announcement: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the Waking Up to Grace podcast, where we celebrate and explore the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Tune in to the Waking Up to Grace podcast on every major platform. You can also listen to our episodes and read our full transcripts at wakinguptogracecom. And now here's Lenny.

Lenny: 0:25

If you follow my podcast, you may have noticed that last week's episode sounded a bit familiar. That's because it was parts of a discussion that I extracted from our Roman study introduction. I wasn't trying to pull one over on anyone, I just felt strongly that the discussion we had on church deserved its own episode. So I hope you guys enjoyed that.

Lenny: 0:46

I've discussed 1 John 1-9 throughout several episodes since our 2023 and 2024 episodes, and I explored the context from a little bit different angle. The conclusion remains the same, but the thought process coming to that conclusion is not exactly the same. I really wanted to put these thoughts together for you guys in an updated episode so you could weigh it out for yourselves. I was pleasantly surprised that when discussions from several different episodes were woven together, they seemed to fit together like they were made that way. That seems like a God thing to me, but I'll let you be the judge of that. So enough of the introduction. Let's get into the meat, shall we? Let's see if 1 John 1.9 is in fact Christian instruction. 1 John 1.9 reads If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lenny: 1:41

I'm going to be looking at an argument directly related to the passage 1 John 1.9 that holds to the mainstream interpretation. For the sake of learning from it. The argument begins there are some who insist that 1 John 1-9 has nothing to do with Christians but is an invitation to non-Christians. I would say I do think that this is the most reasonable view, being that John opens by proclaiming Christ to them so that they can share fellowship in Christ with them. The argument continues If we confess our sins. Confess is a compound Greek term, homologio, which is from to speak and the same, so this literally means to say the same thing. Confessing therefore means saying about our sins what God says about them, namely that they are indeed sins, offenses against him. I say yes, when our eyes are open, we see sin how God sees it. We despise it. Upon regeneration, we are able to see ourselves from God's vantage point and then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lenny: 2:45

As is written, the argument goes further, saying it is the present tense which implies ongoing action. Believers continue to agree with God that they have violated his holiness. I say while believers continue to agree with God about sin. They also agree with God that it has been dealt with. We agree that we've been reconciled and that can't be undone. We believe he is no longer counting our sins against us, as it is written. We also agree that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness and that Christ shed his blood once for all and isn't going to do it again and again. Like the high priest under the law. Hebrews outlines this with clarity. John himself also tells us that we do not continue to sin because Christ abides in us. Later in the letter we have been cleansed by our faith. We have been justified by God. Justification is a super big deal.

Lenny: 3:39

The argument finishes by saying some say that believers are already forgiven of all sin and they don't need to confess their sins. Well, to not confess your sins would be to not agree with what God says about sin. I say I don't know what some said, but I don't think believers can help but agree with God about their sin. That is milk and vegetables in my opinion. In my experience, believers do not agree with God that their sin was fully dealt with at the cross. They don't believe they are right with God, even though it is the promise of the gospel and the very reason our Lord Yeshua shed his blood for us.

Lenny: 4:16

No matter how you interpret the word, confess or homologio, it still doesn't mean ask for more forgiveness. Our scripture never tells the Christian to ask God for more forgiveness. You would really have to wonder if it was so important that we had to do something to get right with God every time we sin. Wouldn't it have been written in just one of Paul's epistles? When a Christian sins, it ought to immediately bring to remembrance the cleansing they received from Christ. Upon remembrance, one should be humbled and extremely grateful for the cleansing they received from Christ. Upon remembrance, one should be humbled and extremely grateful for the sacrifice that our Lord made. What is it about being cleansed from all unrighteousness that makes us want to ask for more cleansing? Why not just agree with God and thank him for his great mercy? Why not, out of thanks, despise what we did and look to him for guidance? We're children of the true living God. We are God's holy people. We can ask.

Lenny: 5:13

So in summary, 1 John 1.9 was directed toward the non-believer or the non-believing mindset, but could serve as a mind renewal for the spiritual, to bring them to remembrance of their cleansing, as Peter said in 2 Peter 1.9,. But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. The message was for believers too. In that way, just like all scripture is for us, the believers were struggling with a non-believing mindset. We see this throughout the entire letter of John's first epistle. We have already been given the cure to our sin disease when we trusted in Christ. We just have to believe it. That is why the Apostle Paul said things like be transformed by the renewing of your mind and be reconciled, because we tend to not believe what the gospel teaches us and keep going back to a guilty conscience in the punishing battle of pleasing our Lord by self-effort.

