Category Archives: death of self

May 24, 2009 · 10:19 am

Dear Prodigal Son (with Problems with Sexual Lust)

Dear prodigal son,

This is in answer to the problems you are facing in finding the line between being fleshly minded and spiritually minded in your life.  You mentioned that you had problems with urges of a sexual nature and couldn’t see that one could really be totally successful in combating those urges.

You wanted some help concerning this.  I did too many years ago, when a wise man shared with me this truth.  In fact, this truth was life-changing, initiating a personal transformation of a miraculous nature.

He told me that my old self, the old nature that I was born with–it had to die.  “Wayne, you’ve got to voluntarily surrender it and place that old selfish heart on the cross and let it die there with Christ.  When He, the sin sacrifice  died, your old self died; when He was buried, your old nature was buried; when He was raised from the dead, you were raised from the dead, too.”

Although I wanted to get power over the flesh and the sin driving my actions, this truth hit me hard.  I knew that it was game, set, match.  It was over.  God won.  There was no excuse for me to continue the selfish sinful way I was living.  “How do you do it?” I asked him.

“It all boils down to belief in the resurrection.  Not that just Christ was raised from the dead.  Many believe that fact of history.  No, you are the one that needs to be raised from the dead along with Christ.  You must believe that Christ is raised in you, in your body!  By faith in the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead, you, too, can walk in a newness of life {Col. 2:11}.”

It was not the easiest thing to do, but I had a great support system to help the new “babe in Christ”–me.  It was a life-changer, and I’ve walked on from there those many years ago.”

I hope this helps.  This is what you need–to get it settled, where you can confess, “I am dead, and my life is hid with Christ in God.”

I’ve written more about this on my blog, “Immortality Road.”  Check it out at https://ImmortalityRoad.wordpress.com or check out my books at http://yahwehisthesavior.com/ God bless you in your search,                                               Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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May 14, 2009 · 12:59 pm

The Law of Harvest–How God Reproduces Himself

The Eternal Purpose of God: He is reproducing Himself.  The laboratory that He is working in is the earth.  He has created human beings to help accomplish His purpose.  He created their bodies out of the moist clay of the earth.  All things are now in place for this reproduction experience.  But how does it work?

It works through the Law of Harvest.  “Whatever you sow, that shall you also reap.”  Therefore, God, who is the Seed (the Word, the Logos) has planted Himself in these earthen vessels called humans.

To do all this, God created a special creation Adam and his offspring, who He created in His own image.  These are to be vessels of honor, vessels that would house His Spirit, which is the Seed, the Word of God.

“Greater Love Has No Man Than This…”

One might ask, “Why does the immortal God use mortal man to reproduce Himself?”  To express the essence of His nature, which is Love, one must give up one’s life.  For “greater love has no man than this than to lay down his life for his friends.”  Sacrificing one’s life for another is the greatest love.  But the Creator, by His very immortal nature, cannot die. So then, how can God express the greatest Love, which is His essence?

The Great Creator Yahweh, of course, thought all this through.  In fact, in His plan, He scheduled a grand appearance of Himself in a mortal human body.  He chose a special person, Jesus (Yahshua) of Nazareth to house Himself in.  God, the Spirit of Love, would humbly walk among us to show us the way to be like God.  God, the Word, “was made flesh and dwelt among us.”

Christ Is the Seed That Falls into the Ground and Dies

This anointed vessel, called Christ and the Messiah, is the Seed.  He was planted in the earth three days and three nights.  And just like a seed in your garden springs forth, He arose out of the earthy grave and ascended back from where He came.

Yahweh had to come in a body that would and could die in order to show the greatest love.  Without Him giving up His human life on the cross, He could not reproduce Himself, for “except a seed fall into the ground and die, it abides alone.  But if it die, it brings forth much fruit.”

We humans, then, can avail ourselves to be used by our Maker in His reproduction process.  But first we must surrender to this purpose.  We must allow our old selfish heart and life to die on the cross with Christ, be buried with Him in revelatory truth, and then, by believing that Christ was raised from the dead, we can begin to “walk in newness of life.”

