Study Guide: 1 John 3

Hi, my name is James Rathman.

And my name is Bruce Nickley.

And this is the Redemption Church Denver Podcast.

And we are going through 1 John chapter 3 today, which is one of the more challenging chapters of 1 John.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

And uh after just having sort of prepped for this, talking through it with you, Bruce, I'm I'm really excited to get into this and uh share this with the rest of the church.

So uh if you're uh in one of the first John studies, hope this is helpful, maybe coming in a little late.

But uh I think it'll be really helpful even just in uh uh clarifying for nature of sin and our flesh and what's renewed, what does sin mean for a Christian, questions like that.

But first, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by our we have a book club this month, which is meeting on May 18th, and we're reading The Confessions of St.

Augustine.

Yeah, great book.

Um and this is written in the 400s, and it feels like it's written yesterday.

It's gonna blow your mind uh to read something so old, and it's just so prescient for the Christian life is not different.

Um that's maybe one of the most encouraging things about this book.

And then it's also a great little trick because it starts out as just like this you know, boy leaves home, steals pears, moves to the big city, falls for a bunch of schemes, and becomes Christian.

And then the last chapters are just like wild philosophy of time stuff, which is really fun.

So uh that's May 18th.

Uh that's a Monday uh from 7 to 8:30.

Uh so go ahead and get that book and start reading.

It's not very long.

You'll there's still plenty of time.

And uh likewise there'll be a men's night coming up at the end of May, the end of this month, May 29th, 7 to 9.

So that'll be the last one for the summer.

Uh so uh we'll take a break for the summer and pick back up in the fall.

I look forward to seeing you guys at those things.

All right, let's jump into 1 John chapter 3.

1 John 3 · chapter mention

So wanted to begin, Bruce, with um a discussion of the return of Christ or this parousia is the Greek word, which you don't see in this, but it's kind of a technical term in theology circles.

It says, And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

This is actually the end of chapter two.

But they link up.

Yes.

So we're gonna talk about it.

Yeah, the one of the questions in the study guide was uh what is the connection between the end of chapter two and the beginning of chapter three?

And I think it's around the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So uh what is what is the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Well, uh that's a great question.

We're gonna What's your take?

Well, I I think when Jesus um gave the um Olivet Discourse, he uh was asked a fundamental question after he told the disciples that um you see all these buildings, well, not one stone will be left upon another that will not be torn down.

You know, this was a spectacular uh uh um temple, uh one of the wonders of the world.

And um Jesus is basically mic a little bit closer.

Oh Jesus is basically saying it's all going to be gone.

And so the key question that the disciples asked him as they left the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us when this will be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age.

And everything that Jesus lays out, the false prophets, the apostasy, the sacrilege of uh what was spoken by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place.

Um he sums it all up, and this includes the tribulation.

Um, when he says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be dark and the moon will not give us light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven will be shaken, then you will see uh will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

Now, most of evangelicalism takes this as something yet future, right?

But when Jesus sums up his preaching on this in verse um thirty uh, well, let me read thirty-two.

From the fig tree, then learn its lesson.

As soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.

So also when you see all these things, when you see all these things, you know that he is near at the very gates.

Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things take place.

Heaven and earth may will pass away, but my word will not pass away.

So he puts the time limit on it.

Right.

Um, and generally a uh generation was viewed as about a 40-year period.

Right.

So if he's saying this around 30, 33 AD, um he's giving them 40 years to prepare for the events that he was um listing that were going to happen.

And sure enough, in AD 70, um the temple was utterly destroyed along with the city of Jerusalem uh by the Romans.

Right.

Um and they um they the the Lord and the apostles uh basically prepared the church to witness those things.

And um when Jesus said, When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee to the hills.

Right.

This was a um a very focused The abomination of desolation is a is a reference to a city that's totally surrounded.

Right.

Yeah, and and especially a reference to what the leaders were doing within the temple.

Yeah.