Lenny: 6:12

It's commonly overlooked when we read John's first epistle that John was writing against sin, denial and unbelief in the finished work of Christ Yeshua. 1 John 1, 5 reads this is the message we have heard from him to proclaim to you that God is light and in him. 1 John 1.5 reads so we see here that we received light in Christ. There's no darkness in him. What would cause someone to be in the darkness? It would be not having Christ living in them.

Lenny: 6:54

So this passage is addressing unbelief, but can a Christian live in unbelief? Yes, we can be in the light and still act like we're walking in the darkness. In other words, we can walk in unbelief. The only way we can understand this is to understand that being born again is not something we can change by behavior, and that we can actually place our dependency on ourselves, even though we've been given a greater object for our faith. Would you expect to have peace walking around in darkness? Of course not. You'll be stumbling your way through the Christian life and causing yourself all kinds of unnecessary anxiety. You might ask then, how do I get back into the light? Get back to depending on the Lord.

Lenny: 7:36

1 Peter, 5, 6, and 7 says Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that, at the proper time, he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you, the Lord. Waking up to grace is not about being critical of our behavior and beating ourselves up. This would only cause more anxiety. Is it humble to prove that we're right with God by our own self-effort? No, it's not. When we do that, we act as if we're walking in the darkness instead of the light. We're children of the light. We should let our light shine. In this way we would share fellowship with one another, as John describes to us in his first epistle. In 1 John, chapter 1, we read which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, jesus Christ, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness. The word fellowship is used four times in this short passage. That makes this an excellent example of the usage of the word in our Bibles.

Lenny: 9:28

In the first epistle of John, there was a sin denial going on. The people he was addressing in the first chapter of his letter had not received Christ. The writing was also for those who needed a lot of mind renewal. Those being written to either did not believe or were displaying unbelief in their ways. He addresses the issue of unbelief from the view of one who does not have Christ. For those in Christ, this passage was meant to renew their minds and restore the proper view of the fellowship they shared. It might bring the spiritually dead to a fellowship with the Lord and also restore the minds of those drifting away from truth, and also restore the minds of those drifting away from truth. Many in this audience did not realize that they were believing a false message that was opposed to the one whom their fellowship depended on, that being Christ Yeshua.

Lenny: 10:13

We read in verse 3,. John expresses here that fellowship with them was fellowship with the Father and his Son, christ Jesus. This fellowship is not based on where we go to church or who we hang out with. It's becoming a family in Christ. Hebrews 2.11 tells us a family in Christ. Hebrews 2.11 tells us For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. Christ Yeshua is not ashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. We are his family now. We are now in fellowship. This fellowship does not require anything from us. It was given to us as a gift. Our fellowship is in Christ. Therefore, it was all part of the gift of Christ that was given to us at salvation. Just like we have eternal life in Christ, likewise we have eternal fellowship in Christ. Think of it this way If your biological brother or sister kicked you out of their gathering, would you no longer be family? They could say all they want, but nobody can actually change who your real father is. You cannot change the fact that he is your birth father. It is all the same in this way, when we are born of the Spirit, it was not a coincidence that Christ Yeshua used those words to describe how we receive our fellowship and salvation. A birth is unchangeable.

Lenny: 12:03

Continuing what we read in John's epistle in verse 5, john teaches us that there is no darkness in Christ. He also teaches that if we walk in the light, as Christ is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. So our fellowship is in the light. And what happens when our fellowship is in the light? The blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Okay, what happened to us at salvation? What is the gospel of our Lord Christ Yeshua that we hold so tightly to? It's that the blood of Jesus, his son, cleansed us from all sin. Yes, this is a gift given to us and it does not get taken away.

Lenny: 12:40

But do we always walk in belief? As Christians, are we capable of promoting and displaying darkness just like someone who doesn't know the Savior? Yes, we are capable of this. The power of sin can still affect these bodies of flesh and the problems occur in our minds. This is why waking up to grace is so important. The renewal of the mind is what allows us to live obedient to the truth and not fall for lies. It is so important to protect our minds from taking in garbage. We are grossly overstimulated by useless information in our society today.

