condition of sinners, confessing ourselves such, with that self-abasing sense of sin which may dispose us to accept and apply his offered remedy, (upon which it is implied we will do it,) he is faithful, so true to his promise, and just, fidelity being a part of justice; or there is with him that equity and righteousness, (which sometimes signify goodness, or clemency, 1 Sam. 12:7; Psal. 112:9, and which, more strictly taken, permit him not to exact from us the satisfaction which he hath accepted in the atonement made by his Son, in his own way applied, and upon his own terms to be reckoned unto us,) that he will not fail to forgive us our sins. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness; which may either be added as a further expression of the same thing; or may, moreover, signify his vouchsafing that purifying influence of the Spirit of Christ, (obtained also by his blood,) which shall both purge away, and prevent, the defilements that would render us incapable of his own holy communion.⁵

9. If we confess. He again promises to the faithful that God will be propitious to them, provided they acknowledge themselves to be sinners. It is of great moment to be fully persuaded, that when we have sinned, there is a reconciliation with God ready and prepared for us: we shall otherwise carry always a hell within us. Few, indeed, consider how miserable and wretched is a doubting conscience; but the truth is, that hell reigns where there is no peace with God. The more, then, it becomes us to receive with the whole heart this promise which offers free pardon to all who confess their sins. Moreover, this is founded even on the justice of God, because God who promises is true and just. For they who think that he is called just, because he justifies us freely, reason, as I think, with too much refinement, because justice or righteousness here depends on fidelity, and both are annexed to the promise. For God might have been just, were he to deal with us with all the rigour of justice; but as he has bound himself to us by his word, he would not have himself deemed just except he forgives.1

But this confession, as it is made to God, must be in sincerity; and the heart cannot speak to God without newness of life: it then includes true repentance. God, indeed, forgives freely, but in such a way, that the facility of mercy does not become an enticement to sin.

And to cleanse us. The verb, to cleanse, seems to be taken in another sense than before; for he had said, that we are cleansed by the blood of Christ, because through him sins are not imputed; but now, having spoken of pardon, he also adds, that God cleanses us from iniquity: so that this second clause is different from the preceding. Thus he intimates that a twofold fruit comes to us from confession,—that God being reconciled by the sacrifice of Christ, forgives us,—and that he renews and reforms us.

Were any one to object and say, that as long as we sojourn in the world, we are never cleansed from all unrighteousness, with regard to our reformation: this is indeed true; but John does not refer to what God now performs in us. He is faithful, he says, to cleanse us, not to-day or to-morrow; for as long as we are surrounded with flesh, we ought to be in a continual state of progress; but what he has once begun, he goes on daily to do, until he at length completes it. So Paul says, that we are chosen, that we may appear without blame before God, (Col. 1:22;) and in another place he says, that the Church is cleansed, that it might be without spot or wrinkle. (Eph. 5:27.)⁶

1:9 Being God’s people does not mean denying sin (1:8), but confessing it. Because all people are sinners, Jesus had to die. Because sin is not completely eradicated from the lives of those who believe in Jesus, God graciously gave his followers provision for the problem of sin. John explained it here in a nutshell: If we confess … he is faithful and just to forgive.

To confess our sins means to agree with God that an act or thought was wrong, to acknowledge this to God, to seek forgiveness, and to make a commitment to not let it happen again. Confession of sins is necessary for maintaining continual fellowship with God, which in turn will enable people to have good fellowship with members of the church community.

Confession is supposed to free people to enjoy fellowship with Christ. But some Christians do not understand how it works. They feel so guilty that they confess the same sins over and over; then they wonder if they might have forgotten something. Other Christians believe that God forgives them when they confess, but if they died with unconfessed sins, they would be forever lost. These Christians do not understand that God wants to forgive people. He allowed his beloved Son to die just so he could offer them pardon. When people come to Christ, he forgives all the sins they have committed or will ever commit. They don’t need to confess the sins of the past all over again, and they don’t need to fear that God will reject them if they don’t keep their slate perfectly clean. Of course, believers should continue to confess their sins, but not because failure to do so will make them lose their salvation. Believers’ relationship with Christ is secure. Instead, they should confess so that they can enjoy maximum fellowship and joy with him.