We then begin to bear much fruit.  And those who do this will become His fully manifested offspring and will rule this earth with Him during the Kingdom Age when Christ returns.  These have surrendered completely and  have Him fully grown up within them.  These are the ones who God has reproduced Himself in.  Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{ You can read more about this in my book The Unveiling of the Sons of God. Request your free copy with free shipping by sending your name and mailing address and the name of the book to my email address: wayneman5@hotmail.com }

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April 5, 2009 · 10:35 am

Overcoming by the Word of Our Testimony

Those who overcome the evil do it by “the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12: 11) {See March 30, 2009 post}.

Faith in the cleansing power of Christ’s blood will set us into the position of being a testimony of God’s power in the earth.  First, to overcome we must be cleansed from sin, and then give testimony that God is real in our lives–that He is in control, that He is all powerful.

In other words, we must be a witness as to what He is doing, where He is going and taking us all, what His plan and purpose is, what He expects from His creation, what is His endgame.  We must go on record; we must take the witness stand here on earth and give our testimony as to what God has done in our life, and what He shall do in the lives of His true believers, and to those who will not believe in Him.  That takes surrender, study, and prayer.

It Is All About “Christ in You”

The “word of our testimony” is the same thing as this:  “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”  It is all about “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  It is all about the Spirit of the living God walking around in us.  This is the word of our testimony.  It is when we grow to a point when our actions are the Spirit of Christ living out His life in us.  Then we are poised for the final overcoming, or the final victory.

The first victory is the victory over sin and sinning.  By believing this testimony that God gave us of His Son–that those who have faith and believe that God placed mankind’s sins on Christ, and when He died, our old heart and spirit died.  And when Christ was buried, our old lives were buried.  And when Christ was raised from the dead, we also were raised from the dead! A new life, a new walk, a new way, a new purpose–now poised to receive the ultimate blessing reserved for all of His overcomers–nothing less that immortality!

The Seven Levels of Overcoming

The outline of the seven levels of overcoming are found in the church ages in Revelation 2 and 3.  These two chapters detail what we are to overcome in this new life and what the rewards are for the victors.

And those who are victorious to the end have this astounding prophecy given over them by Christ Himself: “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (3: 22).

Those that are unafraid and go on to overcome all things–they will sit as princes and princesses on God’s own very throne!

And if that were not enough, we who get this  ultimate victory, we who allow God to fully manifest Himself in us–we shall inherit all things.  “He that overcometh shall inherit all things” (Rev. 21: 7).

Who Will It Be?

So–somebody will sit with Christ on His throne and will inherit all things–the greatest of which is immortality.  The question, then, is this: Who will it be?  Is it you or I who have just met on this page?  Will we be there as the immortal possessors of the universe, the sons and daughters of the King of the universe?

Or will we be among the “fearful and unbelieving”–those who will soon be eternally forgotten–those who wind up as just another broken common vessel that the Potter has discarded–broken potsherds having never made it to the kiln, never glazed with glory, never used to beautify His house. Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Be sure to bookmark this site.  Share it with others.  Make a comment and share your thoughts about  these things with people worldwide.  To read more on this see “my books online” in the blogroll in the right column}

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March 30, 2009 · 12:54 pm

Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb

People are pressed down by this old world system.  The world’s economies are skidding down into a gigantic depression.  People are under extreme pressure, some even going crazy, killing their families and themselves.  They are losing their jobs, their homes, cars, their lives as they know it.

In lieu of all this, Christ’s words ring with the crystal clarity of truth: “In the world, you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

But here is a newsflash:  We shall overcome also!  But how do we overcome the world and all of its tribulation, trouble, and anguish?

The First Overcoming

The first overcoming, which leads to all of the overcomings, or victories in Christ, is the victory over sin in our lives.  It is a direct victory of the power of the devil in our lives, for “he that commits sin is of the devil.”  But to get rid of sin in our lives was the “purpose the  Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3: 8).

How is this done?  “They overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony” (Rev. 12: 11).  Our victory over the evil comes through these two things.

Many talk a good Christian ballgame, but few deliver through the lives that they lead.  Many claim to follow Christ, yet they still do secret sins, which emanate from the dark recesses of an unregenerated heart–a heart that is old and carnal–a heart that has not climbed Calvary’s hill to submit to the death of the cross along with Christ.

By the Blood of Christ the Sacrificial Lamb

He is the sin sacrifice–the “Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.”  He takes away the sin of the world. When He gets through, we don’t have it anymore.  But we must identify our old sinful heart with Him that day of the Lamb’s death some 2,000 years ago.  This is how the Lamb’s blood cleanses us.  When it drained out of Him, the life and energy and power of sin died out.  When His blood was all spilled out, then the lifeforce of sin in us drained out as well. This is how we overcame the devil.  It is from this cleansing of sin through the death of our old nature, of our old spirit, of our old heart.

