How Can We Rid Ourselves of Sin?
In relation to this question, let’s take a look at a couple of verses in the Bible: “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin to salvation” (Hebrews 9:28). “Who are kept by the power of God through faith to salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:5). We can see from these verses that God prepared for us His salvation in the last days so that we might rid ourselves of sin, and that this salvation in the last days is the crucial salvation that will resolve our sinful nature. So what is this salvation in the last days? The Lord Jesus once prophesied, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come” (John 16:12–13). “And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejects Me, and receives not My words, has one that judges him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day” (John 12:47–48). And 1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.” God’s words say, “The sins of man could be forgiven through the sin offering, but as for just how man can be made to sin no more, and how his sinful nature may be extirpated completely and transformed, he has no way of solving this problem. The sins of man were forgiven, and this is because of the work of God’s crucifixion, but man continued to live within his corrupt satanic disposition of old. This being so, man must be completely saved from his corrupt satanic disposition, so that his sinful nature may be completely extirpated, never to develop again, thus enabling the disposition of man to be transformed. This would require man to grasp the path of growth in life, to grasp the way of life, and to grasp the way to change his disposition. Furthermore, it would require man to act in accordance with this path, so that his disposition may gradually be changed and he may live under the shining of the light, so that all that he does may be in accord with the will of God, so that he may cast away his corrupt satanic disposition, and so that he may break free from Satan’s influence of darkness, thereby emerging fully from sin. Only then will man receive complete salvation.” “By means of this work of judgment and chastisement, man will fully come to know the filthy and corrupt substance within his own self, and he will be able to change completely and become clean. Only in this way can man become worthy to return before the throne of God. All the work done this day is so that man can be made clean and be changed; through judgment and chastisement by the word, as well as through refinement, man can purge away his corruption and be made pure. Rather than deeming this stage of work to be that of salvation, it would be more apt to say it is the work of purification. In truth, this stage is that of conquest as well as the second stage in the work of salvation. It is through judgment and chastisement by the word that man arrives at being gained by God, and it is through the use of the word to refine, judge, and disclose that all of the impurities, notions, motives, and individual aspirations within man’s heart are completely revealed.” God’s words speak very clearly. In order to enable us to cast off the shackles of our satanic nature once and for all, God will launch a stage of work in the last days to judge and purify man. He will express many aspects of the truth to expose the corrupt dispositions hidden within us so that we may come to know our satanic nature and thereby come to hate our corrupt dispositions, practice in accordance with God’s words and gradually achieve change. When that happens, we come to have discernment of these unrighteous things, and we learn what delights God and what disgusts God; we come to have true knowledge of God, our satanic nature is no longer able to control us, our inner corrupt dispositions are supplanted by the truth, we become able to live by God’s words, we no longer rebel against or resist God, and we become able to truly submit to and revere God. These are the effects achieved in us by God performing His work of judgment in the last days. For example, when a child makes a mistake, the child’s parents will want to rectify their mistake. They will therefore need to speak to the child a great deal and sometimes even speak sternly to chasten and discipline their child. Their ultimate goal in doing so will always be to make the child aware of their mistake and what they should do to avoid making that mistake again, and so on. This is also how God’s work in the last days is. By expressing more words to judge and purify man, God saves man from the influence of Satan once and for all and makes man into people after His own heart, and in the end such people will be led into God’s kingdom and will arrive at the beautiful destination God has prepared for man.
Some people may ask, “Can our satanic nature only be resolved through the work of judgment in the last days? Can we not resolve our satanic nature by suffering, paying a price, exercising self-restraint and restraining our own wills?” Of course we cannot. If it were not for God expressing the truth to judge and expose our nature and substance, none of us would be able to truly know the root cause of why we resist God and none of us would be able to uproot our satanic dispositions. Throughout history, many apostles have paid many a price and exercised self-restraint, all in the hope of casting off the shackles and constraints of sin and transcending the flesh. But who among them were ever able to defeat their satanic nature, stop sinning, and become truly obedient to God? Even Paul said, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:18–20). It is clear from this that by performing the work of redemption, the Lord Jesus was paving the way for the work of judgment and purification in the last days. Only God in doing the work of judgment in the last days is able to expunge our sinful nature and cleanse us of our sins so that we no longer commit sins — this is why the Lord Jesus promised to return in the last days to do the work of judgment. We must accept and experience God’s judgment, trials and refinement, for only by doing so will our satanic nature be uprooted once and for all, our corrupt dispositions will be cleansed away and changed, we will live out a true human likeness, we will come to truly revere and obey God, we will be able to be considerate of God’s will, and we will love and satisfy God. This is the one and only path to ridding ourselves of sin and attaining God’s salvation.
In relation to God’s judgment in the last days, the Book of Revelation mentions, “And I saw another angel fly in the middle of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come” (Revelation 14:6–7). God’s work of judgment in the last days is the everlasting gospel bestowed on us by God. This “everlasting gospel” is the gospel of God coming in the last days to utterly purify and save mankind; it is the gospel which brings the entire age to an end. So when you hear someone preaching the gospel of the work of judgment in the last days, what will you choose to do?
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