Holiness - and The carnal Christian
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:3-5
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse is:
2 Timothy 2:11-13
“Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; if we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot disown Himself.”
Today we will be reading from various Scriptures.
The first one we will be looking at is 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
Before we get started into this we need to define what is meant by the word "sin". Sin is disobedience of the known will of God by a morally responsible person
James 4:17 ESV says, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."
Conversely, if anyone knows what is wrong and does it anyway, for him it is sin!
Also, mistakes are NOT sin, they are mistakes. In this case a mistake would be something that would be considered a sin but done in ignorance or without intending to do so.
"Yes, it is true that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23) but falling short of the glory of God is not the sin itself, it is the result of the sin.
Now that we have defined what sin is we can take a look at whether it should be a part of a Christian’s life or not.
In the Church of The Nazarene we have sixteen articles of faith. Article 10 is entitled “Christian Holiness and Entire Sanctification”.
The first part of the Article reads this way, “We believe that sanctification is the work of God which transforms believers into the likeness of Christ. It is wrought by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit …”
On the other hand there are those who believe that a person can be saved by faith without any change in their behavior whatsoever.
This is called being a Carnal Christian.
They do NOT believe that such a thing is desired but that it IS possible.
The once well-known preacher R. B. Thieme frames the argument this way:
“The behavior pattern of a carnal Christian cannot be distinguished from that of an unbeliever (1 Cor. 3:3). As far as God’s Word is concerned you may act like an unbeliever; but if you have believed in Christ, you are still a believer - a believer in the status quo carnality - out of fellowship. A believer out of fellowship acts like an unbeliever. In fact he is sometime worse.”
So, is the truly born again Christian supposed to be transformed into the image of Christ who never sinned or is it allowable for a truly born again Christian to keep on sinning and acting completely like the world with at total disregard for Christ?
Let’s see what the Word of God has to say …
(Prayer for help)
What does it say in … 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
1 Corinthians 3:1-3a NKJV
“And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal.”
In most of the reading I did on this subject the writers found that this doctrine of a “carnal Christian” was proposed and reinforced in the notes found in the Scofield Reference Bible which uses the KJV.
In the KJV it uses the word “carnal” where the NIV uses “worldly”.
“Carnal” is a reference to the flesh or the body which is controlled by worldly, sinful desires.
So, in the KJV or NKJV in verse 1 when it refers to “brethren” it is saying that Paul is speaking to believers and then in the beginning of verse 3 where it says, “you are still carnal” Paul is saying that it is possible for believers to be under the control of the sinful desires in the same way that unbelievers are under the control of sinful desires.
Now, Schofield did not believe that being a “carnal Christian” was to be desired but that it was possible.
Many have used Romans 7:14-21 to reinforce this idea.
Here they believe that Paul is talking about his own spiritual life as he wrote the letter to the Romans.
Is he? As we read this, look for the person in the struggle to see how many times he asks the Lord to help him in his struggle.
Romans 7:14-25NIV
“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do - this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
So, how many times did this person ask for God’s help to enable him have victory over sin? None. It appears that he had a mind that wanted to obey the law but in his own strength he always failed.
In addition to that, just look at the last two sentences in the chapter:
“Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
That CERTAINLY sounds like he has been born again, doesn’t it?
What has he been delivered from?
Has he only been delivered from the penalty of sin?
And then the last sentence, “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.”
It certainly seems like this person is a “carnal Christian” doesn’t it?
And then to put the icing on the cake when it comes to the doctrine of a “carnal or worldly Christian” Paul confesses in 1 Timothy 1:15 where he says, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - of whom I am the worst.”
There Paul uses the present tense when he says, “of whom I AM the worst.”
When Paul was in the middle of writing a pastoral letter to Timothy, was he actually saying that at that point in his life he was the very worst sinner in all of the world?
If so, the doctrine of a “carnal Christian” must be true and when they say “we are all just sinners” we must conclude that it is hopeless. We will always be in the grip of sin until we go to heaven.
So, then why do the followers of The Nazarene believe that we can live holy lives?
A lot of people who believe that a “carnal Christian” is a real possibility place a great deal of emphasis on the passage from Romans 7 that we just took a look at.
But, what about Romans 6?
It would be beneficial for all of us to read the entirety of Romans 6-8 but we do not have the time to do so. Please read it for yourself.
Romans 6:1-2 NIV
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”
“By no means” uses the strongest Greek word for our word “NO!”
The KJV translates it as “God Forbid!” and there I prefer the KJV.
Romans 6:11-18 NIV
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”
“What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? (God forbid!) Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey - whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
It is obvious that Paul is not teaching Salvation AND Sin but Salvation OR sin!
One of our memory Scriptures Romans 6:22-23
“Now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
1 John 3:4-11 NASB says,
“Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who has been born of God practices sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin continually, because he has been born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”
The reason I used the NASB here instead of the NIV is because of the way it talks about sin.
NIV - “Everyone who sins breaks the law …”
NASB - “Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness …”
If you will bear with me, please let me give you just one more Scripture.
Romans 8:5-8
“Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.”
Please, please, please … just listen to this!
“THE MIND GOVERNED BY THE FLESH IS HOSTILE TO GOD!”
Can it be possible for a person who is in Christ to be hostile to God? God forbid!
I hope that we have truly put the final nail in the coffin of the “carnal Christian” doctrine!
Our lives MUST be devoted to pleasing the Lord not to rebellion.
How can that happen? How is that even possible? How can we live in freedom from slavery to sin?
If so, is it really possible “to live a life worthy of the calling you have received?” Ephesians 4:1
Search the Scriptures and we will look again and see what answers the Lord has given to us in His Holy Word next week!
Final thoughts and prayer …