Yet, sadly, chances are very slim that you will hear this in today’s church houses and Sunday schools.  It is “too strong, too harsh.”  It is not politically correct and is a sure fire way for the hired preacher to lose his pastorship.  But the old preachers of past centuries taught these very things I have shared here.  John Wesley taught it, yet you won’t hear this in a modern Methodist church.  Martin Luther taught it, but today’s Lutherans won’t hear it in church.  Spurgeon taught it, but most Baptists won’t hear this stark message in their churches.

But this is how we repent from sin.  The very first apostles’ doctrine was “repentance from dead works.”  Sin, the breaking of the 10 Commandments, is a “dead work,” for it leads to death.  And getting rid of sin in our lives is the very cornerstone in the sure foundation Christ talked about.  Without this start in Christ, the foundation is shaky, and the house will fall when the devil winds blow.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{Be sure to bookmark this site.  Share it with others.  Make a comment and share your thoughts about  these things with people worldwide.  To read more on this see “my books online” in the blogroll in the right column}

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February 17, 2009 · 1:51 am

Victory Over Sin and Sinning, Confirms Andrew Murray

I’ve written about the cross experience–how putting our old ego, our old self on the cross and letting it die with Christ, puts an end to our old nature and its sinful ways.  And then by His in-dwelling Spirit, through our belief in His resurrection, we “walk in a newness of life,” where the old life is “passed away” and His new life in us continues each day*.

Sometimes it helps to hear it from somebody else.  Here is a quote from Andrew Murray, a 19th century Scottish minister:

“The question often arises how it is, with so much church-going, Bible-reading, and prayer, that the Christian fails to live the life of complete victory over sin and lacks the love and joy of the Lord. One of the most important answers, undoubtedly, is that he does not know what it is to die to himself and to the world. Yet without this, God’s love and holiness cannot have their dwelling-place in his heart. He has repented of some sins, but knows not what it is to turn, not only from sin, but from his old nature and self-will.

“Yet this is what the Lord Jesus taught. He said to the disciples that if any man would come after Him, he must hate and lose his own life. He taught them to take up the cross. That meant they were to consider their life as sinful and under sentence of death. They must give up themselves, their own will and power, and any goodness of their own. When their Lord had died on the cross, they would learn what it was to die to themselves and the world, and to live their life in the fullness of God.

Our Lord used the Apostle Paul to put this still more clearly. Paul did not know Christ after the flesh, but through the Holy Spirit Christ was revealed in his heart, and he could testify: ‘I am crucified with Christ; I live no longer; Christ liveth in me.’ In more than one of his Epistles the truth is made clear that we are dead to sin, with Christ, and receive and experience the power of the new life through the continual working of God’s Spirit in us each day”         ( http://www.spiritoffire.org/ebooks/the%20new%20life/nlife26.htm ).

Let it be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses.   KWH

*{For more see  https://immortalityroad.wordpress.com/category/death-of-self/  or click the “Category” link  “Death of Self”  in the right hand column}.

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February 12, 2009 · 6:48 pm

We Were with God in the Beginning–Part II

Why This is Hard to Believe

The children of God were with their spiritual Father in the beginning, so declares the holy scriptures {see Feb. 9, 2009 post).  This message is difficult to receive when a person, dwelling on the earth and its pulls, is full and fat, and is “doing great,” and is living high-on-the-hog.

He has need of nothing, he thinks.  But he does not know that as a selfish earthbound mortal, he is really blind to the heavenly way.  He is wretched in his blindness to spiritual matters, for he can never be happy being earthly-minded.  He is poor, for he lacks the Spirit that was in the beginning.  And he is naked, strutting blindly on the earth, willingly ignorant of the truth about what is really happening “on earth as it is in heaven” (Rev. 3: 17).

This is the state of mankind now in this prosperous 21st century.  And the only thing that will wake up God’s people to Him is that He allows the engineering of an economic fall–one that will strip the toys and gadgets from the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

In the Old Testament stories, it was always an economic collapse brought on by crooked politicians that finally pierced through the hard hearts.  When they became destitute, “then they cried unto the LORD (Yahweh).”