Um so um when they when the city was surrounded, um, you read in Josephus that uh the army pulled back for a brief time, and that let all the believers that believed the promises of Jesus to escape.

And they they avoided this judgment on foot.

Right.

Running across rooftops.

Exactly.

Um and um so that I believe is what Jesus was referring to, and in answer to the disciples' question, what will be the sign of your coming?

Well, this is the sign of his coming, the destruction of Jerusalem.

And that will be the sign that will tell the people that he is seated in the heavens, and he's he's bringing judgment from the clouds.

That was an Old Testament reference of when God would judge his people, he would talk about the cloud coming uh in judgment.

So um I don't take Matthew 24 or even the book of Revelation in large part as something that is in our future, but those are things that described the end of that age, the end of the Jewish administration of the covenant.

So when is the second coming of Christ?

Well, that's a that's a great question.

Um in uh seminary we read one of the best hermeneutic books um written by Milton Terry, and when he dealt with all these apocalyptic verses, his conclusion was well, we really don't know very much about the end of all things, which generally we think of as the the second coming of Christ.

Right.

Um so we need to be busy uh building the church and extending the kingdom, and um you know, um not get all excited about the eminent return of Christ, which every generation seems to be enthralled with.

And there's so much of it right now going on.

You know, um Jesus is coming tomorrow.

Yeah.

Um and it's largely the fruit of a dispensational eschatology that has been very popular in our country and in the Western uh civilization.

But but I think that's where I kind of leave it.

Um uh he's he will con you know um consummate all things.

There will be a transition of uh this world into the eternal state.

But I'm kind of there with Milton Terry, and you know, we just know very little about that.

Yeah.

So in uh for our purposes in 1 John, what does this coming mean?

Why is it that the re that first John's that John's readers can uh have a sense that they won't shrink back in shame at that coming?

And who is shrinking back?

What is that particular judgment on?

Well, the ones that are not practicing righteousness um and in combination with the loving of the brethren and the believing that Jesus was Messiah, all that um goes together with those saints who are being prepared to see these events.

Um Paul or John wanted them fully prepared because the the hour was coming.

Um and you see that in scripture.

You see from Jesus talking about a generation to the apostles talking about the last days, even James going down to the last hour, and he's at the very doors, and he's at the very gates, um, thinking of the of the temple.

So they um they want, and and we all want to be ready to not, you know, when we do step into the presence of Christ, we don't want to have to shrink in shame because of how we've been living.

Um I like when he says uh everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

You know, Paul talks about um, you know, anyone who purifies himself from what is ignoble makes himself a vessel for noble use.

Um so that that's that's what we can do.

If we want to be used greatly by God, then get the junk out of your life that causes you to stumble.

Yeah.

The things you you need to be cleansed of on an ongoing basis.

Don't make a practice of sin.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He uh he then moves in to a a uh he says, See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

Then he says, the reason that the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

We are God's children.

Now what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

Yeah, and uh you talked about purifies himself as he is pure.

He's really talking, he's talking so much about our our adoption into Christ.

Yes, and that we are we are in him, we abide in him, and that we can be called his children, and and that's because we are.

Yes.

And uh the uh this this drives so much of what John will continue on in terms of our relationship with sin throughout the rest of the throughout the rest of the uh chapter.

But there's a I think it's something that we can tend to neglect is this reality of our adoption into Christ and that we can call God our Father just as Christ did, because we're born of Him, of His seed.

There's a there's a there's like a f oh you can it's sort of like I feel like when we're talking about our salvation, it's like all of the metaphors that Scripture uses start to just collapse into each other, and it's like, oh, this is this is that same thing from a different perspective.

And when we hear that we are called children of God, and so we are, it's like, oh, we're seeing from this how can we be called these children again?

Oh, well, because we've been born again, because we've been born of Him.

And we're uh and so that that is the nature of who we are as a people.

Yeah, born born of Him is that reference to regeneration.

Um the I love the the way the Lord Um gives us analogies of of that event when um He makes a new creation.

