Sin in the Flesh

“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” 1 John 1:3-4.

If a person is only to speak about what they have seen and heard in the Spirit, they must be faithful. Those who are faithful in this have fellowship with one another and with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Falsehood is excluded, and their joy becomes full.

All this unfaithfulness and these lies regarding what people have seen and heard has produced many doctrines, none of which create fellowship or bring joy. However, anyone who is a disciple of Christ and who does the will of God will learn from what he hears, sees, and understands. Faithfulness in preaching these things leads to fellowship and joy.

Not everything you hear and see creates fellowship. Only what you hear and see in your interaction with the Spirit of Christ creates fellowship.

What was it that John saw that made it possible for us to have fellowship with him? He saw that he had sin in his flesh. If he had said that he did not have sin, he would have deceived himself, and the truth would not have been in him. We have come far if we, like John, can see that we have sin in our flesh. Through the light of the Spirit, Paul also saw sin in his flesh, and he implores us not to allow sin to reign in our mortal body. Rom. 6:12. John and Paul had fellowship in this.

Since we still have sin in our body—even if it does not reign in our body—how then can we get rid of it? Paul points us in the right direction by reminding us that the old man is crucified with Christ, so that the body of sin might be done away with, and that we should no longer be slaves of sin. Rom. 6:6. Sin, or the body of sin, must not reign. The old man is crucified, and sin in the body—or the body of sin—is being destroyed.

During this process of the destruction of the body of sin, or being conformed to Christ in His death (Phil. 3:10), we are able to see and hear many of the mysteries of the kingdom of God. This is because there is a rending of the veil leading to the Holiest of Holies. If you want to tell others what you are hearing and seeing, it will take the form of the word of the cross, which is the power of God. This word has a mission—to break through the flesh and enter into these eternal and glorious treasures. All those who have a common vision of these things experience fellowship and fullness of joy.

Christ has appeared at the end of the ages in order to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. By His sacrifice He took away sin in the flesh. Heb. 9:26. He suffered death in the flesh but was made alive in the Spirit. Great is this mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Godly fear gives us a glimpse into the mysteries of Christ. By it we are able to see and hear things, such as fellowship and the fullness of joy.

John says, “Behold! The Lamb of God who bears [Norw.] the sin of the world!” It is clear that all the sin of the world not only includes sin that is outside the body, but also sin that is present in the body. James says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your lusts [Norw.] that war in your members?” James 4:1. “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” We see that sin dwells within the body. Since Jesus bore the sin of the world, did He then bear the sin that we have within our body on the outside of His body? Or did God condemn sin on the outside of the flesh? Rom. 8:3 says that God condemned sin in the flesh.

We conclude from this that Jesus, the Lamb of God, bore our sin both in His body and outside His body, since He was even numbered with the transgressors, and as such can save those who transgress the law. The sins that we could commit or that we have committed, which are the result of sin reigning in our body, were laid upon Him; whereas the inherited sin in the flesh was embodied in His flesh so that it could be condemned in the flesh.

Praise God, through Jesus Christ, who saves us from sin both within the body and outside of the body. He has become for us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. The Spirit, the water, and the blood testify to these things. If all the sins of the world were merely laid upon Jesus outwardly on His body, as some people teach, how then could the blood cleanse it? How could the blood testify to it? Since the blood cleanses and also testifies, it is evident that sin was in the members together with the blood. “Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ?” Since sin dwells in the body, and my body is a member of the body of Christ, it is clear that He has sin in His flesh. It is not only in glory that we will be united with Him. First, we are to be united with Him in humiliation and we are to suffer together with Him, and then afterward we will be glorified with Him. Jesus, the Son of God, relinquished His glory and took upon Himself the seed of Abraham, being made like His brethren in all things. Then He humbled Himself again, becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. We must follow Him in this humiliation in order to become partakers of His glory.

“And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight . . . .” Col. 1:21-22.

Since He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death, and we continually deliver ourselves into this death in the body of His flesh, this shows without any doubt that sin in the flesh receives its judgment and death along with the judgment and death over sin in the flesh of Christ.

If it were possible to grasp these truths with our intellect, we would have understood them a long time ago. They must, however, be understood in the Spirit; and that is the difficulty, because we are carnal and slow to understand.