That God is faithful means he is dependable and keeps his promises. God promises forgiveness, even in the Old Testament (Jeremiah 31:34; Micah 7:19–20). God wants to forgive his people; he wants to maintain close fellowship with them. But this can only happen when the way to him is cleared of sin’s debris—and that can only happen through confession.

That God is just means that he could not overlook people’s sin. He could not decide to let people get away with sin or to make the penalty less severe. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Sacrifices had been offered for sin, and blood had been spilt from the beginning. This could not change because God does not change. Justice would have to be done in order to decisively deal with sin. But instead of making people pay for their sins, God took the punishment upon himself through his Son. In this way, justice was done, and the way was paved for God to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. Those who confess their sins to God can trust in his forgiveness because they can trust in his character.⁷

If we confess our sins. God’s forgiveness is given as soon as we admit our need of it, not on the basis of any acts we have done to earn it, but solely because of His grace. The free gift of forgiveness carries with it purification from unrighteousness. God accepts us as righteous because He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ. That is, the very righteousness of Christ our sin-bearer is reckoned to our account.⁸

1:9 Christians must confess (their) sins, initially to receive salvation and then to maintain fellowship with God and with one another (v. 3). faithful and just to forgive. God is “slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity and transgression” (Num. 14:18). Yet John also makes it clear (1 John 3:6, 9) that persistent unrepented sin is not the mark of a Christian—God “will by no means clear the guilty” (Num. 14:18).⁹

1:9 confess our sins. Honest acknowledgment of one’s sins is a prerequisite for forgiveness. faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. God is faithful to his promises when he forgives his people (cf. Exod 34:6-7), and he is also just when doing so because he sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for sins (1 John 2:2; 4:10, cf. Rom 3:25-26). When God forgives people, he no longer holds their sins against them; he cancels their “debt” (cf. Matt 6:12; 18:21-35). purify us from all unrighteousness. Removes the defilement our sins produce, thus removing the impediment to fellowship with God.

1 Kruse, C. G. (2000). The letters of John (pp. 68–70). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos.

2 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (1 John) (electronic ed., Vol. 56, pp. 32–34). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

3 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 481–483). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

4 Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (1 Jn 1:9). Nashville: T. Nelson Publishers.

5 Poole, M. (1853). Annotations upon the Holy Bible (Vol. 3, p. 930). New York: Robert Carter and Brothers.

6 Calvin, J., & Owen, J. (2010). Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (pp. 167–169). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

7 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (pp. 1152–1153). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

8 Sproul, R. C. (Ed.). (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 1828). Orlando, FL; Lake Mary, FL: Ligonier Ministries.

9 Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (pp. 2430–2431). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

silly Pope only JESUS FORGIVES

In the news the pope said that abolrtion is now forgiveable for a year. I guess this concerns me. First of all who is the pope that he can declare what sin God forgives. I mean Is there a sin the bible said that is not forgiven? Lets look at this

¹³ And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, ¹⁴ having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.¹

How many sins has God forgiven? ALL

Forgiveness illustrating reconciliation

‘Having forgiven you all trespasses’ (v. 13). Without Christ’s death and the work of regeneration the hearts of men are spiritually dead ‘in … trespasses’. This speaks of fallen man’s ‘deviation from righteousness and truth’ (W E Vine) which renders sinners dead to God as the ‘sons of disobedience’ and ‘the children of wrath’ (Eph. 2:1–3). The cross is God’s solution to man’s alienation and depravity. At Calvary Jesus Christ purchased forgiveness with his blood (1:20) for all trespasses and sins, and now through him there is found reconciliation that brings peace with God.

