WHEN IS "SIN" NOT SIN?
DFO 594
8/77
1. MARIA JUST ASKED ME A QUESTION: She said she understood from the Letter, "God's Only Law Is Love" that WE now, as Christians, are no longer under the laws of Moses but under the love-law of Christ. "But," she said,
2. "WHAT ABOUT THE FELLOWS WE MAKE LOVE WITH? Aren't THEY still under the Mosaic law & committing a sin when they make love with us? Aren't THEY committing adultery?"
3. AS I STOPPED FOR A MOMENT & THOUGHT, THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO ME WAS: Like Christ was our atonement & He bore our sins for us, WE are their atonement before they find the Lord, & in a sense we bear their sins for them which are already forgiven in Christ & therefore by us. Jesus Himself said,
4. "WHOSE SOEVER SINS YE SHALL REMIT, THEY SHALL BE REMITTED UNTO THEM." If YOU forgive them, then GOD will forgive them also. Whoever YOU forgive, GOD will forgive. If YOU don't forgive them, then GOD won't forgive them either. He says in the same verse, "Whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." (John 20:23)
5. BESIDES, WHAT IS THE IDEA & PURPOSE OF THE OLD MOSAIC LAW AGAINST ADULTERY? Even behind the old Mosaic laws there was the LOVE of God & His desires to keep people from hurting each other & damaging each other either physically or otherwise, even their feelings.
6. THEN COMES THE OTHER QUESTION WHICH MARIA JUST BROUGHT UP, "Well, what about his WIFE, if he's MARRIED? Isn't he committing adultery against his own wife?"
7. THE PHYSICAL ACT IN ITSELF IS NOT WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. You are in NO way whatsoever trying to come between him & his wife, which WOULD be adultery, & in which case it WOULD be a sin for you to be stealing another woman's husband--unless she's already forsaken him.
8. BUT INSTEAD, YOU ARE TRYING TO DO HIM GOOD by giving him the Love of God, to actually make a BETTER husband of him & a BETTER father for her children, & so to give HER a better home. You are doing her a FAVOUR! And this we found to be true in numerous cases in actual practice.
9. SO HOW COULD THIS BE A SIN? Everything must be judged from the standpoint of LOVE. Is it doing GOOD or is it doing EVIL? Are you HELPING him or HINDERING him?
10. NOW OF COURSE HOWEVER, IF HE DOES NOT RECEIVE JESUS & he goes back just the same evil man, back to his family &/or his wife as evil as ever, although now having had the opportunity with God offering His Love face to face, but having rejected Christ, closed his heart's door & spurned God's Love, then that's different.
11. IF HE DOES NOT RECEIVE IT IN THE RIGHT SPIRIT AS A GIFT FROM GOD, God's Love, freely, willingly, unselfishly & even sacrificially given, then perhaps God will hold it to his charge & hold him accountable for it.
12. IT'S EXACTLY IN THE SAME CATEGORY AS WITNESSING--it IS witnessing of course. The Apostle said regarding our witness to others: "To some we are the ministers of SALVATION, to others we are the ministers of DAMNATION," depending on how they themselves received it. (See 2Cor.2:15,16.)
13. IF WE PREACH CHRIST & GOD'S LOVE TO THEM & THEY RECEIVE IT AS SUCH, then of course they are saved. But if they REJECT it, "Now the last estate of the man is worse then the first!" (2Pet.2:20) Because by bringing him the Truth & the Light, he is now more greatly condemned than ever because he has rejected Christ & His Salvation.
14. SO THE GREAT CONDEMNATION WAS NOT THAT THEY WERE ALREADY SINFUL, which God could forgive & DOES forgive if we receive His pardon through Jesus Christ. "But THIS is the condemnation: that light is come into the World, but men LOVED darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (Jn.3:19)
15. TO HAVE BEEN SHOWN THE LOVE OF GOD & RESISTED IT IS THEIR GREATEST SIN! To have been convicted by the Holy Spirit & resisted it & to have heard the Word of God of Christ's Salvation & rejected His Love, these are the greatest of all sins!
16. WHOEVER TELLS THE WORLD THE GOSPEL, MAKES OF SOME BETTER PEOPLE, & OF OTHERS WORSE because they reject it. When we preach the Gospel & give God's Love to people, we save some but damn others.
17. IT'S NOT OUR FAULT THAT THEY REJECTED--it's THEIR fault! In fact, if WE did NOT tell them, then their blood would be upon OUR hands. But He says in Ezekiel 3:18-19 that if you WARN the wicked of his wicked way & yet he repents NOT of his sins & he dies in his sins, then his blood is on his OWN hands for "THOU hast DELIVERED thy soul."
18. SO IF WE DIDN'T TELL THEM IT WOULD BE A SIN FOR US. But having TOLD them, then it is THEIR sin for not having RECEIVED it.
19. IT'S ALL IN THEIR OWN SPIRITUAL ATTITUDE in their mental attitude. It's how they approach it & whether they receive it by faith in love.--"Faith which worketh by love." (Gal.5:6)
20. IF THEY RECEIVE IT BY FAITH IN LOVE, YOUR LOVE & GOD'S LOVE, THEN IT'S NO SIN TO THEM. So God will not hold that against them. In a sense it's a VICARIOUS ATONEMENT. You have already borne their sins, in a sense, for them, as Jesus did, & forgiven them, & gladly & freely given it.
21. BUT IF AFTER HAVING GONE AWAY, THEY STILL DO NOT BELIEVE you & they STILL consider that they committed a sin, then it IS a sin unto them! "For whatsoever is not of faith is sin!" (Rom.14:23)
22. SO WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?--Stop preaching it so we won't send so many people to Hell? NO! We're commanded to obey God, the commandment of Jesus Christ Himself, to "go into all the World & preach the Gospel to every creature," & we've GOT to do it! (Mk.16:15)
23. WHETHER YOU OR THEY LIKE IT OR NOT, GOD LIKES IT!--and they'll like it if they receive it. It's YOUR job to preach the GOSPEL, it's your job to SHOW the LOVE of God, the SAMPLE--but how they receive it is up to them.
24. THEREFORE TO HIM THAT BELIEVETH, IT IS NO SIN, it is no sin to the one who receives it by FAITH. "All things are possible to him that believeth" & "with God nothing shall be impossible," as Jesus Himself said. (Mk.9:23 & Lk.1:37) He can take away the guilt of adultery, or what otherwise WOULD be adultery. He takes it away by FAITH, faith in the SERMON & the SAMPLE.
25. THE CHURCH & THE DEVIL MADE SEX A SIN--but God through us is restoring the virtue of His Own Creation! TRUE Love CANNOT be sin, for GOD IS LOVE & Love NEVER fails! So how can SEX be adultery when given for the LOVE of GOD! LOVE is GOD, so TRUE Love can NEVER be a SIN! "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto ME!" (Mat.25:40) "Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do ALL to the glory of God!" (Col.3:17)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family