Sin No More

Jesus told an adulteress to sin no more. He didn’t say don’t commit adultery anymore, He said sin no more. According to an overwhelming majority of Christians, He told her to do something she was incapable of doing — sin no more. So who is right, the Christians who say no one can stop sinning, or Jesus who said sin no more?

Wait, there’s more. In His sermon on the mountain, He said to everyone there, “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax-gatherers do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Matthew 5:44-48.

Sin no more, be perfect, was He serious? Did He not know these were just human beings? They came from the dust of the earth and sin dwelt in them. Jesus knew this and He still dared to tell them to sin no more and to be perfect, as their heavenly Father was perfect.

If Jesus were here today and said things like this to Christians, I’m pretty certain many, many, many of them would throw stones at Him.

Think of this:

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus, Philippians 1:6. [Notice Paul did not say God would make us perfect on the day of Christ Jesus — he said God would make us perfect until the day of Christ Jesus].

Epaphras, who is one of your number, a bondslave of Jesus Christ, sends you his greetings, always laboring earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God, Colossians 4:12.

And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing, James 1:4.

After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you, 1 Peter 5:10, [not on the day of Christ Jesus, but after you have suffered a little while]

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, Romans 12:2.

Jesus is not a taskmaster, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. We will not suffer beyond what we are able to bear. God would never allow that. This is not to say our suffering will be like a walk in the park. Many Christians have suffered all the way to death, but they withstood it. And they were conquerors! They loved not their lives until death, Revelation 12:11. Too many of us today love our lives a little too much.

“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple,” Luke 14:26. The word ‘hate’ in this verse means ‘love less’. We are to love everyone from our families to our enemies, but we are to put no one above Jesus.

The doctrine that sanctification is a process that will go on until the day we die is a false doctrine. It is not biblical.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD,” 1 Corinthians 1:30-31.

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord, Hebrews 12:14. Pursuing sanctification is the same as pursuing Jesus, for He is our sanctification. Sanctification and holiness are interchangeable, and there is no one holy but Jesus, and those who are members of His body.

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, ‘NOT’ having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead, Philippians 3:7-11.

No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him, and those whom He draws must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow Jesus. If they do this, Jesus becomes to them wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption. They are in Christ.

THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE,” Romans 10:9b. Amen. This is true, for righteousness is found in Jesus. We are in Christ and our righteousness comes from God on the basis of faith in Jesus. Because of that faith, He has become our righteousness. Again, we are in Him. We are members of His body and He is the wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

God has created us in Christ as His workmanship for good works that we are to do. We are to walk in those works. These are not works that we do because we are righteous; they are works we do because Jesus is righteous and we are in Him, doing the works the Father prepared for us to do. Hence faith without works is dead.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them, Hebrews 2:10.

As a result of Adam’s disobedience, his descendants inherited his nature and were likewise disobedient. As a result of Jesus’ obedience, all who abide in Him inherit His nature and are likewise obedient (see Romans 5:19). Thus the difference between the flesh and the Spirit.

Yes, everything we receive from God is a gift; WE EARN NOTHING. But once we’ve received a gift from God we are stewards of it, and consequently under obligation to the Spirit from whom the gift came, and are no longer under obligation to the desires of the flesh.

The gospel I preach is not one of working for our salvation. IT IS ONE OF WORKING AS A RESULT OF OUR SALVATION. It is doing the works God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, works done in and through our Savior, in whom our lives are now hidden.

Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Faith without works is useless. A man is justified by works, and not by faith alone, James 2:18, 20, 24.

Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant

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Published by Jon David Banks