Lenny: 13:14

But getting back to John's epistle, if walking in the light means salvation and fellowship, what does John mean in verse 6? If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Walking in darkness clearly means walking in unbelief. If you're saying you have fellowship but walk in unbelief, you lie and do not practice truth. Again, could a believer walk in unbelief? Yes, they could. So in this way, the passage could be teaching two types of people those who never receive Christ proclaiming a false message, and those in Christ proclaiming a false message. Those who were falling away from the truth, needed to realize what they were promoting, what they were living by. You cannot bear the fruit of the Spirit following the flesh. What was the false message being proclaimed would be our next question. What we read in verse 7 is a huge indicator as we go into the verses that follow. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. This is what they did not understand and we find out why when we read further. First, john 18.

Lenny: 14:23

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. John was dealing with sin denial. The people were denying that they had sin. We can't understand who we are in Christ if we don't understand who we are apart from Christ. These people needed to understand who they were apart from Christ so they could see their need for a Savior as well as understand their identity in Christ. We can't enjoy the benefits of a true fellowship with others in Christ if we don't realize the benefits of our fellowship with Christ, the truth that our fellowship is based on the finished work of Christ Yeshua and the indwelling of his spirit as the source of all fruit in our lives is the foundation of all fellowship. We don't have fellowship without this. This truth is our fellowship.

Lenny: 15:11

John then goes back to the truth 1 John 1 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This again emphasizes what we receive at salvation. And then he goes back to the lie. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. The people John wrote to did not see sin the way God saw it.

Lenny: 15:35

Sin denial can come in all different forms. As John continues his letter, he continues to put a heavy emphasis on God's view of sin. In 1 John 3, 9, we read no one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. This passage confuses a lot of people, even many who know their Bibles front to back. This passage is further proof that their understanding of sin was way off, even to the point of doubting the finished work of Christ Yeshua. John is teaching them who they are in Christ, how God sees them now, now that they have been born into the family. If they had known this, he wouldn't have spent so much time emphasizing this truth. This passage is grossly misunderstood and is extremely critical in understanding the fellowship that we have in Christ. When we deny the finished work of Christ Yeshua and proclaim a fellowship based on rules and regulations, we need to go right back to 1 John 1.6. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. We need to go right back to 1 John 1.6. John did not encourage superficial fellowship, and neither did any apostle.

Lenny: 16:46

We can see from the letters we have in our New Testament that the goal was to be one in spirit and mind. When our minds are in the wrong place, we don't produce the true fruits that come from fellowship. As we have discovered, even those born of God can walk in unbelief, acting no different than one who rejects the gospel. Even rejecting the gospel with their promotion of a works-based righteousness. Those in the light believe God In the flesh. We believe we can live sin-free and we can be right with God by self-effort. We often even believe that all God wants from us is to do the best we can. But what God really wants for us is to believe in him and surrender our lives to him, throw in the towel on self-effort, all together and ask Christ to do his work in our lives.

Lenny: 17:33

Many today proclaim a false God without even realizing it. Proclaiming a gospel message that does not make you right with God is no gospel at all. A double message, where we must maintain a fellowship with God by good behavior, is not the gospel of Christ. Although part of the family in Christ, many have estranged themselves from fellowship in their minds. But again, these things have been going on from the beginning. The apostles did not condone this, they didn't accept this in any form, but they did try and help those who fell into these things. It can be very difficult at times to discern the difference between an infant Christian and one who has not received Christ when they both proclaim the same things with their words.

Lenny: 18:13

Self-righteousness and pride will always be the biggest issue in the church, and by church I mean the body of believers in Christ, not those who attend a church building regularly. Today, many proclaim the teachings of Christ as laws to live by, rules to follow. It's no surprise that, with this mindset, going to church regularly also becomes a rule and a way to get right or be right with God. But in reality it's the flesh driving this mentality, not love. The fruits of the Spirit come when our minds are renewed by truth. We don't bear fruit in the flesh, we bear fruit in Christ, and being in Christ has nothing to do with where we are on Sunday morning when the church service begins. It's not about making the self-righteous happy by following their made-up rules. It's about our fellowship in Christ. And our fellowship in Christ is about His work, not ours. They do the same thing with salvation and fellowship. They just stretch salvation until it pulls apart, and then they made two categories out of it.

Lenny: 19:13

Fellowship and salvation are two different things now, and they're not in Scripture. I can assure you when it comes to our fellowship with God. Our fellowship with God is unbreakable. When we're born again as Christians, we enter into unbreakable fellowship with God. This is a vine and branches relationship. The born-again Christian is not a branch that's going to get broken off of the vine which is Christ. So our fellowship with God is perfect because of Christ. But that's not always the sense that we see it used in scripture.