And He heard them and came down by making His Presence known to a prophet, who in turn, led His people away from the moral and spiritual abyss and led them back “to the beginning”–back to the pastures of the Father’s heart.

How to Get Back to the Beginning with Him

We will be restored back to what we had with Him in the beginning.  How?  We believe that we receive His Spirit–after we surrender our old self on the cross and let it die with Christ, who was the sin sacrifice (Romans 6: 1-6).  This is the first step.  Then through just believing God and His love granting us a new life, heart, and spirit, we begin to walk in this new life–His Life now incarnated in us.

We believe that His Spirit within us now cauterizes eventually all connections to our earthly past.  And then by faith (belief), we leave the bars and chains of earthly thinking with its negative demands, and we begin to walk in the Spirit, in the spiritual state that we already “had with Him before the world began.”

The Truth

For the truth is that we were with Him in the beginning.  The “We”  here is the portion of His Spirit that we are now, not our earthly body.

For after receiving Christ, anything we are is “new” to our current earthly reality, but “old” in that our new existence in Christ is one we shared with Him before time as we know it began.

A person instructed in the Kingdom of God will, consequently, “bring forth out of his treasure things new and old” (Matt. 13: 52).  The “old” is our spiritual relationship we had with Him before our earthly sojourn began.  The “things new” is living now through His Spirit within our hearts–right now here on earth.

This sin-free spiritual walk in Christ is “new” and rare, for few have been priveleged to glimpse this; few have been given the eyesalve to anoint the earthen eyes that they may see.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock

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January 28, 2009 · 1:40 pm

“Is Christ Divided?” Asked the Apostle Paul

Obviously  not.  And neither are the true members of His spiritual body, the church.  Yet, in Christendom divisions abound, as they did in Paul’s day.

“We are the true church,” say the Roman Catholics.  “No, we are,” say the Baptists.  “We are the Church of Christ!”  “No, we are following Luther.”  “We are following Wesley.”

Please.  2,600 different denominations, each with a different take on Christ.  Divisions abound.  And they all claim to be following the words of the Bible, yet they do not obey its words: “I beseech you…that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you…that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Corinthians 1: 10).

The same mind.  Whose mind?  The mind of Christ.  Since Christ is not divided, then those who really have His Spirit will not be divided either.  “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Rom 8: 9).  If we are His, then we will have His Spirit.  And if we have His Spirit, we will have His mind, and we will not be divided.

Because of the divisions, Paul said that he would have to teach them the basics: the preaching of the cross.  This is what is lacking in Christians today.  They have not been taught that they must surrender their own egos to the death of the cross.  They must identify their sin with the dying Christ who took upon Him the sin of the world that day at Calvary.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin” (Rom 6: 6-7).   The old heart dies with Christ, and then He gives us a new heart by faith in His resurrection.  If we can believe that Christ was raised from the dead, can we not also believe that His Spirit is now raised up in us, thus freeing us from sin and sinning?

If all Christians had this experience of deliverance from sin and sinning, then the divisions would evaporate.  We would all join hands in grateful fellowship, sharing His Spirit among us.  For “there is one body, and one Spirit” (Eph. 4: 4).  That one body is Christ’s one body of believers, which have His Spirit.

And that Spirit only comes into us after we believe that our old self  has died on the cross, and then believe that He has been raised up again in us!  That will get rid of all the divisions.   Kenneth Wayne Hancock

{A note to fellow bloggers:  Check out this website in order to get more traffic to your blog:  http://condron.us  }

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December 11, 2008 · 5:24 pm

Conversations With the Seer–“I Am the Vine; Ye Are the Branches”

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

“How can we tell a false prophet?”  I asked the Seer.  We were all sitting around the wood stove, enjoying a cup of hot tea.

He opened the door to the cast iron box heater and threw  in another log.  “This I can tell you; the Master said that they will end up like this log, ‘hewn down and cast into the fire.’   This is how you can tell them from the true man of God:  Christ said, You shall know them by their fruits.  A false prophet or a false teacher will not bear good fruit; they will bring forth evil fruit.  A good tree will bring forth good fruit.  A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit (1).

“What is the fruit that He is talking about?”

“The words that Christ spoke were spirit, so it is spiritual fruit that a person brings forth, be it good or bad.  The good fruit is ‘the fruit of the Spirit,’ which is ‘love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance’ (2). ”

“How do we bear this good fruit of the Spirit?”

