A Spiritual Baby
A newly begotten child of God is a spiritual BABE in Christ. And human physical babies fall down several times before they learn to walk! But they do not become discouraged, give up, or quit! Spiritual babies, too, fall down — perhaps many times — in a number of INCIDENTS of sin — learning to WALK with Christ down GOD'S ROADWAY.
But that does not need to move them off that WAY! If they are "walking with Christ," HE is there (in Spirit) to pick them up, and help them learn to walk better!
So UNDERSTAND! God gives you the spiritual equipment to go HIS WAY. The Holy Spirit imparts power to UNDERSTAND what is God's Way, revealed in the Bible. It thus leads — but never pulls, pushes, shoves, or forces! God's Spirit gives you the spiritual LOVE — God's own LOVE — which only may fulfill His Law. His Spirit imparts to you CHRIST'S OWN FAITH, to make possible obeying His Law. It gives you spiritual POWER!
That's a lot of spiritual EQUIPMENT! A lot of HELP!
But it is still up To YOU what you do with it! Jesus said that road is not easy. Human nature, the world and its associations, and the invisible forces of Satan, continue pulling you the other way. Yes, they PULL! And God's Spirit dwelling in you does not pull! You must exert your WILL and DETERMINATION to follow God's Spirit leading you to see and understand GOD'S way. You have the spiritual equipment to go that way. Yet this other law — the law of human nature — the law of "sin and death" — will tug at you, and PULL in the carnal direction.
And you are a spiritual BABY! So, you do fall down a number of times — yet you are falling while still ON CHRIST'S ROAD, walking with Him. As long as you keep His Goal before your eyes — as long as you continue in the spiritual ATTITUDE — as long as you DESIRE to go God's Way — as long as you keep trying, and determined, YOU ARE STILL ON THAT ROAD!
You are NOT CONDEMNED!
The SELF in the converted Christian is still there — but, as Paul spoke of it, it must be CRUCIFIED! A crucified man may be still alive, but nailed up to a stake so he can't get down even though he wants to. The Christian must nail up, so to speak, this old human nature, so that it is NOT ALLOWED to get active and pull him down in the wrong direction.
So Paul said, to the Galatians, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20).
It Takes STRIVING!
Notice what God says about the Christian life.
It is not EASY to overcome sin. You simply DON'T succeed in every encounter — in every incident!
Jesus said, "STRIVE to enter in at the strait gate . . ." (Luke 13:24). The Greek word which Jesus spoke for "strive" means "to strive, to agonize." It means a hard STRUGGLE. A "strait" gate is a very narrow one — difficult to squeeze through. "For," continued Jesus (Matthew 7:13-14), 'WIDE is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and MANY there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Paul, to the Colossians, spoke of his struggle to overcome, saying: ". . . I also labor, STRIVING according to His working, which worketh in me mightily" (Col. 1:29).
Paul knew that the Christian has a fierce BATTLE with his own nature, the world, and the powers of Satan, when he said, "Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, STRIVING against sin" (Heb. 12:4).
Paul also showed how we must have on a mighty SPIRITUAL ARMOR to win this battle. He said, "Finally, my brethren, BE STRONG in the Lord, and in the POWER of His might. Put on the WHOLE ARMOR of GOD, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness [WICKED SPIRITS] in high places" (Eph. 6:10-12). Again, in the more modern English of Moffat, ". . . but with the angelic [demoniacal) Rulers, the angelic Authorities, the potentates of the dark present, the spirit forces of evil in the heavenly sphere."
The Special Help You Need
BUT — there's more to it than that! Each time you stumble and fall down — in an incident of sin — you simply failed to fully USE this spiritual equipment God had given you. You could have prevented it — you MUST learn to prevent these stumblings along the way. You MUST overcome these forces — your human nature, the world, and the devil — which have pulled you down.
The ANSWER?
The apostle Paul gave it. After picturing these stumblings, he cried out, "O wretched man that I am, WHO shall deliver me from this body of death?" And he answered, GOD WILL!
At each temptation to stumble, you need to cry out to God for SPECIAL HELP — for EXTRA POWER.
Yet if you wait until the temptation comes, you may then, for the moment, be too weak to call out for Christ to hold you up. Now JESUS set the example! And He never stumbled once! He is the only one who never did! And WHY? Because He is the only One who kept Himself constantly SO CLOSE TO GOD — in continual PRAYER — keeping His mind so continually and steadfastly on God — maintaining, constantly, such close companionship, and fellowship with God that, when each temptation came, He was spiritually strong enough to put the temptation out of His mind instantly!