That's one of the things in Corinthians he says uh that we are.

Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation.

Um what did what did you have to do with your first creation?

Yeah, no, um you just went along for the ride.

Yeah, it's it's we're wholly passive in um both our first creation and the new creation.

The second one when Nicodemus um uh uh was talking with Jesus is you must be born from above.

Yep.

Um, well, that's I didn't have anything to do with my first birth, I don't have anything to do with my second birth.

And then the third analogy is um we're brought from death to life.

It's one of resurrection, referring to the nature of the soul.

Um, he'll he'll deal with the body at a later time.

But um that's those three analogies should teach us we are saved by God's sovereign grace.

Right.

And that alone.

Right.

It had nothing to do with this.

Yeah, all the glory goes to him.

So uh then he kind of moves into so now that we're in now that we are these new creations uh before him, we're no longer dead in our trespasses and sins, we're in Christ, we're no longer enemies, we're no longer of the world, but we're born from above, then it moves into this question of, well, then how do we relate to this sin that we still see?

What does that mean?

That there's sin around us.

And that this chapter in particular, if we as you keep moving through it, it seems like, well, there just shouldn't be.

There just shouldn't be any sin.

Which feels like it contradicts what we hear in 2-1, which is if anybody says um uh or sorry, not 2-1.

Uh uh but if we say we have no sin, we uh uh sorry, it's uh the the last 110.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

How does that jive with three nine?

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.

He cannot keep on sinning?

Yes, that's what the scripture says.

Um the this the question in the study guide is um asking whether 1 John 2 1 and 1 John 3 9 are in contradiction.

Um do they contradict each other?

Um and I would say no, they don't contradict each other because God's word cannot contradict itself.

Right there's two senses uh that we have to deal with, and it it really boils down to the two aspects of our of our nature.

Um I I'm a dichotomist to use the theological term.

Man consists of body and soul.

Uh the tricomist has body, soul, and spirit.

Every trichotomist I've ever talked to can never define spirit.

Yeah.

We can define the soul.

Um the soul consists of the mind, the affections, and the will.

Yeah, it's the image of God in us.

Um and yet that soul inhabits a physical body.

And there's interaction.

One of the great mysteries of life is the how the body interacts with the soul.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, for sure.

Uh I think what he's I think that's what he's getting at, though, why he can say, you have sinned.

If anyone who says they haven't no sin is a liar.

And here in 1 John 3 he says, No, no one born of God sins.

Literally.

Uh the word practice there is added by the translators because of the tense of the verb.

Right.

Um, but um the reason he gives for it is God's seed abides in him.

And he cannot sin because he's been born of God.

So it raises the question of what is the nature of the regenerate soul?

Yes.

Uh, when God makes a new creation, when he causes one to be born again, when he raises one from the the death, from dead, um, what's the nature of that soul?

And I'm going to argue that it is a pure entity.

It's it's a it's a clean thing.

Right.

Um Paul writes to Timothy, for instance, and says that um we call upon God from a pure heart and a good conscience.

Um Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Um I think the tension he's getting at here is the tension between a regenerate soul and an unregenerate flesh.

Um when when Paul writes in Romans 7, for instance, he makes the case that I don't do what I want to do.

I do the things that I hate.

And and then he adds a couple of times, he says, so when let me read it.

When I when I do what I do not want, it is not I who do it, but sin which dwells in my members.

And he makes a statement twice in verse 17, so it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

And then in verse 20, now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.

So to tie this into 1 John, the the referent here is to the person who cannot sin.

Right.

It's it's speaking in terms of your regenerate soul, you you cannot sin.

That's a pure thing.

That's a pure thing.

And because it's made new, it's born again.

Right.

It's holy.

But you still have this flesh.

And so when you sin, and that's often it's the the the origin of the sin for the Christian is from their members.

Correct.

It's a there's a sense in which the origin is is outside of their soul.

Yeah.

I think that's exactly what he what he is saying.

