The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 5-4
Righteousness is an objective quality. It is determined by comparing your actions to the law. It doesn’t matter why you sinned, what pressure you might have been under, or how deceived you might have been. A sin is a sin is a sin. So what is sin? 1 John 3:4. If you deviate from the law, no matter how much, no matter why, you have sinned and you are unrighteous (1 John 5:17).
But faith is based on a subjective quality. Because faith is not about whether or not you really are sinning, but rather whether or not you believe you are sinning! Read Romans 4:3-8. Can you commit a transgression if you don’t know what the law says? Romans 4:15. How can you transgress a law you don’t know?
So if you believe killing someone is not a sin, then it isn’t a sin to you. (Killing someone to defend your family, or going to war to defend your country are examples of that.) This doesn’t mean these aren’t sins. It simply means that whether they are or not, you won’t be blamed by God because you believed you were doing the right thing! (Luke 23:34).
If you later realize it was in fact a sin, that changes nothing – you didn’t know at the time it was a sin, so it doesn’t count – because sin is not reckoned against you when there is no law! But if you are still in the army when you learn it, then you have to decide what you should do from now on (Luke 3:14). Because until you learned the truth, it didn’t count… but now it does (Acts 17:30).
But this cuts both ways; for if you believe killing an intruder is wrong, but your heart’s fear makes you defend yourself instead of trusting God then it is a sin to you… even if self-defense wasn’t actually wrong! (Romans 14:23).
So sin is reckoned against you when there is law, even when the law is wrong… as long as you believed the law applied at the time! If you believe going to war is a sin, but your heart’s fear of invasion (or of prison) causes you to go to war anyway, then it’s a sin to you, whether it’s an objective sin or not!
Because if your soul will obey your heart when your conscience believes it is wrong, then even if your conscience was mistaken… your soul still sinned because you believed it was wrong at the time and did it anyway!
And if your soul is willing to do that, for God’s purposes it doesn’t matter whether THIS was a sin or not… because if it HAD been, you’d still have done it! And that means you can’t be trusted with real power in His Kingdom!
COMPROMISE
Everything we do seems right to us (Proverbs 16:2). Because the heart wants to do something, the spirit objects, and the soul finds a compromise; some way of reconciling the spirit’s objection with the heart’s desire. So if we’ve done it, we’ve already justified it in our minds. It’s “good enough”, “Ok”, “not that bad”.
We may have some lingering doubts, but all our ways seem “right to us” at the time. But what happens if you suddenly realize that warring is a sin, will you drop your guns and obey this law you’ve just learned? Will you ignore it, and shush your conscience into silence? Or will you try to negotiate a compromise, maybe only kill in self-defense?
You experience this exact situation a dozen times every day. And the vast majority of people favor the compromise; “just a little piece”, “just one more”, “I’ll make it up tomorrow”, etc. But are these really compromises? Because a compromise is defined as a solution where neither side gets what they want. And most of the time, the conscience is given just enough to shut it up – and the heart is given almost all of what it wanted.
Most people’s judgments so heavily favor the heart that they’re the equivalent of fining Exxon $10 for an oil spill; yes, technically that’s a compromise, but really, the beast is the clear winner. This is how the human mind works, as every psychologist knows – desire, duty, and compromise. In fact, here is a chart from a psychology website showing, based on observation, how the mind does work.
But is it how the human mind should work? More importantly, is it how the Christian mind should work? Is it our soul’s job to compromise… or is it our soul’s job to judge right and wrong?
Is it the job of a judge to hear the rapist and the victim and find an acceptable middle ground? To conclude that the rapist probably acted improperly and should at least do community service… but the girl shouldn’t have been in that neighborhood, or dressed that way, so she’s at least half to blame?
Or is it his job to punish the guilty and defend the innocent? Numbers 14:18. How much can you compromise with wrong before you become wrong? Galatians 5:9. Right is right, and wrong is wrong, and ANY compromise between them is a sin!
This graphic demonstrates exactly what is wrong all of us – rather than judge good and evil in our own bodies, we compromise with evil day in and day out. This graphic is absolutely accurate! But it is absolutely not how we should behave!
All of the acts you’ve ever committed were an “acceptable compromise” between “want” and “should”. An acceptable compromise to your corrupted soul, but not necessarily acceptable compromises from God’s point of view! Does God simply want you to do more good than bad in life? Ezekiel 33:11-20.
So if your heart wants something, and your conscience says it’s wrong, and your soul reasons “well, just a little bit”, or “just this once” or “I’ll pay it back later”, or “he’d do it to me in my place” or “I deserve it”, or any of a thousand other justifications… then you have sinned.