“It’s a walk with Him.  It takes time to learn to walk with Him.  After our death, burial, and resurrection experience with Him, He gives us a small portion of His Spirit as a down payment towards the purchased possession–us.  He urges us to grow, or rather, allow His Spirit to grow in our mortal bodies by means of prayer and study and putting into practice His way of life.  He frees us from sin and sinning; this is what allows us to grow.  This is when He tells us to abide in Him.”

“How do we abide in Him?”

“Christ likens Himself as being the true grape vine.  The Father is the Spirit, the invisible Sap that flows up through the vine Christ, and on into us the branches.  Christ commands us, Abide in me, and I in you.   He says that those of us who do this will bring forth much fruit–much love from above, much joy, and much peace, and much of all the rest.  We do this by being channels of His love, joy and peace.  We are not the objects.  That is the key (3).

“What’s the first step?”

“We must first reach out to Him and abide and remain in Him.  How?  In our thoughts.  We match our thoughts to His.  Remember: In the beginning was the Word, the Logos.  And the Logos is the Thought or the Concept that the Father had in the beginning.  And that Word/Logos/Concept/ Thought  is Spirit.  And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amoung us.  Christ is the living Thought and Plan of God.  We must make His Eternal Thoughts ours.  That’s the secret.  That’s the Truth.  He is the Truth, and we can handle the Truth because He has ordained us that we should bear this fruit of His Spirit.  And His Thought made flesh is the the Light of the world.  When we have His mind, then we are the light of the world, too, because His Spirit will be abiding and remaining in us for all to see (4).”

“Christ really wants this for us, doesn’t He?’

“He’s all about multiplying Himself throughout a body of people whom He has chosen and elected for this honor.  That’s grace.  But we’ve got to get a hold of what He’s offered to His followers.  We need to abide in Him by thinking on the Word/Logos/Thought of God, which is contemplating His love for us and the whole world.  We can start here: He forgave all of us our sins, so now we need to forgive those who have sinned against us.  This is how we continue in His love.   Christ gave His life, so now we give up our selfish old life and take on His life within our hearts.  He gave us another commandment: Love each other as I have love you (John 15: 12).  You cannot love someone with His agape love without forgiving them first.  Forgive everyone everything.  It is possible with His Spirit helping us.”

“And the bad trees won’t be able to do this?”

“A bad tree won’t be able in the end to forgive, for they will not truly have Christ’s Spirit.  They will come on in sheep’s clothing, looking very righteous, but they are still being motivated from their sinful, selfish hearts–hearts that do not have His Spirit.  Your powers of discernment will grow as you abide more in Him and He in you.  Just remember that we are the branches; He is the vine through which we receive His Spirit, and it’s His Spirit that makes it all possible to grow up into Him.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock       {For more on this, check out my books here:  https://immortalityroad.com/donate/ }

(1) Matthew 76: 15-20   (2) Galatians 5: 22  (3) John 15: 1-14   (4) John 1: 1, 14

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December 6, 2008 · 4:15 pm

“I Will Remember Him That Way”–An Elegy for My Mentor

I thought of my spiritual mentor who passed away some nine years ago now.  Without him and his love and patience, I would not have come out of the depraved selfish existence I led in my old life.  I wrote this elegy upon hearing of his death.  I want to share it with you.

I Will Remember Him That Way

I will remember him, but not for his last days on earth.

I will recall three decades ago, when the world was mad

          and senseless and cruel,

When a young man and woman so in need of love

          and patience

And so full of fear and loss and alienation, with cynicism

          in full rotten bloom—

I’ll remember him that day, that warm April East Texas

          spring day

When the joy emanating from his countenance hit me right

          in the chest

As I strutted in with a smirk that said,

Okay, show me what you got,

Because I’ve just about given up the search for truth,

          although I talk about it all the time,

And I know that my old self is my nemesis, my master, my   

          ruin,

And I can’t get rid of it by myself, because my self is my

          very problem,

And I know that it has to die, and I’ve looked three years in

          books from India,

And books from China, and books from Persia,

And none of the sages of the East could tell me how to put

          my self to death,                                                           

 

And live to tell about it,

And I knew that I would waste my time

In looking to the christian buildings which cannot hold

          moms and dads together in love—

So as a last futile foray for the truth before I give up

And sink into the numbness of nothingness,

I was thinking, Okay, show me what you got.

