Spir Dynamics 236-238 8/1/93
A. Introduction.
1. There are two stages to personal sin.
a. The sin nature, which is the source of temptation only.
b. Human volition, which is the source of all personal sins.
2. There are two categories of personal sins.
a. Sins of cognizance. You are aware that doing something is a sin, you want to do it, and you do it. The longer you have been a believer, the more you are held responsible for understanding the doctrine of hamartiology (sin). In the doctrine of hamartiology, there are over 150 personal sins mentioned.
b. Sins of ignorance. You are not aware that the temptation is soliciting to sin. You do it even though you are not aware that it is a sin. You are liable for both categories because in each cause your volition is involved.
3. The believer is responsible for both categories of sin: cognizance and ignorance. Ignorance is no excuse. You may not have known it was a sin, but you wanted to do it and you did it.
4. Definition of the two categories of sins.
a. Sins of cognizance—the volition recognizes a temptation as a sin and goes ahead and commits the sin.
b. Sins of ignorance—the volition is not aware that the temptation is a sin, but it desires to do it, decides to do it and is responsible for doing it.
5. This is why the believer must take full responsibility for all personal sins—sins of cognizance and sins of ignorance.
6. The sin nature is the source of temptation until, through sin, the sin nature comes into control of the soul. It is better to know when you are sinning than not to know, because you may be out of fellowship for quite a while.
a. The sin nature exists in the cell structure of the body (SARXZ in the Greek). The sin nature was created by Adam when he chose to sin. The sin nature is passed from the man to the woman in procreation or copulation. Every cell in the human body contains the sin nature. Therefore, when God the Father created soul life and imputed it to biological life, the justice of God simultaneously imputed Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed sin nature. This is why we are born physically alive and spiritually dead.
b. The sin nature is not in the soul; it gains control of the soul. But the sin nature does not have control of your soul until you sin.
8. The sin nature has temptation categories.
a. Temptation to sin. This comes from the area of weakness of the sin nature. There is also an area of strength in the sin nature. Once the sin nature is in control of the soul it produces human good and dead works.
b. Temptation to evil. Temptation to evil is a series of sins following the pattern of the arrogance skills or the pattern of implosion, trends (legalism or antinomianism), stages of reversionism, and degeneracy.
9. The sin nature has an area of strength and an area of weakness. It also has two trends or gates: legalism and antinomianism. It also has a lust pattern.
a. The lust pattern reinforces the trends of the sin nature (legalism or antinomianism). The categories of lust include: power lust, approbation lust, sexual lust, pleasure lust, chemical lust, monetary lust, criminal lust, crusader lust, inordinate ambition, inordinate competition.
b. Under the doctrine of culpability, temptation to live by the arrogance skills results in the performance of human good as a part of Christian activism. When your sin nature takes over, then your area of strength produces dead works.
c. Your area of strength produces human good or dead works. Your area of weakness produces personal sins. Personal sins go in clusters which produce evil. Evil results from the lust pattern reinforcing legalism on the one hand, or antinomianism on the other hand. The final result is either Christian moral degeneracy or Christian immoral degeneracy.
d. Legalism always results in entering into all of the arrogance complex of sins. The arrogance complex of sins includes arrogance skills. The arrogance skills are three.
(1) Self-justification. You have to justify your position when you are out of fellowship.
(2) Self-deception. You begin to deceive yourself with regard to your status.
(3) Self-absorption. This is complete preoccupation with self.
e. The three arrogance skills lead to the eight stages of reversionism and result in Christian moral degeneracy. Antinomianism has trends toward sexual sins, chemical sins, and criminal sins, which result in Christian immoral degeneracy.
10. The believer’s soul comes under the control of the sin nature only through personal sin. Personal sins result in:
a. Loss of the filling of the Spirit replaced by grieving and quenching the Spirit.
b. No fellowship with God.
c. Sin nature control of the soul.
11. When the sin nature controls the soul, then the believer enters into production from the sin nature. This is where human good, dead works (wood, hay, and stubble), and evil occur.
12. Principles.
a. Personal sin is what happens when the believer uses his volition to succumb to temptation from his or her area of weakness.
b. Human good, dead works, and evil are the result of the sin nature controlling the soul.
c. What is the difference between sin, and human good and evil?
(1) Sin is a precise statement of biblical hamartiology (the Greek word for sin).