He never harbored a temptation. He was tempted in all points, just as you and I are! Repeatedly! Satan worked harder in tempting Him than he ever did on any other human! How did He put out of mind the temptations? By having PUT IN His mind the spiritual power of God's Holy Spirit!
Now you and I can have — must have to succeed — this same FELLOWSHIP with God, and also with the living Christ (I John 1:3, 7).
But if, when the temptation comes, you find yourself NOT so filled with God's power, that the temptation tries you, you STILL can cry out, at the instant, for HELP!
Jesus Christ is your High Priest. Read Hebrews 4:16. Go boldly to Him on the Throne of Grace for that HELP in time of need!
Do Real Christians Ever Sin?
Now we approach our final answer.
Suppose the prominent church member, mentioned in the beginning of this article, was actually a truly converted man, and that he actually did commit the alleged adultery. Could he still be a Christian? If GOD had been previously using him, could God still have used him, after the sin of adultery — if he had not been murdered?
I was mentioning this hypothetical instance to a man who is a begotten son of God. His instant, rather emphatic ejaculation was that definitely he never could have been a truly converted man of God, IF he committed adultery.
And I am led to believe perhaps MOST people would think the same way. BUT YOU WOULD BE WRONG!
Yes, Even Ministers CAN Sin!
We need to UNDERSTAND!
Not only could a prominent churchman, under temptation, slip and commit a sin. But even Jesus Christ was tempted — probably more strongly than any other human. He, of course, never let the temptation remain in His mind —it never conceived or gave birth to sin.
And we need to remember — even a minister of Jesus Christ — a true one whom the living Christ USES — is JUST AS HUMAN AS YOU ARE!
First, too many people look on a minister as a holy, superhuman, saintly, super-righteous sort of person who is surely not HUMAN. They seem to think a minister is not like other humans — that he is automatically ABOVE SIN! This can get to be a sort of WORSHIP, of making your minister "another god BEFORE the Almighty GOD." That can become IDOLATRY!
A minister has the same human nature YOU have — and I have shown you the apostle Paul had it, too! Surely NO minister today is any more righteous than was PAUL — and he had a mighty BATTLE striving against sin!
And if we battle against EVIL SPIRITS in HIGH PLACES — Satan and demons Of HIGH RANK, and GREAT POWER — just consider how much more the forces of Satan would try to overthrow a true minister of the living Christ!
God's ministers probably have a far tougher STRUGGLE against sin than YOU do! They NEED your prayers!
Now as I said in the beginning, I did not know this churchman who was murdered. It is not for me to judge whether he was sincere, whether actually a converted man.
I do not know whether he actually committed the alleged adultery.
But I do want to make one thing PLAIN.
IF he were a converted man, with God's Holy Spirit dwelling in him — with an abiding overall ATTITUDE of delighting in God's Law, as did Paul, of obedience to GOD and if he actually did slip, and under a temptation you and I may not understand, yield to this INCIDENT of adultery — then IF he truly repented of it, as soon as he came back to his right senses, God WOULD HAVE FORGIVEN!
Assuredly it WAS possible that he could have continued as a real Christian. Jesus DIED to forgive and BLOT OUT sins REPENTED OF!
Most assuredly no Christian SHOULD commit sin!
And most assuredly no one teaches more emphatically than do the editors of The PLAIN TRUTH that Christians MUST KEEP GOD'S COMMANDMENTS! No one can say that we condone sin! NEVER!!!
Now UNDERSTAND!
The apostle John had been three-and-a-half years with Jesus. He wrote under Jesus' inspiration. He said:
"This then is the Message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you . . ." (I John 1:5). This is the inspired Message direct from Christ! Continue:
"IF we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth" (verse 6). The "we" here refers to real Christians. In verse 19 of chapter 2 he speaks of Non-Christians: "They went out from us, but they were not of us." His language is plain.
If WE profess to be Christians — if we SAY we have fellowship "with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ" (verse 3) — yet if we are living in darkness — if our lives are going the way of SIN — we are liars. He is not here talking of one who, under temptation, commits an act of sin, and then repents. He is talking directly of those followers of the FALSE PROPHETS who teach that GOD'S LAW is DONE AWAY. If you say you are a Christian because you BELIEVE IN CHRIST, or worship Christ — yet DO NOT KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, you WALK in "darkness." You then do NOT have any fellowship with Christ, and if you claim to be a Christian, you are a LIAR! (I John 2:4.)