Lenny: 19:47

I've come to realize that when we see the word fellowship in scripture, we often misinterpret that with this fellowship between us and God, when it's really talking about fellowship between people, between Christian and Christian. Our fellowship with other Christians isn't always perfect. Our fellowship with other Christians can become very weak when we are drawn to error and consumed in error instead of truth. And all that comes from a false understanding of 1 John, 1 John, 1.9 specifically. I say this a lot, can't really say it enough. It's a big problem. That understanding of that passage is always what it comes down to when it comes to these doctrines. I just wanted to present a way of looking at this passage where you might be able to see it from a different angle. I think that when we misunderstand this passage, we make a major error and then we start to impose that error on other Christians. It's my belief that understanding this passage is very important.

Lenny: 20:47

I think that the things that John is writing about in this first chapter of his letter, it's about belief versus unbelief. Going into this first chapter, I believe what he's writing about is unbelief and he's writing it to believers so that they won't fall for that unbelief. I used to often say that this letter, 1 John, and the first chapter and sections of his letter weren't written to believers, my argument would be that it was written to believers and non-believers alike, evangelically right, but I'm kind of presenting a different view under the same idea. Let's say it was written to believers, about unbelievers. Go into this with the view that he's writing to believers about unbelievers. We can take this view for a reason. In 1 John, chapter 2, verse 21,.

Lenny: 21:38

He tells us that you often hear this argument. It was written to believers. It was written to believers, period. Because he says it was. He says I'm writing to you guys and he's talking about believers. But this is where you come to realize it's not necessarily to unbelievers, it's about them. It could be to them, could be like, hey, I want these guys to hear this. But he specifically says to these believers I write to you not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie is of the truth.

Lenny: 22:08

Who is of the liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has a Father. Whoever confesses the Son has a Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father, and this is the promise that he made to us. Eternal life. I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you. Eternal life, did you hear that? But the anointing that you receive from him abides in you. He's telling them that the anointing abides in them, which means they abide in Christ, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him. And what do we say? Abide in him means Just remain, remain in him. How do you remain in him? What is it that we're remaining in? We're remaining in the truth about Christ, his finished work. He did it all. That's that we're remaining in. We're remaining in the truth about Christ, his finished work. He did it all. That's what we're remaining in.

Lenny: 23:21

To abide in Christ is to abide in him in his work. It's not to abide in his behavior, because you can't Abide in his behavior means to abide in what he did for you. We might actually behave more like him if we understood that, because he abided in the Father. So if abide is to believe, then why is he telling his fellow Christians to abide? Why would anybody tell a Christian to abide in Christ? If abide is to believe and I think the answer to that is far more simple than we realize when we're a born-again Christian we can still stop believing. These people that John was writing to were being deceived. They were no longer believing the truth about the finished work of Christ Yeshua. So what we then see is belief in two different ways. It's not two different ways of believing. There's the way of believing that you were saved by and you went into salvation, and then there's the belief that you have to continue in. You have to abide in the finished work of Christ. You have to abide in belief. This might well be the biggest problem in our church today. This might well be the biggest problem in our church today. Just like those who John wrote to, we have largely forgotten about the finality of the cross and have put ourselves into a mindset of unbelief. We have born-again Christians doubting the finished work of the cross and even going up against it. John is calling on these Christians to continue abiding in what they believed in the beginning.

Lenny: 24:57

Abiding wanted to read through this passage, so this is 1 John. It's pretty much the first chapter. We'll just kind of read through it and talk about it a little bit. So he starts out that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, jesus Christ.

Lenny: 25:54

Why is he proclaiming this to believers? Why is he doing that? It's a reminder. He's just reminding them. He's reminding them of things they already know, and he said that. We just read in chapter two you know these things. I'm writing to you about those who are deceiving you. So it's like hey guys, guess what Christ is? Lord, remember what happens when you're being deceived. That means you're starting to believe something that's not true. These people were starting to believe the liars that Christ didn't do it all. They weren't abiding anymore because they stopped believing. He writes so that they would have fellowship with them and indeed their fellowship was with the Father and His Son, jesus Christ with them, and indeed their fellowship is with the Father and His Son, jesus Christ. I write these things so that our joy may be complete. So when we look at fellowship, this is a different view of fellowship. He's saying this to believers I write this to you so that you can have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Son, the Son of God, and with the Father. We have fellowship with Christ in truth, and we write these things to you so that you can have fellowship with us. He was writing this to believers so that, I think, is what confuses people, and rightly so. They're like oh well, so fellowship could somehow be broken, and that's where they come up with that.

