In our last lesson The Paths of Grace, we looked at the perfect path that everyone ought to walk by God's grace. We also looked at the corrective path everyone should take, who stumbles from the perfect path and becomes spiritually dead in sin. The corrective path is the path through conversion to Christ into a state of spiritual life or rebirth.

In this lesson, we examine the six steps on that path that leads from from being "dead in sin" to being "dead to sin". None of these steps may be omitted.

However in this lesson we will also observe, as we examine each step, that it involves something that we should have done, and would have done, had we walked the perfect path. These steps are are essential in the corrective path simply because they are part of the perfect path.

One who has not yet sinned cannot say, "I have no need of these steps".That would be like saying that you can get to heaven in your own right without God's grace and without going through Jesus Christ. "By grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any one should boast, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:8-10). If one who has not yet sinned were to reject any of these steps, then that person would, by that very rejection, become a sinner no longer walking the perfect path.

An illustration

The path from obesity to a normal body mass consists of the same elements of right eating and proper exercise as one would pracice who never became obese. Sometimes obese people are recommended to eat a very strange diet and do very strange things quite unlike the diet and exercise of people who maintain proper body fitness. Strange and abnormal procedures do not lead an obese person to the right body mass. They just confuse the person's body and if continued lead the body to more ruin. An obese person should simply begin to practice right eating and proper exercise. If you want to regain the right body shape, then do the same things that people with correct body mass do to maintain it.

In the same way, the sin-laden soul is not released from the burden of sin and brought back to spiritual life by a set of very strange steps unlike the steps of the perfect path. The corrective path of conversion consists of carefully and prayerfully doing what righteous people do. You regain spiritual life by the same steps you would have taken anyway had you maintained spiritual life and never left the perfect path.

Hearing the Gospel

We are taught quite clearly in (Rom 10:4-18) that faith in Christ is the only way to be saved and have eternal life. And how can one believe in Christ? Only by hearing the gospel of Christ. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Rom 10:17). The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes it (Rom 1:16). Anyone who is dead in sin can become alive to God again only by hearing the gospel.

The gospel and the perfect path.

Peter refers to the gospel as "things into which angels long to look" (1Pe 1:10-12). If angels have a longing for the gospel, surely human beings should have it. One who has never sinned will hunger and thirst for the word of him who "enlightens every man coming into the world" (Jhn 1:4,9). One who is walking the perfect path would never say, "I am not interested in the gospel; it has nothing to say to me; it is for sinners only". Rather one would say, "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psa 119:105).

Believing in Christ

Without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6). Only those who believe in God and his Son shall "not perish but have everlasting life" (Jhn 3:16). Believing in oneself is fine as far as it goes, but it certainly won't get you to heaven. Nobody, saint or sinner, is justified by his own works, but by faith in Christ Jesus the righteous.

Faith and the perfect path.

We are born with spiritual life, but we are not born with faith, although God brought us into the world for the very purpose that we should have faith. He is pleased enough with us when we are first brought into the world, just as he was pleased enough with all things he brought into the world, whether bird, fish, tree, beast, or insect. He saw that everything was "very good" (Gen 1:31). The difference between us and a tree, however, is that God never expects a tree to hear, understand, and believe the gospel. But he does expect that of human beings.

When by God's grace we grow old enough to understand God's word and believe, then God expects and encourages us to do so. Jesus attributed a faith in him even to little children (Mtt 18:1-7). He viewed this early faith as very precious in God's sight, for he says that anyone is wicked indeed who causes the little child to stumble from his faith.

Just as it is not long before we grow old enough to hear and believe, so it is not long thereafter before we grow old enough to sin. One cannot resist sin on one's own, but only through trusting in Christ, for he said, "Without me you can do nothing" (Jhn 15:5). We cannot be righteous without Christ, and that is true even before we ever commit our first sin. In this world, even he who walks the perfect path is tempted, especially so. Therefore he ought not to trust in himself, but put his trust completely in Jesus. Faith in Christ, our merciful high Priest, is just as essential to resisting sin, as it is to being forgiven of sin (Heb 2:16-18, 4:14-16).

Confessing Christ

What is the point of having faith in one's heart and refusing to confess it with one's mouth? Confession of faith, letting everybody know you believe, is just as necessary as faith itself (Rom 10:9-10). Jesus promised to confess those before God who confess him before men (Mtt 10:32-33).

Timothy made "the good confession" (1Tm 6:12-13) and so should everyone.

Confession and the perfect path.

What Jesus said above applies of course to all believers, including those who have never sinned, because refusal to confess Christ is a sin in itself.

Repentance from Sin

What is the point of confessing a faith in Christ if you are not going to change your attitude toward sin and turn your back on sin?