Atonement illustrating righteousness

‘Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us … having nailed it to the cross (v. 15). The fourth reason why believers are complete in Christ is because Christ’s righteousness is imputed to them; the righteousness of Christ is their covering. In verses 14–15 we have Christ’s work on the cross described in technical detail. It is not the simple message ‘God loves you and Christ died for you’ (which is true and glorious), but a deeper revelation of the behind-the-scenes process that Jesus Christ undertook to save us. Paul felt that it was time that the Colossian believers heard about this as it has a bearing on Christ’s greatness. The ‘handwriting of requirements’ (v. 14) is like a certificate of debt (an invoice or a document telling us we owe something to God). The law condemns us for our failure, but when Jesus died he took that certificate with him so that he could write across it with his own blood, ‘Cancelled, debt paid’. John Piper asks, ‘How was this damning record nailed to the cross? Parchment was not nailed to the cross. Christ was. So Christ became my damning record of bad (and good) deeds. He endured my damnation’. By his substitutionary atoning death at Calvary, Jesus Christ completely obliterated the law’s demands towards the sinner. Thus we have the words of Isaiah 53:6: ‘The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’.

Verse 14 tells us that Jesus cancelled the record of debts that are against us. If you are ever in debt and can’t pay up, you will know just what trouble you are in because your creditor will pursue you until you do. The bailiffs may be sent to track you down and extract by any means what you owe until your debt is cleared. Our sins are to God like a bad debt. It took the death of Jesus to pay the debt and to fulfil the law’s demands. The hymn Rock of Ages by Augustus Toplady echoes this gospel truth:

Not the labours of my hands

Can fulfil thy law’s demands;

Could my zeal no respite know,

Could my tears for ever flow,

All for sin could not atone:

Thou must save, and thou alone.

Christ wiped the slate clean; the blood and the pain of the cross were part of the process of atonement. Our debt was cancelled because Christ fulfilled the ‘rigid requirements and regulations which condemned us all’ (W. Hendriksen). The law is silenced because Christ has died as a substitute for sinners. God through Christ has forgiven our sins and the legal case against us is closed (Rom. 8:1–3).

In verse 15 we read that Christ ‘disarmed principalities and powers’. Satan and his forces were dealt a powerful blow of defeat at Calvary. These dark powers gathered against him as he hung on the cross. They thought victory was theirs, but he turned the tables on them and stripped them of their power to accuse and to control. There was no doubt that Satan and his cohorts gathered together to attack the soul of Christ when he was enduring the judgement due to sin. They fiercely assaulted him for three hours. But he triumphed over them. Many think that Paul is using the imagery of a Roman victory parade with the phrase ‘he made a public spectacle of them’, such as when the imperial army marched with their captives chained behind them as trophies before the citizens of Rome. So verse 15 speaks of the resurrection of Christ, when he broke the chains of death and hell and by his resurrection made captivity captive, displaying to the whole of creation that he is Lord.²

And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses [Col. 2:13].

Salvation is not the improvement of the old nature; it is the impartation of a new nature.

Remember that Paul had to deal with two systems of Greek philosophy which were very popular in his day. They were diametrically opposed to each other, but they both came out at the same end of the horn. One philosophy was Stoicism, and the other was Epicureanism.

The Stoic taught that man was to live nobly and that death could not matter. The idea was to hold the appetites in check and to become indifferent to changing conditions. In effect they said, “Be not uplifted by good fortune nor cast down by adversity.” They believed that man is more then circumstances and that the soul is greater than the universe. It was a brave philosophy, you see. But the problem was how to live it. It was like the people who say that they are living by the Sermon on the Mount when actually they are many miles from it.

The Epicurean taught that all is uncertain. “We know not whence we came; we know not whither we go. We only know that after a brief life we disappear from this scene, and it is vain to deny ourselves any present joy in view of the possible future ill. Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

The interesting thing to observe is that both these systems attempted to deal with the flesh—that is, the old nature that you and I have—not the meat on our bones. The old nature works through our old habits, old desires, old testings and temptations. How are we going to bring that under control?

There are all kinds of gimmicks and systems that are set before us today to enable us to live the Christian life. I know people who have been to Bible conferences where the Christian life is taught, and at home they have a drawer filled with notebooks. But they are not doing so well in living the Christian life. Why not? Because we need to recognize this one important thing that Paul is saying here: we are joined to the living Christ. Now, if you are joined to Him, my friend, you are going to live as if you are. How close are you to Him? Do you walk with Him? Do you turn to Him in all the emergencies of this life? Is He the One who is the very center of your life?