(2) Human good, dead works, and evil result from sin nature control of the soul.
d. Evil is the accumulation of personal sins from the area of weakness, while human good and dead works are the direct result of personal sin and neglect of or failure to rebound (i.e., acknowledging your sins to God, 1 Jn 1:9). If a person uses rebound instantly and keeps up on it, he will not get into evil. But neglect of rebound or rejection of rebound results eventually in the production of evil.
e. The longer the believer is out of fellowship the greater is his or her production of human good, dead works, and evil.
f. Evil is the result of perpetuating carnality in your life.
g. The area of weakness is the source of all temptation to sin.
h. The area of strength only becomes operational when the believer is out of fellowship and the soul is under the control of the sin nature. So it is sin, not human good or dead works, that puts the believer out of fellowship in the status of grieving or quenching the Spirit. When the sin nature controls the soul through personal sin, human good and dead works become activated from the area of strength.
i. When biological life emerges from the womb, God the Father creates soul life and imputes it to biological life. This is when human life begins. Since the old sin nature is in the cell structure of biological life, God the Father also imputes Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed sin nature. Adam’s original sin is the basis for the activation of the sin nature at birth. There are two functions of the sin nature in the life of the believer. When the sin nature becomes activated it enters into its first function.
(1) When the believer is in fellowship, i.e, filled with the Spirit, the sin nature is the source of temptation only from the area of weakness. The source of temptation is the sin nature. The source of sin is the human volition. The sin nature, controlling the soul, continues to be the source of temptation to which the believer is vulnerable in his area of weakness. From the sin nature’s weakness, personal sin continues when the believer uses his volition to succumb to temptation.
(2) Human volition continues to be the source of all personal sins, but other things are now produced: human good, dead works, and evil. Once the person decides to sin, the sin nature takes control of the soul and produces human good and dead works. When the believer uses his volition to sin, the sin nature takes control of the soul and that results in the production of sins and evil from the area of weakness and human good and dead works from the area of strength. Evil in the life is the believer accumulating personal sins, forming them into the emotional complex of sins, the arrogance complex of sins, and the function of the arrogance skills. Evil is the result of unrestrained sin extended into other sins.
j. The rebound technique is the only way to break the control of the sin nature. Neglect of rebound and subsequent sin nature control results in the believer becoming the worst monster around. Neglect of the rebound technique is the greatest distraction to the spiritual life, because it deprives the believer of the divine initiative of antecedent grace and his response to it. Neglect of the rebound technique deprives the believer of the divine power, provided in grace, to execute the protocol plan of God for the Church. You cannot serve the living God with dead works and human good.
13. There are two New Testament passages on the subject of dead works.
a. Heb 6:1-2, “Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teachings about Christ, let us advance to maturity, not laying again the foundation of basic doctrines, that is, a change of mind about dead works, ...and eternal judgment.”
(1) Dead works belong to the spiritually dead.
(2) Dead works are the basis for the judgment against all unbelievers at the last judgment. The indictment is found in Jn 16. The Holy Spirit convinces the unbeliever of only one sin—the sin of unbelief, the sin of rejection of Christ. This is the only sin for which Christ could not die. The judgment is found in Jn 3:18, “He who believes in Me is not judged, but he who does not believe in Me is judged already, because he has not believed in the uniquely-born Son of God.” Every unbeliever stands before the Great White Throne at the second resurrection. The indictment occurs when anyone dies without believing in Christ. The basis for judgment is for the unbeliever’s dead works. Rev 20:12b-13b, “...and the [spiritually] dead were judged out of the things [dead works] which had been written in the books on the basis of their deeds. ...and each one was judged on the basis of his works.”
(3) The believer has to change his mind about dead works and he has to understand good from the standpoint of the last judgment.
b. Heb 9:12-14, “And not through the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, He entered the holy of holies [heaven itself] once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a red heifer [the rebound sacrifice] sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the agency of the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
(1) There is a false doctrine that fulfilling, doing, or executing the Mosaic Law was the way of salvation in the Old Testament. No one has ever been saved by good deeds from the energy of the flesh. They are rejected by God as wood, hay, and stubble.
(2) No sin is ever mentioned at the last judgment. The unbeliever is indicted for dying without ever believing in Christ. He or she is judged for their good works, which are not good enough for salvation. The issue is possessing the righteousness of God, not the good works done by the unbeliever. The righteousness of God is only obtained through faith alone in Christ alone.
(3) Jesus Christ used the problem solving devices to offer Himself without sin to God as a willing sacrifice. He was a voluntary sin offering in contrast to the involuntary shadow of animal sacrifices.
(4) Our conscience tells us the difference between right and wrong. It recognizes that certain things are wrong and begins to work on the soul. The conscience has to be purified from the idea that we must try to be saved by performing certain dead works or human good. You cannot function under dead works or human good and serve the living God. Evil is human good parlayed into sinfulness, such as taking away the freedom of someone in the name of “good.” The power to execute the protocol plan of God and to serve God as a believer comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit and metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness. The conscience distinguishes between good and evil, human good and divine works, dead works and legitimate works.
