We agree about what Jesus was talking about. He was referring to the sin of sexual immortality, which she knew she was committing. He was not talking about the fact of having a fallen nature.

Jesus was not telling her to do something he knew was impossible. By the power of God's Spirit, we can cease to commit deliberate, willful, conscious sins. He provides us with the power to resist and overcome sins that the Holy Spirit convicts us of.

But of course this will never happen if we believe it can't happen. It's a matter of taking God at His word, believing what He tells us. He gives us promises. Why not believe them?

Yes! Besides the fact that there is nothing in scripture that indicates that the woman complied.

Nor do you have evidence from Scripture that she didn't.

Gerry

true

Yes, but what I get confused about is eternal life and sin. If we are given eternal life for simply just believing, then can we lose eternal life because we don't rid ourselves of wilful sinning?

I find it interesting that John and Robert use different definitions of Sin to make their points...and yet, I also find it interesting that there is a 3rd definition that did not make it to this discussion.

Doing the shorten form of this discussion, there are 3 definitions that are often overlapping when we use the word "Sin"...[please note, it is a big "S" version of Sin as opposed to the little version of "sin". ] The Big verson of "Sin" encompasses all three definitions...Why? Well, the answer to that question depends upon your understanding of the next two words- Trangression and Iniquity. Is transgression a sin? Is iniquity a sin? I think we all agree that those words can also be defined as Sin as well. But the question is which definitions...

Transgression is willful, deliberate violation of a known law. When the Prodigal son left home, he willfully transgressed his father's rules when he 'lived it up' and threw partys and was rather willful in violating those once seeminly 'restrictive' rules Dad had.

Iniquity, on the other hand, is also sin, but it is an inhertant sin, something that has affected our DNA, and it causes us to be selfish. So, iniquity is a selfishness that slowly errodes our choices. The Prodigal was hungry because he did not made provision for his needs, due to his provisions going for other things. So, he may have transgressed the law by stealing, and found himself caring for pigs of a wealthy farmer.

The 3rd definition is also called "sin" with a little "s"....because there are times when one can willfully make choices that are good and right, but are still knowingly wrong. For example, I can willfully choose to be a mechanic when I am designed to be a doctor. The result is that I am good at neither profession. And I have not lived up to God's ideal for me. Hence, to not live a life of faith, is sin.

In the case of the woman, who was caught in Adultery, and told to "go and sin no more", perhaps we overlook that what Jesus was saying was, 'Give up the life of an adultress, and life your life of faith, as you should. Live as God wanted you to live.'

Excellent!



Again, excellent!

I notice that you haven't give a single Bible verse to support your viewpoint. You've given us opinion and conclusions here, but now how about some Scriptural evidence? Show how you reasoned from Bible evidence to arrive at your conclusion.

I am not at this time disputing your viewpoint. I am simply asking that you show that what you say is true on the basis of Bible evidence, both Old and New Testaments.

We are not left in the dark to conjecture about this.

"But when a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice and does the same abominations that the wicked person does, shall he live? None of the righteous deeds that he has done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which he is guilty and the sin he has committed, for them he shall die." Ez 18:24 ESV.

"For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries." Heb 10:26,27 ESV.

Gerry

First, a good EGW quote:

-BC- Mar
-TI- Maranatha
-CN- 83
-CT- Proof Against Every Temptation
-PR- 02
-PG- 91


The infinite value of the sacrifice required for our redemption
reveals the fact that sin [iniquity] is a tremendous evil. Through sin [iniquity] the whole human organism is deranged, the mind is perverted, the imagination corrupted. Sin has degraded the faculties of the soul. Temptations from without find an answering chord within the heart, and the feet turn imperceptibly toward evil.

Whatever iniquity is, it comes very natural (see the blue lettering).


Ez 28:13 You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering,...you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. 15 You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created,
till iniquity was found in you.

Note, iniquity was found IN Lucifer. Something changed on the inside.

Paul, referring to the man of Roman's 7 struggle, words it this way:

Rom 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh;... if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

Notice Paul says "sin which dwells in me"! In verse 23 he calls it, "the law of sin at work within my members".

Law here simply means a force...a principle at work in our members. Remember it was first found in Lucifer. It's like a disease, but it's not because you can remove cancer for example.

David, in Ps 51:5, states that he was formed in this sin:

"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin [i.e., iniquity] did my mother conceive me."