The Westminster Confession - Week 1

The Westminster Confession - Session 22

1 John 1:8,10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us….If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Romans 7:14,17,18,23 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin….So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me…. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out... but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

James 3:2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.

Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, “I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin”?

Ecclesiastes 7:20 Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.

Romans 7:5,7,8,25 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death…. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”… But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead…. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Galatians 5:17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Show and Read Section 5

Perfectionism: Matthew 5:48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (gr., telios – perfect in the sense of completeness, i.e. in Christ, not in the sense of error-less)

Antinomianism: Romans 7:6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.

Two Errors

Perfectionism: 1 John 1:8,10 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us… If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Antinomianism: Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

Romans 6:3-4,6 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life…We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Colossians 3:9-10 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Time for Section 6

1 John 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.

Romans 2:15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them

Romans 3:9,19 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin… Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

Ephesians 2:3 [the sons of disobedience] among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Galatians 3:10 For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.”

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ephesians 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Romans 8:20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope.

Lamentations 3:39 Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Matthew 25:41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”

2 Thessalonians 1:9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

Show and Read Section 6

Original Sin vs. Actual Sin

The Reprobate Mind vs. the Regenerate Mind

The Bema vs. the Great White Throne

Personal Focus

How do you deal with ongoing sin issues in your life?