3. As Paul turns now to the error of legality, we will again find that the answer is to come to the Word of God and through it to come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

A glory gilds the sacred page,

Majestic like the sun.

It sheds a light on every age;

It gives but borrows none.³

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 [Col. 2:14].

“Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.” This old flesh of ours has been condemned. When Christ died, He died for you and me; He paid the penalty for our sin.

When the Lord Jesus died, Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross: “This is Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews” (see John 19:19). He was being publicly executed on the grounds that He had led in a rebellion. This was, of course, not true, but that was the charge against Him. When the people standing there read that sign they understood that He had been disloyal to Caesar in that He had made Himself to be a king. To them that was the reason He was dying on a cross.

But when God looked upon that cross, He saw an altar on which the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world was offered. God saw another inscription there high above the inscription that man had written. “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.” What did God write on that cross? He wrote the ordinances—He wrote the Ten Commandments. He wrote a law which I cannot keep, ordinances which I am guilty of breaking. When Christ died there, He did not die because He broke them; He was sinless. But it was because I broke them, because I am a sinner, and because you are. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).

Therefore, my friend, if God has saved you and raised you from the dead and joined you to a living Christ, why should you go back to a law that you couldn’t keep in the first place? You can’t even keep the law today in your own power and in your own strength. You see, the law was given to discipline the old nature. But now the believer is given a new nature, and the law has been removed as a way of life.

Let me give you an illustration. A man once came to me and said, “I’ll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed.” I answered, “I don’t think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh day of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted and can be off a few days, but we won’t even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday and is still the Sabbath day.” He got a gleam in his eye and said, “Then why don’t you keep the Sababth day if it hasn’t been changed?” I answered, “The day hasn’t changed, but I have been changed. I’ve been given a new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave.” That is what it means when he says that the ordinances which were against us have been nailed to His cross.⁴

Draw on Your Spiritual Provisions (Col. 2:11–15)

Remember that the false teaching that threatened the Colossian church was made up of several elements: Oriental mysticism, astrology, philosophy, and Jewish legalism. It is the latter element that Paul dealt with in this section of his letter. Apparently, the false teachers insisted that their converts submit to circumcision and obey the Old Testament Law.

Gnostic legalism was not quite the same as the brand of legalism practiced by the Judaizers whom Paul refuted in his Epistle to the Galatians. The Jewish teachers that Paul attacked in Galatians insisted that circumcision and obedience to the Law were necessary for salvation. (See Acts 15 for some background on this problem.) Gnostic legalism said that the Jewish Law would help the believers become more spiritual. If they were circumcised, and if they watched their diets and observed the holy days, then they would become part of the “spiritual elite” in the church. Unfortunately, we have people with similar ideas in our churches today.

Paul made it clear that the Christian is not subject in any way to the Old Testament legal system, nor can it do him any good spiritually. Jesus Christ alone is sufficient for our every spiritual need, for all of God’s fullness is in Him. We are identified with Jesus Christ because He is the Head of the body (Col. 1:18) and we are the members of the body (1 Cor. 12:12–13). Paul explained our fourfold identification with Jesus Christ that makes it not only unnecessary, but sinful for us to get involved in any kind of legalism.

Circumcised in Him (v. 11). Circumcision was a sign of God’s covenant with the Jewish people (Gen. 17:9–14). Though it was a physical operation, it had a spiritual significance. The trouble was that the Jewish people depended on the physical and not the spiritual. A mere physical operation could never convey spiritual grace (Rom. 2:25–29). Often in the Old Testament, God warned His people to turn from their sins and experience a spiritual circumcision of the heart (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4; 6:10; Ezek. 44:7). People make the same mistake today when they depend on some religious ritual to save them—such as baptism or the Lord’s Supper.