And he further um addresses this in Galatians 5, when he says, But I say walk by the Spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you would.

When when he's they capitalized spirit in my version, and and I even heard Sparol on this recently.

He thinks it's the Holy Spirit that the flesh is fighting against.

I think the spirit here is my spirit, my soul united with the Holy Spirit that is in this mortal battle with my flesh that's still under the law of sin.

And um it has its own desires.

My flesh has its own desires, but my regenerate soul has new desires.

Right.

Um, that are holy and right and good.

And if I didn't have this flesh, I would, like he says, the flesh um prevents you from doing what you would.

When I my body, when my soul leaves this body, I'm always going to do what's right.

Always.

Right.

Because the source of my sin in an with it comes from an unregenerate flesh, my body, and and its desires and passions.

So uh I I want this to I want this to land for folks because I think that there's a real there's a real practical for living the Christian life sense in being in grasping this.

Right.

Because there's when we sin, it often cuts straight to our hearts and we consider this is evidence that I'm not in Christ.

Exactly.

And our guilt over that sin it's like it doubles the evidence that we're not in Christ.

There's the sin itself, and then there's our guilt over it.

I'm certainly not in Christ.

Well, how does this help with that?

Well, um it's it's if we can think with distinctions, um, it's crucial.

Um for instance, later on in in chapter 3, verse 19, um we read, by this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us, for God is greater than our hearts and he knows everything.

An unregenerate heart of the natural man will never condemn the sins of the flesh.

Right.

But when this new life comes in our soul, we now see things like God sees them.

Right.

And we can we recognize sin and its and its origin.

And when my heart condemns what I'm doing in the flesh, that's a good thing.

Right.

And it is this evidence that, hey, I really am a new creature because I I know this is wrong, and I I've I try to fight it, but I lost that battle.

Right.

Uh but I'm gonna pick myself up, I'm gonna repent, confess my sin, and move on and keep fighting that good fight of the faith.

And when our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God.

Why, well, when our hearts don't condemn us, it must be because we're doing the right thing.

Right.

Um, they can actually commend us for doing the right thing and saying, nice job, that was good work.

Yep.

Um so that's kind of the practical application.

But I think the most most important thing is when you look at your sin, don't as a believer, don't let Satan um ascribe that to the nature of your soul.

Right.

Um, because if you do, you're gonna be right back where you need to be converted.

Yeah.

You you if your soul stands condemned, then you're not living out Romans 8.1.

Romans 8.1 says there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.

Now, my flesh certainly lives under condemnation because it's under the sentence of death.

And it one one day it will die, and that will be the wages of sin, which is death, will be vindicated in my flesh.

My soul has already faced that.

Right.

My soul, I've been crucified with Christ.

It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

So you've got this new life living in this old flesh until we depart from this body.

And that won't happen until our physical death.

Yeah.

So don't what I'm saying is don't condemn your heart as sinful.

Right.

Condemn your flesh all you want.

You can agree with the devil on the accusations against the flesh.

Yeah, I agree.

That's that's where its rottenness comes from.

But you can't touch my heart.

But Bruce, I remember reading somewhere that the heart is deceitful above all else.

Yeah, in in Jeremiah 17.

Yeah.

Um, and I've heard preachers apply that to the Christian life.

I heard Tim Keller talk about it just the other day.

And I think that's an error.

Um, that is a reference about the natural man is desperately corrupt.

But when you come to the New Testament, you see purity of heart.

We we call upon God from a pure heart.

Well, it can't be desperately corrupt, it can't be both.

That would be a contradiction, right?

And and and it's not both because the new life, the new regenerate soul is utterly new.

And it's it it cannot sin.

I think that's what he's saying here in 3-9.

Um, for God to create a soul that sins, I think would actually make him the author of sin in the new creation.

I don't think he does that.

But he hasn't fully eradicated our flesh.

That's still there that we've got to fight.