God is creating souls who judge as He judges, who can be trusted to rule their beasts and do the right thing. And if, at any point, you bend your conscience to meet the beast half-way, you have proven He cannot yet trust you to do that! Judgment by compromise is not judgment at all!
Your spirit is the only fraction of your mind that is by nature inclined to do the right thing. And however flawed it might be, its motivations are more pure than your heart. So you must always listen to it… not necessarily obey, but listen.
HEARING THE SPIRIT
Perfection is not created by being good; perfection is created by elimination of that which is bad; whatever is left, is good (1 Thessalonians 5:21, Hebrews 12:27). You have thousands of flaws in your character at this moment, of varying sizes. Doing good works doesn’t change that; to approach perfection you must stop doing the bad things. But how do you find those bad things?
You need a brutally honest critic. Someone who will tell you every single time you step out of line. Proverbs 27:5-6. Something merciless and obsessed with the principle of the thing. Remind you of anyone? Your spirit is not always right, but it always deserves to be heard.
Everything I’ve said so far has led you to believe that you should not listen to your spirit, and that’s misleading. You absolutely should listen to it, for in its subjective way, it is the only naturally objective part of your mind!
What is the job of our spirit? Proverbs 20:27. Our critical spirit is watching everything we do, watching everything the belly (the heart) does. When it finds something wrong, it condemns you (Romans 2:15). What happens if you ignore the conscience? 1 Timothy 4:1-2.
When you ignore the criticism of your conscience and keep doing something that feels wrong to you, it will keep reminding you each time you do it; but as time passes, it will get calloused to this thing that it believes is a sin.
And in time, it will become “seared with a hot iron”, unable to help you determine right and wrong through all the scars you’ve given it. This is how many people depart from the faith (1 Timothy 1:19), and listen to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils… because their conscience was so scarred from the little things, it couldn’t tell truth from lies when the great whore spoke.
And so your job, now, is to try and remove that scar tissue built up from a lifetime of compromise. Your spirit is not always right; but it’s a good starting point for discussion. It’s time for you to reverse your lifelong policy of meeting your beast half-way, and make choices, not compromises. Judgments, not mediations.
CONDEMNATION OF THE HEART
Read 1 John 3:19-22. This passage contains everything you need to know about faith. Because faith is not about objective right and wrong. It’s about “assuring your hearts before God”. Think about that; assuring your heart. Why would your selfish heart need “assurance” from you?
How does your beast react to fear? Psalms 11:1. So when your heart sees something scary, but your soul wants to trust God, your beast – desperate to save its own life – will do its best to persuade you that God can’t be trusted, that you need to listen to it and flee. And the best way it can do this is to remind you of why God shouldn’t trust you!
And so if the beast can condemn your soul, saying “God shouldn’t answer you, because you made Him angry by listening to ME last week, so let’s flee!” then it will do so! And that will naturally weaken your faith, because your beast makes a good point! How can your soul trust God, when God may not have forgiven the sins of your youth, as your beast so helpfully pointed out? (Job 13:26).
See, the heart is contradictory, irrational, and just wants its own way. The pride of your heart resents your control over it, so it rejoices to see your failures (Ecclesiastes 10:1). And while it is angry that you chose your conscience over it, it knows it was the right thing to do.
But if you obey your heart instead of your conscience, it knows that was the wrong thing to do, even though it’s what it wanted you to do! And when you try to exert authority over it in the future, it will remind you of your corruption, and try to leverage that to its own advantage. (“You gave in to your heart last time, why not this time?”)
And so here we have another terrific asset; for not only do we have a conscience that always tells us the right thing to do (well, as it understands it); we also have a heart that is absolutely brutal in pointing out when our soul has failed to do it!
That’s why 1 John 3:21-22 is such a powerful passage; because if you can reach a point where your heart doesn’t condemn you, you will have a right to have ANYTHING you ask of God… why? Because if your heart can’t find any place where your soul is disobeying your spirit…
…If these mortal enemies, each with their own selfish reasons to find fault with your soul, are unable to accuse you… then you are, by definition, “keeping his commandments and doing those things that are pleasing in his sight” to the absolute best of your ability!
DEFEATING THE HEART
When you argue with someone, the natural instinct is to confront them head on; to challenge their assertions, to debate each point with them until you (hopefully) win. If someone calls you lazy or stupid, you’re inclined to resent that and argue with them.