Lenny: 27:11

But he's not talking about fellowship in the sense of what we read in most other passages, where it's the same as salvation. He's talking about fellowship in the sense of what we read in most other passages, where it's the same as salvation. He's talking about fellowship in truth, he's talking about human fellowship with one another. When we have human fellowship with one another, what is it in? If it's Christian fellowship, it's in truth. Therefore, if we're fellowshipping with people in error, that doesn't really qualify as Christian fellowship. Even if we both believe, we're not really accomplishing any kind of fellowship according to the context that I see in this passage. He's not talking about behavior. He's talking about fellowship in true doctrine. That's why he's proclaiming true doctrine to them. See what I'm saying.

Lenny: 27:55

It's a matter of how you see fellowship in that passage and how we perceive it. If you start perceiving that as salvation, it starts getting confusing. If you start perceiving it as being wrong or right with God for some reason, we start to build a funny doctrine. But all he's saying is I want you guys to have fellowship with us so that we can have joy, so that my joy will be complete. He says I want to have a joyful fellowship with you guys, and the only way we can do that is if we're talking about the same stuff, is if we're rejoicing in the same stuff and it's not the stuff that these guys are telling you You're not going to share joy with me then. So we read on.

Lenny: 28:37

He says this is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship while we walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. And if we look at John's gospel, people that walked in darkness were the non-believing Pharisees, the false teachers that spoke out against Christ and against his finished work. So he's talking about Judaizers here. It's very clear if you compare and contrast these two things. But if we walk in the light, he says, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Now he's talking about salvation fellowship. What fellowship is it? It's fellowship with Christ. If we walk in the light, because Christ is in the light, meaning we have Christ, we have fellowship with one another. So he's more or less saying like come on, guys, stop fellowshipping with error. Fellowship in where you're at, you're of the light. See what I mean? He's pointing out to them that we have this fellowship, but yet he's having to tell them I want this with you because they're drifting away from truth. It's not because they're not in the light. It's because they're starting to act like they're not believing. They're starting to proclaim unbelief with their words and there's no fellowship in that.

Lenny: 29:58

And he says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Who would have said they have no sin? The Pharisees thought they were perfect, based on the law. They didn't think they had sin. They didn't think they needed a Messiah because they were doing all the stuff right. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So if these people that denied sin would just say I'm a sinner and accept the Messiah these Judaizers that are in the darkness, if they would just say I believe he'd cleanse them. This is what he's telling them about those who are deceiving them, those people who are deceiving you. If they did this, they'd be saved and they'd be clean. Then he goes on to say if we say we have not sinned, we make them a liar, and his word word is not in us. There we go.

Lenny: 30:48

Denying sin doesn't get you anywhere. It's no good. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin. Just go back to 1 John 1.9,. He says, just kidding. He says but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, jesus Christ, the righteous.

Lenny: 31:10

Right after telling you what people see people see this saying that we have to ask for forgiveness for our sins, that we have to self-cleanse regularly to stay in fellowship Right after proposing what people see as this idea, he tells them we have an advocate. He's the propitiation for our sins, meaning the full satisfaction for our sins. If we do sin, we have a full satisfaction. Why would he tell you that, right after telling you to confess and ask for forgiveness over and over? Why would he remind you of that? Because that's not how he saw sin, that's not how he saw it. He was. He was telling you, christ did it all and he said not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, gentiles too. And by this we know that we have come to know him. If we keep his commandments, if you keep the truth of christ, if it's yours to keep, that's how you've come to know him.

Lenny: 32:05

Whoever says I know him but does not keep those commandments is a liar. So the Pharisees, the Judaizers oh, they say that, oh, they got it all figured out, but they didn't keep the truth of Christ. They didn't buy it, they didn't believe it. Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way which he walked by faith. It's that simple. Keeping his commandments is keeping the gospel, and who keeps the gospel? Those who the Father has given him, everyone who believes, has been given to Christ by the Father, bypassing your human ability, so that you can be guaranteed and assured that salvation and fellowship are yours to keep, all you have to do is believe it. Believing is keeping and you can't stop. Anyway it's yours. But he's saying hang on to that, cling to that. Our Lord is always abiding in us as believers, and as believers we're always abiding in Christ.