 

And he did, as I remember the joy and the love that swept

          down on me,

As he spoke of a certain writer named Paul who spoke of

          an old man Adam

Who was now put to death with the Lamb in a Roman 6

          finality

And who could be raised to walk in a newness of life.

 

“You mean that my old self, my old ego, can die?” 

I asked out loud that April morning in the cedar cabin in the

          East Texas woods.

“That’s exactly what Paul is saying.”

 

 

And so I had finally found my sign that I had searched for.

I’ll remember him that way,

As the joyous messenger of my joy in God.

 

I’ll remember how he let me keep sleeping till noon the first  

          time we spent the night,

Under his breakfast table in the tarpaper shack,

For I was bidden to come and rest, and he let me rest.

I’ll recall the joy and deliverance from tobacco, drugs, alcohol,  

          and cursing.

I’ll remember him that way.

 

I’ll remember the countless times I robbed him of his rest,

And he would smile,

Knowing I was special in the hands of God.

I’ll remember him that way.

 

I’ll remember a man who believed in me like no one had done

          before.

I’ll remember the days of Pepsi and popcorn,

And winter mornings, wood burning stove, kettle on top,

Cool mornings full of hot tea and scriptures,

When riches meant nothing and material possessions held no

          power over us,

As we sat laughing into the gentle breezy piney woods evenings,

Secure at last that, yes, there is a God with a plan and purpose,

And all was as it should be here on earth at this moment.

I’ll remember him that way.

I’ll remember Tom as the mentor of my youth,

Who awakened me to greater things than my old self,

Who showed me how to speak to tens of thousands

         about the Kingdom.

I’ll remember him as the one who helped me

         along the road to God,

Who patiently in those early days,

         taught me all the Truth he knew.

And so I ask, What more can any one man do?

I’ll remember him that way.

 

I’ll not let those early days be blotted out of my memory

By judging him on his last days on earth—

No matter how much it hurt—

I’ll leave all judgements of him to God and to bitter little hearts

Who can’t remember him in the early days.

 

But I’ll remember him that way.

Kenneth Wayne Hancock

 

 

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December 3, 2008 · 7:20 pm

Conversations With the Seer–What Is Sin in God’s Eyes?

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the Seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer. I Samuel 9: 9)

“Just what is sin then?” I asked the Seer.  We had been talking about the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the “sin” question had come up.

“Sin is the breaking of the law,” he said (1).

“Which law?”

“The Ten Commandments.  If you are breaking one of them, then you are in a sinful state.  The apostle Paul of Tarsus proves this when he wrote, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet (2).  Here he equates sin with breaking one of the Ten Commandments.  Coveting or desiring your neighbor’s possessions or wife is a sin, prohibited by the Ten Commandments.  There are nine others.  Breaking any of them is sinning.”

“But I’ve been taught that sin can be anything from dancing to drinking wine, from getting angry to not doing something that I am supposed to do.”

“Shuffling one’s feet on a hardwood floor does not necessarily mean one is sinning.  Remember King David, flooded with complete joy, danced in the streets; he did not sin.  The Savior Himself drank wine in the homes of sinners and publicans (3), yet He committed no sin.  He also got angry at the moneychangers at the temple, yet without sin.”

“Why don’t the preachers teach this?”

“They either do not know the truth, or they have turned from the truth and continued on in man’s traditions.  I do not judge them.  We all have a Judge who will examine us in light of the knowledge given us by Him.”

“You mentioned dancing and drinking wine.  Why would that not be sinning?”

“God looks on the intents of the heart (4).  If dancing is used for sinful and lustful purposes, then it is suspect.  Same goes for drinking a glass of fermented grape juice.  Righteous indignation is not the same as selfish anger.”

“Sin then is a spiritual condition.”

“Yes.  It is a spiritual condition of the heart, of the core of a person.  But sin does not have to be permanent in the human being.  A ‘new heart’ composed of His Spirit can be transplanted into the human being through repentance and faith toward God (5).”  He saw that I had enough to chew on, so he stopped speaking.

I thanked him for the visit and walked away with some answers, but they seemed to germinate and sprout into more questions–questions for another day.        Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. I John 3:4

2. Romans 7: 7

3. Luke 19: 2

4. Hebrew 4:12

5. Ezekiel 36: 26-27

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