It is not necessary for the believer to submit to circumcision, because he has already experienced a spiritual circumcision through his identification with Jesus Christ. But there is a contrast here between Jewish circumcision and the believer’s spiritual circumcision in Christ:

Jews

Believers

external surgery	internal—the heart
only part of the body	the whole “body of sins”
done by hands	done without hands
no spiritual help in conquering sin	enables them to overcome sin

When Jesus Christ died and rose again, He won a complete and final victory over sin. He not only died for our sins (salvation), but He “died unto sin” (sanctification; see Rom. 6:10ff). What the Law could not do, Jesus Christ accomplished for us. The old nature (“the body of the sins of the flesh”) was put off—rendered inoperative—so that we need no longer be enslaved to its desires. The old sinful nature is not eradicated, for we can still sin (1 John 1:5–2:6). But the power has been broken as we yield to Christ and walk in the power of the Spirit.

Alive in Him (vv. 12–13). Here Paul used the illustration of baptism. Keep in mind that in the New Testament, the word baptize has both a literal and a figurative meaning. The literal meaning is “to dip, to immerse.” The figurative meaning is “to be identified with.” For example, the Jewish nation was “baptized unto Moses” when it went through the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:1–2). There was no water involved in this baptism, because they went over on dry land. In this experience, the nation was identified with Moses.

Paul used the word baptism in a figurative sense in this section of his letter—for no amount of material water could bury a person with Christ or make him alive in Christ. Water baptism by immersion is a picture of this spiritual experience. When a person is saved, he is immediately baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–13) and identified with the Head, Jesus Christ. This identification means that whatever happened to Christ also happened to us. When He died, we died with Him. When He was buried, we were buried. When He arose again, we arose with Him—and we left the graveclothes of the old life behind (Col. 3:1–14).

All of this took place “through the faith of the operation of God” (Col. 2:12). It was the power of God that changed us, not the power of water. The Spirit of God identified us with Jesus Christ, and we were buried with Him, raised with Him, and made alive with Him! (The Greek verbs are very expressive: co-buried, co-raised, and co-made alive.) Because God raised His Son from the dead, we have eternal life.

The practical application is clear: since we are identified with Christ, and He is the fullness of God, what more do we need? We have experienced the energy of God through faith in Christ, so why turn to the deadness of the Law? God has forgiven us all our trespasses (Col. 2:13b) so that we have a perfect standing before Him.

Free from the Law in Him (v. 14). Jesus not only took our sins to the cross (1 Peter 2:24), but He also took the Law to the cross and nailed it there, forever out of the way. The Law was certainly against us, because it was impossible for us to meet its holy demands. Even though God never gave the Ten Commandments to the Gentiles, the righteous demands of the Law—God’s holy standards—were “written in their hearts” (Rom. 2:12–16).

When He shed His blood for sinners, Jesus Christ canceled the huge debt that was against sinners because of their disobedience to God’s holy Law. In Bible days, financial records were often kept on parchment, and the writing could be washed off. This is the picture Paul painted.

How could the holy God be just in canceling a debt? In this way His Son paid the full debt when He died on the cross. If a judge sets a man free who is guilty of a crime, the judge cheapens the law and leaves the injured party without restitution. God paid sin’s debt when He gave His Son on the cross, and He upheld the holiness of His own Law.

But Jesus Christ did even more than cancel the debt: He took the Law that condemned us and set it aside so that we are no longer under its dominion. We are “delivered from the Law” (Rom. 7:6). We “are not under the Law, but under grace” (Rom. 6:14). This does not mean that we are lawless, because the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us as we walk in the power of the Spirit (Rom. 8:4). Our relationship with Jesus Christ enables us to obey God out of love, not out of slavish fear.

Victorious in Him (v. 15). Jesus not only dealt with sin and the Law on the cross, but He also dealt with Satan. Speaking about His crucifixion, Jesus said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out” (John 12:31). The death of Christ on the cross looked like a great victory for Satan, but it turned out to be a great defeat from which Satan cannot recover.

Jesus had three great victories on the cross. First, He “disarmed the powers and authorities” (Col. 2:15, niv), stripping Satan and his army of whatever weapons they held. Satan cannot harm the believer who will not harm himself. It is when we cease to watch and pray (as did Peter) that Satan can use his weapons against us.