14. When Jesus Christ was on the Cross, He received the imputation of all personal sins of history under the doctrine of unlimited atonement. This means that Jesus Christ was judged for all sins in human history. Unlimited atonement means that eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ is available to every believer of the human race. Therefore, every member of the human race has equal opportunity for salvation. Christ died spiritually for the personal sins of every member of the human race.
a. Heb 2:9, “But while He was made inferior to angels for a brief time, we see Jesus who now has been crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death as a substitute for everyone without exception.”
b. 2 Cor 5:14, “For the love of Christ keeps on motivating us; in fact, we have received this conclusion, that One died as a substitute for everyone without exception.”
c. 1 Tim 2:6, “Who gave Himself a ransom, a substitute for everyone without exception.”
d. 1 Jn 2:2, “And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the entire world.”
B. Recovery From Sin.
1. The same volition responsible for committing all categories of sins can also function in a non-meritorious manner (grace function) to recover from sin, carnality, human good, dead works, and evil.
a. Ps 23:3, “He restores my soul.”
b. 1 Jn 1:9, “If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and righteous with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness.”
2. Rebound is the number one problem solving device on the forward line of troops of the soul. Rebound is not a licence to sin, but is God’s grace provision for the perpetuation of the spiritual skills in your life and the execution of the protocol plan of God eventuating from that.
3. Postsalvation sinning is a fact. 1 Jn 1:8, 10, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the doctrine is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us.”
4. When the believer sins, he loses the filling of the Holy Spirit and has no fellowship with God. When the believer rebounds, he recovers the filling of the Spirit, he is restored to fellowship, he is now in a position to use the spiritual skills to execute the protocol plan of God. The filling of the Holy Spirit plus human I.Q. (the six thinking skills) equals spiritual I.Q. (the filling of the Spirit changes human I.Q. into spiritual I.Q.) plus operation Z (metabolized doctrine) equals execute of the protocol plan of God for the Church.
5. There is no spiritual life apart from the filling of the Spirit, which is power option number one in the Christian life (Power option number two is doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.) and the second problem solving device in the protocol plan of God.
6. There is no perpetuation of the filling of the Spirit apart from the rebound technique. The filling of the Holy Spirit is given at the moment of salvation. Sin replaces the filling of the Spirit with grieving and quenching the Spirit, the sin nature now controls the soul. Only the rebound technique of 1 Jn 1:9 can recover the filling of the Spirit and restore fellowship with God. There is no spiritual life apart from the grace gift of the rebound technique.
7. Precedence for the rebound technique is unlimited atonement on the Cross. Our sins already went to court at the time of our Lord’s crucifixion. Precedence for the rebound technique is the fact that every sin in human history was judged on the Cross.
8. Rebound is the only problem solving device that functions when a believer is out of fellowship in a state of sinfulness. Rebound functions for us when we are out of fellowship because we are royal priests and in the privacy of our priesthood we have the privilege of representing ourselves before God and naming our sins to God. God the Father, who already judged those sins on the Cross, can only forgive the believer and cleanse him from all unrighteousness. This is the divine initiative of antecedent grace in time.
9. 1 Jn 1:9, “If we acknowledge [name, admit, cite, confess] our sins, He [God the Father] is faithful and righteous with the result that He forgives us our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness.”
a. The Greek word HOMOLOGEO was a fifth century B.C. technical legal term for naming or citing a court case.
b. God is, has been, and always will be faithful in forgiving us.
c. God is righteous to forgive us because all the sins of human history went to court on the Cross and Christ paid the penalty for every sin. God can forgive you without losing His righteousness because of the salvation work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
10. The salvation ministry of Jesus Christ on the Cross is the doctrine background for the rebound technique. The judgment of all sins has three consequences.
a. Salvation through faith alone in Christ alone; hence, salvation by grace through faith. The response of grace is faith.
b. The restoration of the believer’s soul through the function of the rebound technique; hence, by grace through acknowledging of sin directly to God.
c. Condemnation of the unbeliever at the last judgment is based on the inadequacy of human works. Personal sin is not mentioned at the last judgment. The unbeliever is indicted in time (at the point of his death) for his failure to believe in Christ, but he is judged at the Great White Throne for his human good and dead works. When the unbeliever rejects the judgment of Christ for his sins on the Cross, that unbeliever guarantees the rejection of his human good and dead works at the Great White Throne judgment.
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© 1989, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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