Peter told sinners to "Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts 3:19). He told a convert who had backslidden to "Repent... and pray the Lord that if possible the intention of your heart might be forgiven you" (Acts 8:22-23).

The commands to repent quoted above were to people who had sinned. One cannot be forgiven of a sin that one is not sorry for and that one still wants to do. Until we recognise the wrong we have done, and make up our minds to get rid of that wrong,through Jesus, we cannot take the path of conversion.

Repentance and the perfect path.

Is repentance applicable only to those who have sinned? You might say yes, because one cannot be sorry for sins one has not committed. Repentance, however, is not just feeling sorry. The word means a change of mind. Now when is the best time to change your mind about sin? After you have committed it, while you are being tempted to commit it, or before you are even tempted?

An illustration

Suppose you were thinking that you might walk past the orchard today, and you were also thinking that as you walk by, you might steal an apple? Which would you rather do?

Surely the first is not the best. If you did one of the others, would that not also be a change of mind? Would it not be the same attitude as repentance and distinguishable from it only by splitting hairs? Surely the attitude of repentance is best exercised before we sin rather than afterward. We might consider committing a sin and change our heart before we commit it. We have not sinned. We have rejected sin. But I put it to you that we have certainly repented, and repented in the best possible way. For if we had always repented in this manner, we would never have sinned at all.

Thus we see that repentance is not a one-off event just before we are baptized, but an attitude and effort of mind that is a constant "ought to" throughout our lives. All repentance is commendable, but the most commendable of all is perfect path repentance, which occurs at the temptation before the sin is ever committed.

Baptism into Christ

Baptism is different to the other steps, in that baptism is not something everyone ought to do every day, but something ideally which needs to be done only once. The New Testament commands baptism and shows that in baptism a person dies to sin and is buried and raised with Christ to become spiritually reborn and forgiven of sin (Rom 6:1-11).

We take it for granted that the proper candidate for baptism is an unconverted sinner. Peter told people to "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins..." (Acts 2:38). A person who has sinned and wishes to be forgiven cannot be forgiven if they have not obeyed this command to be baptized. By neglecting or refusing to be baptized, they only add another sin to the sins God holds against them. Baptism is the way that God, by his wonderful grace, has provided to bring us by faith into the death and resurrection of Christ, that we may be dead to sin and alive to God. Therefore, to reject baptism is to reject grace.

Baptism and the perfect path.

In good Christian homes, young children are taught the gospel (2Tm 1:5, 3:14-15). It often happens that such a young child expresses a strong desire to obey Christ in baptism. The parents can see that the child is not just imitating the older members of the family in a copy-cat manner, but has an intelligent, genuine, and personal desire to obey God. However, the parent may still have a problem with whether the child is old enough to be considered a sinner, and therefore whether the child is a proper candidate for baptism.

Take note that the above matter hinges on the issue of whether baptism is a step in the perfect path, or whether it is only for the corrective path of conversion. I mention the above matter to show that the issue is not a purely hypothetical one.

The key question is this: If a person is walking the perfect path, and therefore has not yet sinned, does there ever come a day in that person's life when he or she should request baptism? To answer that question, let us look at the great example of Jesus who did walk the perfect path and never needed to take the corrective path.

Jesus came to John and sought to be baptized by John. Now John proclaimed "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mrk 1:4). When Jesus came to be baptized, John perceived a problem and "he tried to prevent Jesus, saying, 'I have need to be baptized of you, and do you come to me?'" Jesus replied, "Permit it at this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness" (Mtt 3:13-17).

We see, therefore, that along the perfect path, there comes a time when one should request to be baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness. The person on the perfect path is not exempt from baptism just because he is righteous and has not yet sinned. Rather he considers himself in need of baptism to fulfill all righteousness and thus to remain righteous.

Faithfulness in Christ

After baptism what? The answer to that is faithfulness. The path of the faithful convert is not to fall back into spiritual death, but to grow upward from rebirth into a mature righteousness. After baptism sin no longer has dominion. "I urge you brethren by the mercies of God, to present your boddies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:1-2).

Faithfulness after baptism makes no room for sin. Certainly, a way of dealing with sin is provided for, so that if sin occurs it can be forgiven and corrected (1Jn 2:1-2). However, God's provision includes a way of preventing sin in the first place, as implied in John's words, "I am writing these things to you that you may not sin" (1Jn 2:1-2).

Which is better?

God's will is that we don't sin, and he makes his will possible for us to fulfill. Sin is not to be regarded as a normal part of being born again in Christ. This is what Paul was talking about when he said, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!" (Rom 6:1).

Faithfulness and the perfect path.

Of course, "that which is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:1-2) is what the perfect path consists of. It's what we should have always been doing, and it is what the conversion path should restore us to.

Chart of the Six Steps

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