Second, Jesus “made a public spectacle” (Col. 2:15, niv) of the enemy, exposing Satan’s deceit and vileness. In His death, resurrection, and ascension, Christ vindicated God and vanquished the devil.

His third victory is found in the word triumph. Whenever a Roman general won a great victory on foreign soil, took many captives and much loot, and gained new territory for Rome, he was honored by an official parade known as “the Roman triumph.” Paul alluded to this practice in his Second Letter to the Corinthians (see 2 Cor. 2:14). Jesus Christ won a complete victory, and He returned to glory in a great triumphal procession (Eph. 4:8ff). In this, He disgraced and defeated Satan.

You and I share in His victory over the devil. We need not worry about the elemental forces that govern the planets and try to influence men’s lives. The satanic armies of principalities and powers are defeated and disgraced! As we claim the victory of Christ, use the equipment He has provided for us (Eph. 6:10ff), and trust Him, we are free from the influence of the devil.

What a wonderful position and provision we have in Christ! Are we living up to it by faith?⁵

10. And ye are complete in him. God did this in connection with Christ. This is both complete and permanent. Having been completely filled in the past, we are in a state of fullness now. All we need is in Christ (1 Cor 1:30). We do not need the emptiness of the Gnostics, since we have the fullness of Christ. We seek no other source of grace and truth; we show no allegiance to anyone else; and we submit to no other authority. Christ is the Head; He is the source of life; and He is sovereign over life.

11. Circumcised. This points to conversion (Rom 4:1; 2:28–29; Phil 3:3). The character of this circumcision is spiritual and not physical. It is without hands; inward and not outward. The extent of this circumcision is the whole body, not just one organ. The author of this circumcision is Christ, not Moses. This circumcision that Paul speaks of is not a rite, but a reality. Putting off the body … the flesh. Stripping and casting aside as a filthy garment. The flesh is removed from the throne, and the Christian is set free from his sinful nature. The evil nature is not eradicated (1 Jn 1:8), but its power is broken. Christ is now on the throne; but the flesh lurks about and tries to usurp the throne. Our physical members are to be instruments not of unrighteousness unto sin, but of righteousness unto God (Rom 6:11–14).

12. Buried with him in baptism. Jointly entombed with Christ; sharing in His experience. Baptism is not a magic rite, but an act of obedience in confessing our faith. Baptism symbolizes our experience of death to the old life and resurrection to the new life (Rom 6:3–5). Baptism is an outward expression of an inward experience. Through the faith. Without saving faith, baptism is an empty, meaningless ceremony. Through faith we receive Christ (Jn 1:12–13) and experience the new birth.

13. And you, being dead. Devoid of the life of God, a totally depraved nature (Eph 2:1; 5:6, 11). Hath he quickened. Made alive in union with Christ. Having forgiven you all trespasses. Graciously pardoning and cancelling the debt (cf. Lk 7:42).

14. Blotting out. Erased, wiped away, obliterated, cancelled the note. This explains the forgiveness. The handwriting of ordinances. The handwritten document consisting of ordinances. The bond here is the certification of debt, the instrument of condemnation, the indictment drawn up against a prisoner, and a signed confession of indebtedness. Three expressions describe the law: (1) it is written in ordinances, expressed in decrees and commandments; (2) it was against us, had a valid claim on us; (3) it was contrary to us, because we couldn’t meet the claim. Paul states that bond was: (1) blotted out; (2) taken out of the way; (3) and nailed to His cross. This was once-for-all removal (2 Cor 5:21; Eph 2:15–16; Gal 3:13). In the East, a bond is cancelled by nailing it to the post. Our bond of guilt was nailed to His cross.⁶

The sins that have plagued you are written on a list. Santa Claus makes a list and checks it twice in order to find out who’s naughty and nice. Our Father, on the other hand, makes a list and checks it once. Then He nails it to the Cross, where the blood of His Son covers it completely. The list of our sins, shortcomings, and stupidity is blotted out in totality by the blood of the Son of God.