So the picture that he gives, I think, of this war with the flesh and and our renewed heart that is uh adopted in Christ, it's renewed in him, it's made alive, it's born again.

We see a picture of that in Cain and Abel.

Absolutely.

And he uh starts uh in verse 11 with that.

He says, This is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.

We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

And why did he murder him?

Because his own deeds were evil and his brothers righteous.

So uh what was Cain's experience of this of why did he become a murderer, I guess, when he saw the righteousness of his brother?

Well, I'm gonna ask you a question first.

Um why did why were his works, his deeds described as evil and his brothers were righteous?

Yeah, so we we refresh our memories of the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4.

They both bring offerings to the Lord.

And the offering that Cain brings is the uh fruit of the land, vegetables, things that he'd grown, farmed, cultivated.

And the offering that Abel brings is uh uh from his flock.

It's uh a blood sacrifice that he brings.

I think there's I think with with the the little that we have in the story right before we have an we have enough to see that there's a distinction in these offerings because we had seen the Lord cover Adam and Eve with garments of skin so that they might leave the garden and not be put to death right away.

Their shame is covered.

So they're their their shame is covered with a blood sacrifice and that's we see that picture in Abel's offering.

There's another element of this that I that I think is interesting that I've that I've heard that I wouldn't I don't wouldn't put as much weight in as that first part.

But it's the nature of land that is at rest or land that's being worked.

And the land that is at rest, that is allowed to lie fallow, like they were instructed to do every seven years, um means that what it what do you live on then?

Well, just what the land happens to produce, which is not the best, and the animals.

You have animals that that just kind of walk around and eat stuff.

Uh they don't require the working of the ground.

And so that means that the offering of the animals is an offering from rest before the Lord.

There's a sense in which it's it's not an offering of your own works.

The own works of your hand, it's an offering of what God had already provided for you.

A returning back in gratitude to what God had already provided.

And that's what Abel offers.

What Cain offers is the fruit of his hands, the his own labor, his own work, as though that would be sufficient to justify him.

Yeah.

And both of they're they're similar, you know, that it's the same offering, but those are just two different perspectives on meanings within them.

Yeah.

And and uh Cain's response was uh once his offering was rejected, was anger.

Right.

Can isn't it one of the stupidest things to do?

You know, I've been thinking about that.

I've been thinking about that since um in our reading plan just a couple of days ago, we re we read Jonah.

Oh, yeah.

And it's the same question.

Same question.

Where God gives to Jonah a plant that gives him shade, and then the next day he takes it away, and Jonah's exceedingly angry at God and for taking away the plant.

He was angry before for him sparing Nineveh.

Now he becomes exceedingly angry because of the plant.

Yeah.

And God says, Do you do well to be angry?

Yeah.

Not so much.

And you can hear you like there's this um there's jealousy over the mercy that was given to the um maybe covetousness is a better word, over the the mercy that's given to the Ninevites.

Yeah.

Um there's uh covetousness over the plant that he did nothing to receive, but now he doesn't have anymore.

Yeah.

And it seems like that same dynamic is happening in Cain's heart.

There's the this envy over the mercy that's being shown, the accepting of the offering, of Abel's offering, and there's a uh hatred that that comes on the heels of that for his brother.

Yeah.

Well, I'm sure you've seen this in pastoral uh ministry.

Um some people really get angry with God.

Yeah.

Um and in counseling them, I always dissuaded them from that.

I've I mean I've heard preachers say, you can be angry with God, he's big, big boy, he can handle it.

Yeah, and I just cringe at that.

Um, I mean, anger is one of those things that just appears.

So uh you can be angry with God, but it's not something that should be encouraged.

Right.

Because why would you encourage someone with an attitude toward God that's ultimately needed to be repented of?

Right.

That never made sense to me.

Yeah, but that's what Cain had here.

And um it says uh God's response to Cain is, Well, why are you angry and why is that your countenance fallen?

If you do well, will you not be accepted?

And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door.

Its desire is for you, but you must master it.

