We have the Indwelling Sin in our Nature and many times we even Sin without Intent

The third major offering in Leviticus is the sin offering – Christ is our sin offering, and sin here refers to the indwelling sin in our nature, for we are born in sin, and the evil nature of Satan is in us by birth.

The word sin and the matter of sin bothers a lot of people in this world today; with all the liberal ideologies in the world, there’s an effort from Satan himself to do everything to get rid of this word, banish it from our culture, and exile it from our vocabulary.

The liberal ideology today says that we are basically good people who have a weakness here, a lapse of judgment there, and we make mistakes from time to time – but we’re basically good. This kind of philosophy has infiltrated many of us, and it has been injected especially in the young ones who attend schools and universities.

In the old times the Gnostic didn’t believe in the presence of the indwelling sin, and certain teachings concerning perfection believe that the eradication of sin in human beings is attainable – that it is possible to be freed from sin. All these are teachings against what the Bible speaks.

The Bible clearly says that, if we say that we have no sin, truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). We need to see that we have an indwelling sin – sin dwells in us, and even though are saved and regenerated, sin still dwells in our members. For this reason we need to take Christ as our sin offering.

The indwelling sin acts out transgression, and this is what frustrates an breaks the relationship between God and man. God has prepared and sent Christ to be our sin offering and trespass offering to remove the problem of sin, take away sin, cleanse our sin, and purify us of our sins, so that we and God can have fellowship and communion, even to be mingled with Him.

How can the righteous God – the God of glory – be mingled and blended with people who have sin dwelling in them? The matter of sin is very important, and it needs to be taken care of constantly, daily, even moment-by-moment.

What is sin, and what does sin mean? In Greek sin is “hamatia”, which means missing the mark. It doesn’t mean wrongdoing per say, or transgression, but missing the mark; to sin is to miss the mark, to violate some rules or laws, and to be wrong, committing an offense.

Rom. 3:23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Glory is god expressed; we, men created in God’s image to express God, do not express God because we have the indwelling sin.

The fallen man contradicts God’s holiness and righteousness, and as a result, instead of representing God and expressing Him, we express sin – and this expression falls short of God’s glory, which is God’s purpose in His creation of man.

Today we are not only under the requirements of God’s holiness and righteousness, but also of His glory; we have offended God’s holy being, we have broken God’s righteousness, and we come short of God’s glory.

For this reasons, we need to have the matter of sin taken care of. We need to have an uplifted appreciation of the sin offering, learning to apply this offering all the time and day by day.

Sin is the Indwelling Sin in our Nature which Produces Sins and Transgressions

Sin refers to the indwelling sin in our nature, and sins refer to the sinful deeds, the fruit of the indwelling sin. Sin is like a tree – sin dwells in us, sin is part of our nature as descendants of Adam, and sins are the fruits of this tree, referring to the actions, sinful deeds we commit, the fruit of the indwelling sin.

God sent His own son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin (Rom. 8:3) to condemn sin in the flesh; Him who didn’t know sin, God made sin on our behalf, so that we may become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).

Christ was manifested at the consummation of the ages for the putting away of sin (Heb. 9:26). He was crushed for our iniquities (Isa. 53:5), He died for our sins, and He bore up our sins in His body on the cross (see 1 Cor. 15:3; 1 Pet. 2:24; Heb. 9:28).

The source of sin is Satan, the devil (see Ezek. 28:16-17; John 8:44; cf. 2 Cor. 12:7; 1 Pet. 5:8, 5; Phil. 2:8; John 14:30); He is the first being in the universe who committed sin in God’s eyes, and he became the source of sin.

Furthermore, because of man’s fall, Satan became the father of all sinners – he’s a murderer, a liar and the father of it, and the source of sin, and all men are born in sin.

Through man’s fall, Satan’s personality became one with our soul, and Satan was taken into our body to be sin working as evil in our fleshly members (see Gen. 3:1, 4-5). Such a statement may not be something to cheer us up, but we need to know this. The more we see this, the more we see our sinful self, the more we appreciate Jesus Christ as our sin offering.

The devil’s personality became one with our soul, turning our soul into the self, and he not only influences our decisions from time to time but is the indwelling sin in our being.

Sin is in us – we were constituted sinners, disobedient to God and His law, rejecting God’s word, His law, and His person.

Paul wrote concerning this in Rom 7: 18, 14, 17, 20-21, admitting that in his flesh nothing good dwells, but we are fleshly, sold under sin, and even when we want to do the good, the sin who dwells in us is stronger than us and we commit sin.

The indwelling sin is stronger than us, it defeats us, and we cannot do the good we want to do. Because the devil is the father of sinners, the father of liars, the sinners are the children of the devil (John 8:44; 1 John 1:30).

Before we became children of God, we were born as children of the devil. We were brought forth in iniquity; we were conceived in sin in Adam, and we were born with the poison of the serpent, making us serpents, the brood of vipers (Matt. 23:33; 3:7; John 9:34).

David, after he had a great failure, admitted that he was wholly conceived in sin, brought forth in iniquity (Psa. 51:5). As cute as the babies are, they are born in sin, and as soon as they can express themselves, they say, NO! We are all born in sin; all have sinned, with no exception.