Many Christians aren’t healthy because they fail to understand this foundational and profoundly simple truth. They know they’re forgiven—but they can’t believe the one who hurt them is. “You can’t ignore the abuse, the trauma, and the anxiety that have been inflicted upon you,” they are told. “It must be dealt with.” Wait a minute! It has been dealt with by Jesus’ blood on the Cross. He hung on the Cross of Calvary dying for the very sin that bugs us in others. Therefore, for us to say, “We must dig it up and talk it through,” makes a mockery of what Christ did on Calvary. “It is finished,” He cried. It’s done. It’s paid for. So be forgiven and forgive one another.⁷

he heart of all this is: having forgiven us all our trespasses. The forgiveness of sins is the powerful reality that makes possible deliverance from the domain of darkness and transference to the kingdom of Christ (see 1:13, 14). It is the reality that makes people who were dead in trespasses alive. It is what turns alienation into reconciliation (1:21, 22).

Do not overlook the word ‘all’. The heart of the new life we have been given is the forgiveness of all the trespasses. The essence of our old dead existence being discarded is the forgiveness of all our trespasses. Some of us are more aware of our trespasses than others. Some of us have more sensitive consciences. But in Christ the truth is: ALL FORGIVEN.

A small but significant point: at the end of 2:13 Paul shifts from speaking of ‘you’ (Gentiles) to ‘us’. While the language ‘uncircumcision’ and ‘a circumcision made without hands’ of verses 11–13a was particularly fitting for his gentile readers (‘you’), the forgiveness of all ‘our’ trespasses is something Paul and other Jewish believers in Jesus share with the faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae (1:2).

All of this (2:11–13) is what Paul meant when he said ‘you have been filled in him’ (2:10). He does not for a moment mean to encourage spiritual complacency by this. You are to walk in him, to be built in him, to be established in your faith in him (2:6, 7). You are to continue in this faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard (1:23). The point now is the completeness of what has been given to us in Christ. The fullness of life (as all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, 2:3) is in him. I am not sure what you are looking for in life, but what you should be looking for is what has been given to you in Christ, in the death of Christ and his resurrection. That is why you must see to it that no one takes you captive away from Christ (2:8).

Verses 14 and 15 now, elaborate the other two truths about Christ that were briefly stated in verses 9 and 10, and show us why in him we are filled. Verse 14 spells out the point of the whole fullness of deity dwelling bodily in Christ (2:9). Verse 15 then spells out how it is that he is the head of all rule and authority (2:10).⁸

To defeat death, God made us alive; to deliver us from sin, he made us alive with Christ. Because God raised Christ, those who belong to Christ are raised as well. The penalty of sin and its power over believers were miraculously destroyed by Christ on the cross. Through faith in Christ, believers are acquitted, or found not guilty, before God, their judge. How did this happen? The answer is simple: He forgave all our sins. If our sinful nature caused us to be dead, then that sinful nature had to be dealt with before God could make us alive. The word “forgave” is in the past tense, referring to Christ’s work on the cross. God’s forgiveness opens the way for believers to experience new life in Christ.

2:14 In forgiving all our sins, Christ canceled the record that contained the charges against us. This record was like a handwritten ledger of our trespasses against the law. Humanity could not pay the debt for these offenses, so God wiped out the record of our sin for us by nailing it to Christ’s cross. In so doing, our debts were canceled; what stood against us can no longer hinder us. Christ set us free by his sacrificial death on the cross.

2:15 Not only did Christ’s death on the cross pay humanity’s debt to God, his death also meant his triumph over the evil rulers and authorities. Who are these? Several suggestions have been made, including (1) demonic powers, (2) the gods of the powerful nations, (3) the government of Rome, or even (4) angels (highly regarded by the heretical teachers). Since Paul did not identify who these powers and authorities were, it could be any one of them, or all four. What Christ disarmed on the cross was any embodiment of rebellion in the world—whether that be Satan and his demons, false idols of pagan religions (as in 2:16), evil world governments, or even God’s good angels when they become the object of worship (as in the Colossian heresy).