But this is what they’re expecting – and, usually, what they want. Because as long as you spend time justifying yourself and defending yourself against their accusations, you’re falling into the same trap that Paul fell into in 2 Corinthians 12; when what he should have remembered was John 5:31.
If you truly want to win these arguments, act more like Proverbs 27:2 and less like Luke 16:15. Rather than disagreeing with your detractors, focus on what you can take from their criticism. Try to use their hatred as a magnifying glass to correct your flaws, rather than to deny that they exist! Welcome their attempts to remove the splinter in your eye even if there is a stick in their own!
This way of dealing with your enemies is unexpected; for an arrogant spirit cannot admit to such weakness without giving up its perceived right to authority; and a proud heart cannot admit to such failures without conceding that it is, indeed, selfish. But a soul that loves truth will hear criticism even from its own carnal heart!
Your soul makes mistakes. It’s already made many bad judgments, which has allowed your heart and spirit to justify their “need” to take charge and rule your mind for you. And your soul should treat these bitter condemnations from your heart and spirit as a tremendous opportunity to improve, not as a rebellion to be crushed.
And so when your heart says “you listened to me last week, now God won’t save you because of that”, rather than argue as you’re inclined to do, you should say to your heart “you’re right; that was a mistake, but I’m repenting of that right now so God will save us because He delivers those who stop sinning, no matter how wicked they were before!” (Ezekiel 18:21, 27).
How can your heart condemn you after that? (Proverbs 25:12). When your spirit says “you’re living in sin”, rather than make excuses, say “yes, I am and I’ll stop right now!” What more could it ask for? Because rather than justifying yourself, you’ve heard its critique, obeyed it, and done the ONE THING that can disarm their reason not to trust God – make yourself once again a diligent seeker of God.
A FAITHFUL MIND
As you will remember from Lesson 1-8, he who comes to God must believe that God exists, that He rewards those who diligently seek Him, and that you are diligently seeking Him, in order to have God answer your prayers (Hebrews 11:6 merged with 1 John 3:19-22).
This means when God says “if you believe…”, He means you must believe all THREE things! But now that you know you have three parts to your mind, you can see that each of these things that must be believed… is something that a different part of us must grasp!
Your heart can’t see God, but once it learns to trust you, it will take your word for it that God exists (1 Peter 1:8). Since God is spiritually discerned, your spirit can accept that God exists on its own… but accepting that God knows right and wrong better than it does requires a broken spirit and does not come naturally to it.
Yet there are many people in the world who do both of these things, quite well, and yet have no true faith. Because they lack the final, crucial element – a soul that knows that God has no choice but to answer it, because it has done nothing wrong.
Your heart must believe that God exists, is watching, and thus is able to save it; just as your horse must believe that you do indeed see the scary, dark horse-eater in the bushes and you’re keeping a close eye on that terrifying… tree branch.
Your spirit must believe that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him; that He will not let your good deeds go unnoticed (Hebrews 6:10), and thus is competent to save it; just as your horse must learn to trust that you do indeed know which way to turn to get us safely back to the barn.
And your soul must believe that it has made judgments that God would be pleased with, and thus that God is willing to save it! Just as the rider of the horse must believe he actually knows the way to have faith in his own ability to get home.
Now if your heart condemns you, God might give you an answer anyway (1 John 3:20); He knows we’re made of dust (Psalms 103:14). But if our soul says we’ve done well, but our heart still condemns us, what would you call that? James 4:8. And is a double-minded man likely to receive answers to prayer? James 1:6-8.
God has bound Himself to answer all prayers quickly and powerfully, on one condition (Matthew 21:22). And when you look closer that’s actually three conditions. Your heart must have faith; your spirit must have faith; and your soul must have faith.
The condition is simply that we must ALL believe we are doing ALL we should (Galatians 5:16-18). When presented with a choice between your heart and your spirit, you must always choose your spirit (Galatians 5:24-25, Romans 8:1-6).
The condition is not righteousness; for that is an objective quality we are ill-equipped to judge. The condition is faith, because that is a subjective quality that no one but us is equipped to judge. No one else can judge how well our three selves obey God, nor how well they believe they are obeying God.
If we truly believe that we are… and it’s not as hard as you might think… Jesus promised that you will receive ALL things you ask for. No other qualifications, no loopholes, a simple promise, repeated many times in the Bible in a variety of ways (Psalms 34:15-17 comes to mind). You just have to do your part first (Ezekiel 18:31, Malachi 3:7).
PERFECT SUBJECTIVE RIGHTEOUSNESS
To begin with, think about what you know you are doing that is wrong. Go to a place where you’re undisturbed and vulnerable –the shower, for example, where you have nothing to hide behind from God –and invite your heart and spirit to criticize you. Ask the question God could never get Israel to ask themselves “what am I doing wrong?” (Jeremiah 8:6).