We may be a better sinner or a more cultured sinner, but we are all serpentine in our nature, our tongue hisses, and we inject poison into others and spread death.

Sin is the evil nature of Satan, the evil one who, having injected himself into man through Adam’s fall, has now become the very sinful nature dwelling, acting, and working as a law in the fallen man (see Rom. 5:12, 21; 6:14; 7:11, 17, 20).

Sin is not a “dormant virus” in us – sin is active, it is the indwelling sin who reigns in death, lords it over us, seizes opportunity to work in us, and deceives us and even kills us. As the Lord shines on us in this matter we may tell Him personally,

Lord Jesus, I am sinful. Sin dwells in me. I was brought forth in iniquity and I have the serpentine nature of Satan in my being as the indwelling sin. Lord, I admit that I don’t just make mistakes but I am sinful. I need You as my sin offering. Lord Jesus, I take You as my sin offering right now, for You were made sin for me on the cross. I lay my hands on You, Lord, and I confess my sins.

Sin is lawlessness (see 1 John 3:4). Lawlessness is to have no law, to be without law. God is not just the giver of law – He Himself is a law of life, and we as those born in sin disobey law, transgress against the divine law which is God Himself.

Christ died to redeem us from all lawlessness (Titus 2:24).

Sin is not just a wrongdoing here and a little mistake there; sin is to defy God’s law and reject His rule. One day the man of lawlessness will appear, but today there’s the mystery of lawlessness which is already operating.

If we look at the society today, wherever we turn there’s lawlessness. We need to be saved from that. We need to be an anti-testimony to this mystery of lawlessness by taking Christ as our sin offering.

Lord, save us from the mystery of lawlessness that operates in today’s society and in our being. Oh Lord, bring us fully under Your ruling by the reigning of the divine life in us. We admit, Lord, that in ourselves we are lawless and rebellious, but You have died for us, You have come into us, and now You can reign in us as life through grace. May grace reign in us and may we be under the ruling of the divine life, not lawlessness!

Seeing that we Sin without Intent, Unwillingly and Unknowingly, because of the Sin in our Nature

In Lev. 4:2 it is mentioned that we may sin without intent; this signifies the sin in our fallen nature, the indwelling sin that came through Adam into mankind from Satan (Rom. 5:12), which causes us to sin unintentionally (7:19-20).

Most times we do not deliberately sin – we don’t decide to sin, but sin just comes out. Most sins are without intention – we just sin because of the indwelling sin in our nature. We don’t want to lie, but we say something that looks like a lie (it may not be a white lie or a black lie, but a lie that looks nice).

We may not want to criticize the brothers, but as soon as we think about them, we may have something negative to say about them. We don’t want to gossip, but as soon as we meet with some others, gossip flows like a river.

Where do all these come from? They all come from the indwelling sin within us. We sin without intent many times.

Whether the priests, the leaders, one man, or the entire congregation sins without intent, and they are made aware of that, they have to bring the sin offering.

This sin – which is personified in Rom. 7 – is the evil nature of Satan, even Satan himself, who dwells in our fallen flesh (Rom. 7:17-18, 20, 23); since our flesh is one with sin (Rom. 8:3), whatever we do out of our flesh – whether good or evil – is sin.

The flesh is the totality of the fallen human being, which is full of sin for the indwelling sin is there. Whatever comes out of our flesh is sin, for our flesh is one with sin. Moreover, since the flesh denotes a fallen person (see Gen. 6:3; Rom. 3:20), every person is sin (2 Cor. 5:21).

We are not just sinful, we don’t just sin, but we are sin itself. Sin indwells us, we sin, and we are sin.

As we fellowship with the Lord, He shines on our sins and transgressions, and we confess them in His light; as we go on with Him, we have more and more to confess in His light, for light shines on the products of the indwelling sin in us.

May the Lord have mercy and shine on us in this matter, and may we reach one day when we realize before Him,

Lord, we are just sin – we don’t just sin or make mistakes, but we are sin itself. Sin dwells in us, sin reigns in us, sin causes us to do many things that we don’t set out to do, and the indwelling sin makes us sinful. Oh Lord, our entire fallen being is just sin, and we can do nothing but sin. We come to You, Lord, to take You as our sin offering. You came in the likeness of the flesh of sin to condemn sin in the flesh. Oh Lord, we need You as our sin offering every day, even every moment!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 18, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 6, The Revelation, Appreciation, and Application of Christ as Our Sin Offering.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # All sinners are the slaves of sin, / All poisoned by death’s sting; / Christ only can from sin and death / A full deliverance bring. / He is the Everlasting One, / Who longs to set us free; / If we do not believe in Him, / We’ll die in misery. (Hymns #1021)
  # I am sinful, I am helpless, / Humbly at Thy feet I bow; / Full of problems, I am hopeless, / Oh, dear Savior, save me now! (Hymns #1055)
  # Thou art the sin-oblation, / For us Thou sin wast made; / By death for our redemption / The ransom Thou hast paid. (Hymns #195)