This “disarming” occurred when Jesus died on the cross. The word for “disarmed” is literally “stripped,” as in stripping a defeated enemy of armor on the battlefield. The powers and authorities of this evil world stripped Christ of his clothing and popularity, made a public spectacle of him on the cross, and triumphed over him by putting him to death. Ironically, the victory belonged to Christ. Actually he shamed them publicly by his victory.

2:16 Because Christ had canceled the written code (2:14) and had disarmed evil powers (2:15), believers have been set free from legalistic rules about what they eat or drink or what festivals they observe. Although it is most likely that Paul was referring to Jewish laws about diet and festival observances, pagan food laws and celebrations, or a combination of the two, cannot be excluded as a possibility. Paul’s point was that the believers should not give up their freedom for legalism. They must not let anyone condemn them by saying that certain actions would exclude them from God’s people. If the Colossians submitted to any of the regulations imposed by the false teachers, they would be saying that evil powers still held authority over them. They needed to remember that Christ had set them free.⁹

2:13 dead in your transgressions. See notes on Eph 2:1, 5. So bound in the sphere of sin, the world (Eph 2:12), the flesh (Ro 8:8), and the devil (1Jn 5:19) as to be unable to respond to spiritual stimuli; totally devoid of spiritual life. Paul further defines this condition of the unsaved in 1Co 2:14; Eph 4:17–19; Tit 3:3. He made you alive together with Him. See notes on Eph 2:1, 5. Only through union with Jesus Christ (vv. 10–12) can those hopelessly dead in their sins receive eternal life (cf. Eph 2:5). Note that God takes the initiative and exerts the life-giving power to awaken and unite sinners with His Son; the spiritually dead have no ability to make themselves alive (cf. Ro 4:17; 2Co 1:9). forgiven us all our transgressions. Cf. 1:14. God’s free (Ro 3:24) and complete (Ro 5:20; Eph 1:7) forgiveness of guilty sinners who put their faith in Jesus Christ is the most important reality in Scripture (cf. Pss 32:1; 130:3, 4; Is 1:18; 55:7; Mic 7:18; Mt 26:28; Ac 10:43; 13:38, 39; Tit 3:4–7; Heb 8:12).

2:14 canceled out the certificate of debt. This refers to the handwritten certificate of debt by which a debtor acknowledged his indebtedness. All people (Ro 3:23) owe God an unpayable debt for violating His law (Gal 3:10; Jas 2:10; cf. Mt 18:23–27), and are thus under sentence of death (Ro 6:23). Paul graphically compares God’s forgiveness of believers’ sins to wiping ink off a parchment. Through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, God has totally erased our certificate of indebtedness and made our forgiveness complete. nailed it to the cross. This is another metaphor for forgiveness. The list of the crimes of a crucified criminal was nailed to the cross with that criminal to declare the violations he was being punished for (as in the case of Jesus, as noted in Mt 27:37). Believers’ sins were all put to Christ’s account, nailed to His cross as He paid the penalty in their place for them all, thus satisfying the just wrath of God against crimes requiring punishment in full.¹⁰

1 The New King James Version. (1982). (Col 2:12–14). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

2 McNaughton, I. S. (2006). Opening up Colossians and Philemon (pp. 46–49). Leominster: Day One Publications.

3 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (Philippians/Colossians) (electronic ed., Vol. 48, pp. 157–158). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

4 McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Epistles (Philippians/Colossians) (electronic ed., Vol. 48, pp. 158–159). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

5 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, pp. 126–128). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

6 Hindson, E. E., & Kroll, W. M. (Eds.). (1994). KJV Bible Commentary (pp. 2461–2462). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

7 Courson, J. (2003). Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (p. 1315). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.

8 Woodhouse, J. (2011). Colossians and Philemon: So Walk in Him (pp. 138–139). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus.

9 Barton, B., Comfort, P., Osborne, G., Taylor, L. K., & Veerman, D. (2001). Life Application New Testament Commentary (pp. 879–880). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale.

10 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Col 2:13–14). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.