Depending on what your heart and spirit are like these days, you may get a flood of angry thoughts, a suicidal wave of depression at the enormity of your sins, or the sound of crickets as your spirit and heart blink at each other in confusion over the question.
Regardless, you need to pick one thing and then judge it. The best place to start is with the text of the ten commandments. How are you violating the letter of that law? Start with the top, and go to the bottom.
Then go back again, this time look for the magnifications of the law; no, you’re not robbing banks; are you using pirated software? Music? No, you’re not killing, but are you hating your brother in your heart?
Then go back again, and look at positive side; then the internal negative, the internal positive. If your heart is still silent, then you’re either already a firstborn saint, or else you’re not really trying. If you’re overwhelmed under a flood of things you’re doing wrong, then stop and take them one at a time, in order from the most serious first.
Invite criticism from your conscience, and then say “whoa, that’s enough, give me a second to work on the last ten things you said!” God teaches us one thing at a time –and until you’ve obeyed what you already know to do, why should He give you more? Isaiah 28:9-10. One thing is built upon another. You have to start somewhere, with the easiest stuff, and God will reveal the rest in due time if you just obey what you know.
So hear the sides, gather more evidence if you need to –Bible verses, opinions from people you respect (or even people you don’t: 1 Corinthians 6:4), internet searches, whatever; then make a choice based on the evidence, and then stand by it. Then tackle the next condemnation.
This will take time. Months to feel like you’re getting your head above water, and years before you can really walk away from this without a place to improve. But it’s just like cleaning up after a party –you just have to grab a trash bag and start cleaning up the most obvious stuff first, then take stock again after a few hours of work.
INJUNCTIONS
Again, not everything your heart or spirit accuses you of will turn out to be wrong. If your spirit condemns you for a TV show you watch or a song with questionable lyrics, it’s not necessarily right. But until you take the time to properly and fairly hear all sides and render a judgment you must stop doing whatever it condemns you for.
If it IS wrong, and you kept doing it, it would be a sin, for you would have been warned, judgment or not! And if isn’t wrong, and you kept doing it, it would still have been a sin because you knew it might be and you didn’t care! And that is why you must ALWAYS keep your conscience clean by exercising it! (Acts 24:16).
You have to start by giving the accuser the benefit of the doubt and issuing an injunction on these alleged sins. Because if it might be wrong, and you don’t stop it just in case, then you are taking a gamble with the law; and that’s not acceptable.
If your spirit says “using pirated software is wrong” and your soul says “maybe you’re right, I’ll think about it” and keeps using it while it thinks about it, then it’s sinning. Your heart knows that, and will condemn you, which will weaken your faith.
Let’s put this in another context to make it clearer; let’s say you know your tire is worn thin, and there’s a good chance you might have a blowout soon. Is it acceptable to drive it into traffic, knowing that if it does blow out at 70 miles an hour, you could kill someone?
Even if that doesn’t happen, the fact that you gambled with someone else’s life is unacceptable to the law (Exodus 21:28-29). Because how is that loving your neighbor, to take chances with his life? Would you want him to roll the dice on yours?
At the first accusation of an act by your spirit, you must immediately pause it, unless doing so risks an even greater sin. This way, you’re beyond reproach while you decide whether the spirit is based in the law, or based in tradition; whether the heart has a point, or whether it’s just trying to distract you.
So until you have time to judge it, or until you’ve gathered the necessary facts to make an informed decision, you must stop whatever the alleged sin is. This, again, goes back to humility; how much proof will your conscience have to bring to your soul before you grudgingly give up this sin?
Will you heed at the lightest suspicion of wrongdoing? Or will you give in only when buried under a mountain of facts? As I’ve said many times, you cannot blindly trust the spirit… but it’s a good place to start.
So before you get down to the business of breaking your spirit, you need to prove your soul’s willingness to abide by the dictates of your own conscience in principle. Issue enough injunctions to find a baseline of conscience, a temporary place where no one, inside or outside of your body, can find a sin to pin on you (1 Timothy 3:7, Hebrews 11:39) even if they’re wrong about the definition of sin! (1 Thessalonians 5:22).
EXAMINE YOURSELF
What we’re talking about is simply obeying the command in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and 1 Corinthians 11:28. A careful, systematic examination of everything you do, everything you feel, everything you are. With the goal of renewing your whole mind, all three parts (Romans 12:2); to prove what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is.
