Question 19. How can a believer in Christ get rid of doubts and fears?
Ans. A believer in Christ, to get rid of his doubts and fears, must be prepared to let his own thoughts go, and to believe against his own feelings what God says in His Word.
He knows he is a sinner and that Christ died for sinners, let him bring it closer and believe heartily that he is the sinner for whose sins Christ died. Take Isaiah 53:5, and put it thus: “He was wounded for my transgressions, He was bruised for my iniquities” and remember that He said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). If God raised up Christ from the dead to express His satisfaction in Christ’s finished work, that is the receipt God gives the believer that God has nothing against him (Rom. 4:25; 5:1).
This is where the believer stands before God (John 5:24; Rom. 5:1; Heb. 10:14).
As to our walk, every one of us has sin in him, that is the nature. Our sins, the guilty acts that we have done, are gone, but the nature remains, it is called “sin in us” or “the flesh,” and being children of God we have a new life, so we have two things in us.
As we had no strength to save ourselves, so we have no strength of ourselves to live for Christ. We therefore turn to Him for strength and grace to keep the flesh under the sentence of the death of Christ.
Look at Romans 6:6,11. These verses show that the flesh is condemned in God’s sight, and executed in the death of Christ.
By faith I give it the same place, it is not my master any longer. Looking to Christ we get grace to keep this incurably bad thing under God’s sentence upon it – death; so that, though sin is in us, we do not allow it to work; we get grace to refuse its claims.
If the child of God has committed what he knows is wrong, his resource is 1 John 1:9. There he is assured that if he confesses his sins he is forgiven and also will be cleansed from the evil way so that he will not do the same thing again.
Be real with yourself and God, go straight to Him and He will bless you.
Question 20. What is the meaning of transgressions, sins, iniquities? B. M. C.
Ans. Transgression is the violating of a law, Sin is what is offensive to God. Iniquity is perverseness or lawlessness, that is, pleasing self or doing my own will. In some passages it means unrighteousness or wrong doing.
In asking questions, it is well to refer to some passage to get more exactly what you mean. For instance, 1 John 3:4 in the JND Translation reads, “Every one that practices sin practices also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.”