Nugget #3
by Elder Ralph E. Harris

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"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (I John 1:8) 

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    No man with any insight into his own corrupt nature, or even a head-knowledge of the letter of the Scriptures, could honestly think he has no sin. Not only have we all sinned (Rom. 3:23 & 5:12) but we all have a sinful nature (See Isaiah 64:6 & Eph. 2:3). "Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (Proverbs 20:9). Those who say they have no sin not only deceive themselves and expose their ignorance, but they are pointedly contradicted by inspiration. Solomon put it very well when he said, "There is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not" (Eccl. 7:20). When a person makes the claim that they "have no sin" they are in effect saying that they have never sinned, neither personally nor in their father Adam, for that is the only way they could be without sin. But the apostle John says, "If we say we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us" (I John 1:10). In other words, we would be tacitly accusing God of being a liar, for His word plainly shows that we all have sinned, both in Adam and by practice. In effect we would be saying that His word is not true, and who among us, who has any grace at all, would dare to bring such an accusation against the Deity. Christ died for the sins of His people and satisfied the demands of God's holy and righteous law in our behalf. Consequently they have been freed from the damning power of sin; but that does not deliver them from the being of sin within their old, corrupted nature. We will have sin in the flesh as long as we live, but in the resurrection these vile and corrupt bodies will "put on incorruption" (See Phil. 3:21 & I Cor. 15:54). Then, and only then, will we "have no sin."

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