Your heart is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) –and it won’t like this process. It will try to confuse the issue by saying that you do so many things wrong, you’re just a terrible person who can’t ever hope to please God. Notice, that’s a variation on the antichrist doctrine, which your heart, like Satan’s, subscribes to –that God asks too much of a selfish person.
And that’s true –it’s too much for a selfish person to do. But you are not a terrible person; you’re a person who has done terrible things, so what are they? Identify them, stop them, and you can be a good person again, one who “seeks God with your whole heart” (Psalms 119:2), and therefore deserves the blessings of God.
Demand specifics about your shortcomings and then judge them, one at a time. Make a list if you need to –and then take stock. Pick a few easy ones –how hard would it be to give up that TV show there? How hard would it be to charge that guy just a little less, to give him a fair price?
How hard would it be to just admit to that other guy that it was your fault and apologize? Even if it leaves you holding the short end of the stick? (1 Corinthians 6:7). How hard is it to keep your promise, even when it’s no longer advantageous? (Psalms 15:4).
Once you’ve dealt with these obvious, easy things, work on the harder ones. The point is to see some progress early on, so you know the list CAN shrink! Just like cleaning up after that wild party, after a few hours it may feel like you’re making no real progress… until you step back and realize it no longer looks like a war zone. It’s still far from clean… but it’s headed in the right direction.
Keep working on this list –asking other people for help or advice if it’s appropriate, and make yourself into a better person. You will find some things your conscience complains about, and think “oh, but that’s such a small thing, surely that’s not important!” See for yourself: Luke 16:10, Luke 19:17.
It is what you do in the small things, where it seems most unimportant, that is most revealing about your true nature. Anyone can do the right thing when everyone is watching and lives are on the line; it’s a much better sign of character to do the right thing when no one is watching and no one cares but you.
This will take time, and it will take work and sacrifice; both of money, of habits, and even of friends and family sometimes. But what else in life could you possibly do that has more value –both to yourself, and to your friends and family, than to make yourself a better person? Think about that.
This is not something you will do one time; you’ll do it again, and again, and again, until you find peace in your mind when you seek condemnation. When, like Daniel, even your enemies cannot find fault with your actions (Daniel 6:3-4). When even your spirit and your heart find you blameless (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
When you do that –and again, it’s not as hard to do as your heart might want you to think; there are only so many things you do, and only so many sins you can, even theoretically, be committing at a given time. If you’re truly committed to doing the right thing, you’ll get there (1 Peter 1:21-22).
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
You need to be able to go to God and say “I am not doing anything wrong that I know of”. You need to say it with a straight face, and a calm heart, and a confident spirit. If you can’t do that, it means that it isn’t true.
So go back and ask yourself “If God WANTED to condemn me –even unfairly –what would be the EASIEST thing He could pick? If He WANTED to show proof that I am an awful person, what’s the easiest thing He could find?”
See, the problem with this process is that it allows your mind a great deal of latitude to justify things. “Oh, I’m sure God understands…”, “yes, but God wouldn’t want me to lose my job”, and so on. But to truly have faith, you need to assume that God DOESN’T understand. Assume for a moment that He’s picky and ornery and mean.
You will already have stopped all the things that a “nice, forgiving, patient God” would complain about, but if you can manage to remove all the things even a “spiteful, nasty, grumpy God” would complain about –you’d be just about perfect, wouldn’t you? And that’s your goal! (Matthew 5:48).
If you can make it to where you are doing nothing that anyone can point to (using the Bible) and say “That’s wrong! That’s contrary to the spirit of the law of God!”, then no one, not Satan, not even your own heart can condemn you! And when you reach that point, you will have perfect faith!
Because that’s ALL that’s missing in your faith –the absolute calm CERTAINTY there is NOTHING you are doing, not even POSSIBLY, that might be offensive to God! Then you will KNOW beyond the shadow of a doubt that you are diligently seeking Him, and can go BOLDLY before the throne of grace!
The “one verse” for this lesson is Psalms 77:1-6. If you want God to hear you when you cry, you have to do this; you have to commune with your heart, and you have to ask your spirit to make a diligent search; ask your heart if there’s anything it can think of that would prevent God from answering you; and ask your spirit if there is any way you are erring from the law as it understands it (Psalms 77:7-10).
And when you’ve heard them, and considered their corrections and repented as necessary, while you wait for God’s inevitable answer, comfort yourself with the knowledge that God is able, willing, and eager to answer… as soon as you’ve done your part (Psalms 77:11-20). He simply has no choice (Isaiah 58:8-9).