I think that's one of the best verses you can um read for an understanding of New Testament sanctification.

Yeah.

Um, I mean, God just says it right to his face.

There's there's sin that's crouching at your door.

You know how close it is, um, Christian?

Yeah, it's right there.

It's right in your flesh, it's in your members and parts.

Yeah, when Paul in Romans 7 says, I know that when I want to do right, sin is nearby.

Well, yeah, it's very nearby.

It's in your very flesh.

Um, but you must master it.

Right.

That is the work of the regenerate soul in the in actively resisting the passions of the flesh.

Right.

Um, and when when it comes to that resistance, you know, there are several verses in the New Testament where Galatians says, do not gratify the desires of the flesh.

Colossians, stop indulging the flesh.

Peter, abstain from the passions of the flesh.

Paul in Romans, put to death the deeds of the flesh.

And then in Romans 6, let no sin reign, let not sin reign in your members of your bodies or in your mortal bodies.

So that's the work of sanctification on our part, that we cooperate with the Holy Spirit, knowing and seeing the sin in our flesh, the passions of our flesh, its desires, and saying, I gotta fight that.

Right.

That's the normal Christian life of Romans 7.

Right.

That's what Paul is speaking about.

And if there's no fight against your flesh, you need to start wondering if you really have been born again.

Right.

And uh and people often interpret it the opposite.

They think if there is a fight of the flesh within themselves, well, perhaps they haven't been born again.

Yeah, right.

Well, that's going back to uh your uh heart condemning you or or justifying you.

Right.

Um that's one of the things that you should be encouraged with.

If your heart condemns the sins of your flesh, good.

Yeah.

That's good.

Um deal with it.

Um so that's the normal Christian life, and to try to escape that um is impossible.

Um I think it is like it's the way that Paul describes it in Romans 7 is just so relatable.

I don't want to do this.

Yeah.

I'm doing it.

Yeah.

There's like it's like there's these parts of me, and then there's the the real me.

Yes.

Yeah, the real me.

He goes so far as to say that.

When I do what I do not want, it's not I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.

Right.

And he makes it very clear that he's talking about his flesh because he says, I know nothing good dwells it within me, that is in my flesh.

Right.

Because as we'll see here in 1 John, if the seed of God dwells in you, um, you're gonna be um you're gonna be safe.

You're gonna be very much aware of of where that sin, that passion is coming from.

Yeah, you'll see this is from the flesh.

Yeah.

Because I don't want it.

I don't want it.

I hate it.

Yeah.

And uh isn't that what Jesus says?

It isn't the way that we experience the flesh, it is desires and passions that are like asking to be fed.

Right.

I love the language, don't indulge the passions of the flesh.

Like I think of my flesh is like on this constant hunger strike, yeah.

And it's making me feel hungry on its behalf.

And it's like, feed me, yeah, indulge me, give me what I want, and I'll be satisfied.

And it's in it, but our job is to starve it out, you know, pitilessly look at it and watch it starve.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I I think By the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body.

Right.

When when it talks in Galatians 5 about the desires of the spirit versus the desires of the flesh, both you've got two sets of desires there.

Right.

And you know what?

A desire feels the same.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I mean, how he goes on to talk about um the fruit of uh of the flesh, the what the desires of the flesh are, and that helps us in Galatians 5 there.

But they feel the same.

Yeah.

So you need to be very discerning and ask, where is this coming from?

Is this coming from the affections of my heart, or is it coming from the appetites of my flesh?

Yeah.

Because I think there's a a real parallel there between body and soul.

That's true.

They are the same, they can be the same feeling.

Yeah.

It is a feeling.

The passions of our flesh and the desires of our spirit.

Yeah.

Can feel they're they're both desired.

You would you it's like we have the same language for them.

For both of them, we would say things I want.

Yeah.

Because that's exactly the way Paul talks about.

Yeah.

I do what I don't want to do.

Right.