Lenny: 33:07

It becomes very confusing when you have John in his first epistle telling believers to abide in Christ, and I think that gets a lot of people hung up. It took me a while to process it myself, but I came to realize that it's not as confusing as it seems. We're saved when we believe, but believing in Yeshua is contrary to our human intellect. So we have to train our minds to think in line with this new divine nature. We have to live out our belief in order to bear the fruits of the Spirit. By this I mean we need to depend on our sovereign Lord. We need to rely on Him for all things, look to Him for all things, pray in all things and believe that he is our life force. We have to believe it right. We have to have faith that his spirit, living in and through us, is a powerful, life-changing force. It's not so much about the amount of faith, as it is the object of our faith. And from what I've learned, the object of our faith should be the finished work of Christ Yeshua, not our own works. His finished work becomes the driving force, because that's where we learn the magnitude of that love of God.

Lenny: 34:20

So there's a lot of confusion between the old and the new covenants. The cross of Christ was that dividing line, but it's hard for people to see it. In light of that, most people are going to tell you to focus on your behavior. Get your behavior right, and then God will bless you and you'll be right with God. You'll be seen as holy before God through your behavior.

Lenny: 34:41

So basically, once you become a Christian, it's your responsibility to stop sinning. You've got to stop sinning and we see in Scripture that sin is not the end result. That's not what we're looking to do. We're not looking to build upon our sin life. But from my vantage point, sin is a result of not abiding. The core problem is that we're not abiding in Christ, and that's why the result will just be more sin.

Lenny: 35:06

When we're not abiding, it's when we shift our focus away from our Heavenly Father, away from the finished work of Christ. We begin to doubt his finished work and put confidence in our own ability. That's when sin comes strongly back into focus and we stumble. And you see it in Scripture. You see Paul talking about self-effort. We talk about self-effort a lot and it's usually in regards to the law when we see it in scripture. But self-effort in regards to the law can also be self-effort in regards to rules and regulations. I just wanted to clarify that when I'm saying self-effort in a negative sense, I'm referring to that old self, that old self that was crucified with Christ, not the new self that was resurrected by his life, not the new creation self, because that self is good. Our self is not necessarily bad, I guess is what I'm trying to say. It's when we start acting like that old self, that old self that's not drawing from the vine. It's dead, but we seem to want to resurrect it back up, behaving like that dead person.

Lenny: 36:11

I think it's important to mention that abiding is not automatic. We're not puppets and robots. As we read in John's first epistle and in all of scripture, belief was something that we need to cling to. We're taught to pray for this, we're taught to desire this, and if we don't desire it, we should pray for it. Our Lord doesn't want us to be independent of him. He wants us to want him. His will is for us to call on him and depend on him, but also to be alert to his guidance. I mean, what good would it be if we're praying and we're not looking for the answer? We're not looking for what he's telling us, we're not looking for what he's teaching us. What good is prayer if we're not looking for his response? So he gives us this ability to please him within his sovereign will, but his will is like the umbrella that preserves and protects all things under it. He can and will change our mind at times, and at other times he'll wait for our response.

Lenny: 37:03

Once the Lord opens our eyes and gives us life, scripture indicates that we can live a life of unbelief. We don't have to abide in the grace we were saved by. We can choose to behave like that old self and be guided by rules and regulations. Those guided by rules and regulations cannot function under freedom. That's why they hate the gospel of grace. Rules are the only thing stopping them from carrying out sin, so they feel the need thing stopping them from carrying out sin, so they feel the need to impose them on others.

Lenny: 37:31

Then, on the other hand, we can just choose to take that gift of salvation and use our freedom for sin, say gee, thanks God, see you later. We can choose to live the way we feel like living and just be completely ignorant to what our Lord would desire for us in our lives. Both of these paths are led by error and a lack of mind renewal. I say let's use the gospel of grace as a license to love freely in Christ Yeshua. Let's use our freedom for good. Let's enjoy our holiness and celebrate our perfect relationship with Yahweh by honoring him with our lives. The first John 1 9 passage was never meant to be Christian instruction. It was never intended to be Christian instruction. It was never intended to tell Christians to ask for something that they already have.

announcement: 38:15

Forgiveness. Thank you for listening to the Waking Up to Grace podcast brought to you by the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you enjoyed today's episode, we would love to hear from you. You can send encouragement our way right from our episodes and transcripts page or reach Lenny privately from the contact form at wakinguptogracecom.