Prayer, Sin and Victory

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Prayer, Sin and Victory

• Looking at 1 John 5

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Praying for others

• In 1 John 513-15 John assures us of two
  important matters of faith. 
• One, we can have knowledge of eternal life, verse
  13. 
• And two, we can have confidence in prayer, verses
  14-15. 
• John turns now from prayer in general to
  intercessory prayer.  When we pray not for
  ourselves, but for others, that is intercessory
  prayer. 
• The first thing we notice in verses 15-16 is that
  these verses are a powerful affirmation of
  intercessory prayer, like, Paul to the
  Thessalonians Brethren, pray for us (1 Thess.
  525), or Hebrews with the same request Pray
  for us (Heb. 1318).  James calls upon the
  elders of the church to anoint the sick with oil
  and pray for them (James 514) and Paul to
  Timothy suggesting that prayers should be lifted
  on behalf of all men (I Tim. 21). 

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Whom do you not pray for?

•  Johns particular illustration is a bit
  mysterious, because he makes a distinction
  regarding sin that he doesnt explain. 
• The distinction is between sins that are mortal
  and those that are not mortal.  The distinction
  is important, because he says we are to pray for
  those persons who commit sins that are not
  mortal, but not for those who commit sins that
  are mortal.

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Two different kinds of sin?

•  Thus there are two kinds of sin.  The problem
  is, what is the difference between them? 
• The Greek here (pros thanaton) literally means
  toward death.  Evidently mortal sin is sin that
  is moving towards death, meaning spiritual
  death.  That is, the goal and end of mortal sin
  is death.  If one persists in this kind of sin it
  will result in death. 
• But the question remains, which sins are mortal
  and which are not? 
•            

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1. Unconscious v highhanded sin

• They knew what he meant by this distinction but
  we dont. 
• Some distinguish unconscious or unwitting sins,
  on the one hand, and deliberate, highhanded sins
  on the other as in the OT. 
• The unconscious sins are not deliberate, or at
  least they are not premeditated.  The sacrifices
  made on the annual Day of Atonement atoned for
  those sins.
• The highhanded sins, on the other hand, are done
  deliberately, knowing it is against Gods will. 
  Although this distinction is helpful and may
  present part of the truth, in and of itself it
  does not fit the New Testament teachings of
  forgiveness.  It leaves the category of sins
  leading to death much too broad. 

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What are mortal sins? (1)

• Are mortal sins those punishable by death under
  mans law?  But the passage quite clearly means
  more than a matter of breaking man-made laws. 
•  Or perhaps those punishable by death under Gods
  law, meaning the Mosaic law of the Old
  Testament.  But most scholars agree that such an
  interpretation throws Christians back under the
  Old Covenant after the New Covenant was
  established. 
•  Still a third suggestion is that John meant sins
  punishable by excommunication.  But
  excommunication is hardly the same as death.  So
  that idea has not gained support. 

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What are mortal sins? (2)

•  Perhaps post-baptism sins.  The idea is that God
  forgives all previous sin when one is converted
  and baptized, but does not forgive sins committed
  after one is converted and baptized.  But that
  idea goes beyond the overall teaching of the New
  Testament, which makes it clear that God does
  forgive post-baptism sins. 
•  Or is the sin that leads to death the one
  sometimes called the unforgivable sin? 

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The unforgivable sin (1)

•  Lets read  Lk. 1210 and parallels and Heb.
  64-6.  The Lukan passage talks about blasphemy
  against the Spirit, and the passage in Hebrews
  speaks about true apostates, persons who
  experience all there is to experience in
  fellowship with Christ, and yet turn their backs
  on him.
• Can we equate these ideas?  In the end
  blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is experiencing
  all that there is to experience in Christ and
  then rejecting him. 

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The unforgivable sin (2)

•  That is the unforgivable sin and the sin that is
  unto death, for which it does no good to pray. 
  Of course all conscious sin, if persisted in,
  leads to death.  And John has made it clear that
  Christians are not to sin at all.  Therefore the
  category of sin for which prayer is not helpful
  has to be a special small category. 

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The meaning of apostasy

•  Possibly mortal sin refers to those fairly rare
  apostates to whom Hebrews 6 makes reference. 
• Those people have (like Satan) deliberately,
  knowingly turned their backs on God and his
  salvation. 
• They know the consequences of their decisions,
  and they dont care.  These are the people who
  have blasphemed the Holy Spirit, who have
  committed the unforgivable sin (Lk. 1210 and
  parallels).
• It also is important to recognize that this sin
  is unforgivable not because God wont forgive
  it.  It is unforgivable because those persons do
  not want to be forgiven.  Thats why it does no
  good to pray for them. 

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The refusal to repent

• The much broader category of sins, the sins that
  do not lead to death, and for which prayer is
  helpful, includes primarily conscious sins of
  which we need to repent and seek forgiveness. 
  One might think that unconscious sins should be
  included, but unconscious sins are taken care of
  by Christs shed blood as a universal benefit of
  the atonement, so prayer isnt really necessary
  for them.
•   Sins become mortal in an ultimate sense only if
  a person refuses to repent or seek forgiveness. 
  And that is precisely what those who commit the
  unforgivable sin have done.      

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Victory over sin (1)

•     Finally, not only can we have knowledge of
  eternal life and have confidence in prayer,
  third, we can have complete, spiritual victory
  over sin.  In verses 18-21 John declares several
  things about Christians. 
• First, we are free from sin (v18 as in 36,9). 
  And the reason we who are born of God (believers)
  are free from sin is because the one who is born
  of God (Jesus Christ) protects us from the evil
  one. 
• And that gives us a second point about
  Christians Christ protects us from the evil one.

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Victory over sin (2)

• Third, we are aware that we are of God in
  contrast to the world (v. 19).  In other words
  there are two groups those of us who are
  children of God make up one group and those
  among us who belong to the world and the evil one
  make up the second group. 
• Fourth, we are aware that the way to being
  children of God, and of maintaining our
  relationship to him, is Jesus Christ (v. 20). 
  Through faith in him, and by means of our mutual
  abiding relationship with him, we are in the One
  who is true (God), and we have eternal life.