That's like the per perfect way to say that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There is this like, and this is maybe just off shooting, but just for fun, but it's occurring to me.

There is like this incredible insight of Christianity of a person is the type of thing that can have two natures.

That seems that seem that um and our our hope is that those will be resolved.

Uh i it that they'll be in agreement.

That they won't be at war with one another once our flesh is put to death.

That's true and then we're resurrected.

Yeah, that's true.

But it'll not it'll never happen until that time.

Until that time.

Yeah.

They're at war now.

Yeah.

That's what the RSV takes that um verse about the seed in verse 9.

For God's seed abides in him.

Uh the RSV translates it as God's nature abides in him.

Well, if the seed here is Christ, it's even more significant.

Yeah.

That Christ as the seed of Abraham dwells in us.

And that's we find that in other passages of Scripture as well.

The Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Um, and in this new life of being born again, we cannot keep on sinning, or I would go so far as to say we cannot sin in the nature of our soul.

Right.

So the sin that we do is in our flesh.

It's in our flesh.

We're still responsible for it.

Because we're the type of thing that but we can use the word I, yeah, and it refers to both of those.

Right, exactly.

It includes both of those.

So it's not it's not that I'm not sinning.

Right.

I I am sinning, but there's a and I'm responsible for them because it's m.

Yeah.

And uh it is this part of me that can be mastered.

Right.

And ought to be mastered, and now I have the capability to master it by my renewed heart.

Yeah.

In But you never will master it in this life.

That's right.

Until the fight is on.

The fight is on.

And and yeah, keep doing what God told Cain.

You must master it.

Yep.

But that's gonna be a lifelong battle.

Right, until it's dead.

Yeah.

You know, another part of this uh uh was Jesus was washing the disciples' feet in the upper room.

Remember when he came to Peter and Peter says, You're not gonna wash my feet.

Yeah.

What do you say?

If I don't wash you, you have no part in me.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Then wash all of me.

And then he goes on to explain, he who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet.

Right.

And he goes so far as to say, you are all clean except Judas.

Um, but I still need to wash your feet.

And I think and analogically, that is what we're talking about here.

Um, we're clean inside.

We call upon God from a pure heart, and it it has no corruption in it.

But our our feet get dirty.

Yeah.

You know, our flesh needs to be cleansed.

Yeah.

And that's ongoing.

That's ongoing.

Yeah.

That's why in 1-9 here we, you know, confess your sins and he'll um forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Yep.

So keep doing that.

It makes me think of what is sanctification.

Sanctification is a work of God's free grace whereby we are enabled more and more.

Whereby we are renewed in the whole man.

Yeah.

After the image of God.

After the image of God, and are enabled more and more to die into sin and live into righteousness.

Exactly.

Exactly.

That's a great statement.

That's a great statement.

Yeah.

The more and more.

Yeah.

Is not a statement of completion.

Right.

But the renewed in the whole man is.

Yeah.

The all that is sin in us will die and go away.

Yeah.

And I I I would argue that regeneration is a point in time and space when God gives you that new birth, new creation.

Yes.

And the renewal begins there and it's it's complete, you know, and that's what we're looking at in in my class on the what is man.

We are the renewed image bearers of God in knowledge, holiness, and righteousness.

Those are there in our soul, but they need to mature, they need to grow.

Yeah.

I need to keep learning.

I need to keep praying.

I need to keep worshiping and doing what's what's right.

But I, like you were saying earlier, now I have the ability to do that.

Um and and I I need to be busy about that, about doing the righteousness that John talks about in 1 John here.

Because if I'm doing righteousness, well, that might be an encouragement that I have been declared righteous by the Lord.

So we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

All of us is dead, our heart, our flesh dead.

Christ regenerates us.

We're regenerated, we're given a new heart.

We are made alive in Him.

When we our flesh still remains, and sin still remains in our flesh, in our members.

You know, you can I think you can even think of that as like parts of your It's like parts of your um thoughts as well.

I think there are like areas that we go to.

