The Two Men

[bwme...@toast.net]

"Each of you is composed of two persons: one of whom is absolutely
incapable of anything good, and the other of whom is absolutely
incapable of sin"

--- Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse [To Christians only!]

This is a fascinating and profitable statement that bears proving
(1 Thess. 5:21). If I had known it during the first 10 years or so of
my Christian life, it would have saved me infinite doubt and distress
I went through during those years.

To begin in this, there is absolutely no other way to explain
1 John 5:18.

Dr. Morris says, on 1 John 3:6, the same subject:

***********************************************************
John had just noted that there is no one that "sinneth not' (1 John
1:8, 10) and obviously would not contradict himself by saying that no
one who sins has known God. Two solutions can be suggested to what
looks at first like an inconsistency. The believer has two natures-the
old man and the new man (Colossians 3:9, 10; Romans 7:16-17, 22-25).
When he lapses into sin, it is not his new man, but the old man,
since, as far as His new nature is concerned, "[God's] seed remaineth
in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9).
The second possibility is that the words "abideth" and "sinneth"
represent habitual action, not rigidly constant without exception. The
verbs are in the continuing present tense, and so with later verses to
the same effect (e.g., 1 John 3:7-10).
***********************************************************

The "second possibility" is the one that is always taught everywhere I
have heard; but it really makes no sense: it leaves the statement
ethereal, which is not characteristic of Scripture. How would a
person decide whether or not he (the whole person this "possibility"
is thinking of) sins "habitually?" EVERYONE sins "habitually." As
Eliphaz told Job (who didn't deny it), "Behold, he putteth no trust in
his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much
more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water
[,day after day]?" --- Job 15:15-16. But the "second possibility" is
a denial of that fact. Paul clearly affirms it, in his own case, in
Romans 7B. Peter affirms it, in his case, and all Israel's, in Acts
15:10-12, and John himself says, in this very same letter, 1 John 1:8,
10, that to deny it is to call God a liar.

As regards the Grk grammar on it, see Endnote 1 below.

The only sensible "possibility" remaining, then, is the first one, the
one stated by Dr. Barnhouse.

1 John 5:18, then, correctly reads (the Grk grammarians
notwithstanding):

*********************************************
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is
begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
*********************************************
As it is rendered by about 90% of the Bible versions and translations
I have.

This states three facts: anyone who has been born of God (1) CAN NOT
SIN! --- Period!!; (2) is completely stable; and (3) is immune to and
above the attacks of satan.

And not one of these facts is true of any human being on this earth!
--- as we think of him normally. The whole man, saved or unsaved, is
HABITUALLY corrupt, in his heart and actions, as God sees him and
testifies. But the passage is not talking about that "whole man;" it
is talking about the New Man in him, that has been born of God, which
no unsaved person has. There is no other sensible explanation of 1
John 5:18 and the similar verses in 1 John and in the rest of the
Bible.

Let's look in that rest of the Bible:

Eph 4:22 "that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old
man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, . . ." "That
you put off" is an imperative, NOT an indicative mood. The indicative
part says that that OLD MAN, which we are to put off is absolutely
wicked and hopeless --- it is absolutely corrupt and it ain't gonna do
nuttin' but keep on getting worse and worse.

The twin Book to Ephesians, Colossians, says the same thing: Col 3:9
Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the OLD MAN with his
deeds,

Eph 4:24 and that you put on the NEW MAN which was created according
to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Col 3:10 and have put on the NEW MAN who is renewed in knowledge
according to the image of Him who created him,

Both of these "MEN," the old and the new, are present within us until
the time when:

*********************************************************
Oh wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then [for the
present], with my mind I serve the Law of God, but with the FLESH
[another term for the OLD MAN] the LAW of Sin.
*********************************************************
--- Romans 7:24-25

If you have been listening to expositional sermons very long, you will
know the analogy Paul is referring to by "the body of this death"
above. In ancient times, one of the punishments for murder was that
the corpse of the victim was sewed, back to back, to the murderer, and
he was forced to carry that body joined to his own until the resultant
infection and corruption spread into his own body and killed him. Each
Christian similarly [until our Blessed Hope appears] carries within
him, the Old Man, from whom the Lord will eventually deliver us.

Each of us Believers is composed of a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Dr.
Jekyll is that man who "cannot sin." He is the that person who has
been born of God. "When I [the "whole person"] do that which I [Dr.
Jekyll] would not, it is no longer I [Dr. Jekyll] that do it, but sin
[Mr. Hyde] that dwelleth in me [the "whole person"]"
--- Romans 7:20.

The above is just the surface of the subject. You can find many more
than I have given above.

Bob
Christ Died to Save You

Endnote 1: --->

If the Grk grammarians have the point, here, then evidently the
multitude of translators involved with the KJV didn't know Grk
grammar. Nor did the translators of American KJV, Bible in Basic
English, Calvin Bible, Darby, Douay, Geneva Bible, Holman, Murdoch
Peshitta, New American Standard, New King James, Noyes, Phillips,
Revised Standard Version, Webster Version, or about 90% of all other
versions.

I'm not saying the modern grammarians are wrong; but they are
certainly pushing the wrong meaning, as often happens in modern and
ancient "scholarship." I can show many examples of this, by their
missing figures of speech, choosing wrong texts, choosing wrong
meanings (usually an absurd one) among several possible meanings, etc.
A classic example is what some Jews have done with Psa. 22:16 ("like
lions they maul My hands and My feet"). So is Acts 20:28 ("blood of
His own"). And Hebrews 1:6 ("and when He bringeth again"). And Mark
3:20 ("when His friends heard"). And Romans 9:5 ("God, Who is over
all"). And Hebrews 1:8 ("God is Thy throne"). And John 17:3 ("know
You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent"). And
the Lord's words to the thief on the cross ("Today I tell you ") etc.
Sometimes these are deliberate, due to an agenda; sometimes (less
often), just foolish.

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