Because it doesn't seem right that our members are just like like my finger and my you know, uh to like let it rain in my mortal bodies.

It seems like there's like a I almost want to make like a brain distinction, like a mind body distinction.

Yeah.

There are like thought it's like there are thought patterns l left in my brain that need to be put to death.

Yeah.

That my heart, my mind, I'm using those as the same thing, are it's they're not there.

It's renewed there.

Yeah.

And they need to be, they uh and so now we have the power to reign over those, to put those to death.

And then one day we will are we physically will die, and those will be totally put to death, and we will resurrect again where our minds and our bodies are renewed in Christ.

Yeah.

I like the way you were describing that because it's almost like this is another person that has thoughts um and and desires.

We it explicitly says the flesh has its own desires, but it's in a sense it has its own thoughts as well.

Yeah.

Um, and I think part of we saw that in earlier in chapter two, when we we dealt with um for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life.

I think that's manifestation of the flesh.

Yes.

The lust of the eyes.

I mean, golly.

It just happens.

Yeah.

And and and that's the eyes are our our first sense that uh we have perception with, and that's knowledge.

Yeah.

And and it leads to thoughts.

Um, and that's where the the mind is battling those lusts of the eyes.

Right.

Um, because um if you if you don't battle it, um you are demonstrating that you just are in love with the world.

Right.

And that's we kind of covered that last week.

So there is uh there is a a horrendous battle.

Uh that God has given us the promise that we're gonna we're gonna overcome.

Yeah.

Um, but let's fight it well now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I I think that's uh I I think we hit on some like the main challenges of this chapter.

Yep.

Um, and I hope it's helpful.

I I think I'm sure some categories were sort of blown up for people within this, but I hope that they are given new ones um that they can uh learn how to consider themselves as the Bible tells us to consider ourselves.

So it's different than how we're told to it it's different than how you would ordinarily think.

Yeah.

Um You know, uh a lot of the Puritans the you get this thrust from the Puritans that the longer they walk with God, the more aware they are of their sinfulness.

Yeah.

What I what I didn't like about the Puritans in that sense was they would condemn their heart.

Yeah.

A lot of them.

Just uh I'm I'm re you know, even Calvin says the heart is an idol-making machine.

Well, again, distinctions.

Yeah.

The flesh has its idols.

It's it desires to be, it it desires to worship these things and get its worth from all the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.

Um but that's that's uh just an awareness of this tension that I don't think they they got.

Yeah, they didn't get this tension.

And and so that they put the condemnation in the wrong place.

Yeah.

Um boy.

Isn't it great to live with no condemnation?

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah.

Well, that's that's where we need to stay.

That's where we need to abide, as John would say.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's really good.

All right.

Well, thanks everyone.

Bruce, thanks so much.

Uh super helpful.

Super helpful.

I think it'll be great for folks to listen to.

Great.

Any questions?

Just talk to us about it.

Yeah, please do.

These aren't easy things to wade through.

It certainly wasn't for me.

No, we just absorb like a picture of our own psychology and a picture of the way that the that like we work as like what we are as people, how to how to parse these aspects of what it means to be a person.

And we've absorbed a a lot of that.

I think I think that the patterns that we take for granted that we that feel more salient to us would be like uh uh a conscious, a subconscious, um an id.

Those are I think that those feel more salient.

And and people try and interpret themselves and their actions in Christ through those categories.

And they're not the categories that scripture gives us, they're actually deceptive categories for trying to interpret well your actions and your motivations and where those come from.

And then it causes us to be fighting wars on the wrong fronts and to be more divided in ourselves than um uh God calls us to be, and to be to be misapplying the weapons that He's given to us of repentance and hating our flesh and hating our sin uh in ways that are um uh neglecting the the regeneration and the renewal that's taken place in us.

Yeah.

So, yeah, ask us questions.

That'd be great.

Thanks so much, Bruce.

My pleasure.

All right.

Thanks, everybody.

See you later.