1. Free to Change
2. Freedom and Responsibility
3. My Kind of People
4. "Come Out And Be Separate"
5. Private Intepretation
6. A "Monkey-Wrench" Scripture
7. The Truth That Frees
8. Literary Devices
9. Fear of God
10. A Love Story
11. The Three Trees In Eden
12. Imputed Righteousness
13. Different Essentials For Different People
14. God's Sons In All Ages
15. Looking To Lust
16. Divorce Her!
17. "While Her Husband Is Alive"
18. "They Won't Let Me Preach!"
19. God's Perplexing Prophets
20. Religous Titles
21. Who Sinned?
22. "I'll Join Your Church"
23. The Church As The Route To Heaven
24. One Hundred Years Old
25. Can Our Churches Unite?
26. Can The Cause Of Sickness Be The Cure?
27. When Life Begins
28. Abortion: Law Or Principle?
29. Human Chattel
30. The Hope of Israel
31. The Great Temptation of Jesus
32. The Rich Man And Lazarus
33. My Hermeneutic
34. Is Immersion Proved By Example?
35. Who Gets The Credit?
36. Hook's Points
37. Heresy
38. I Am A Debtor

Other Books at Freedom's Ring

The disciples of Jesus wanted him to assign blame for the blindness of the man who was sightless from birth. "Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (John 9:2). When did the sin occur? Or was sin the cause of his blindness?

New converts born into God's family find themselves in congregations where some questionable things are taught and practiced. Unknowingly, they become partakers and participants in what some other disciples consider as sinful. Who is to blame? When does the sin occur? Or is it really a sinful situation?

To illustrate the problem, we will depict an imaginary situation. Let us suppose that someone develops a set of very simple lessons for use in correspondence courses. These studies deal only with the gospel story and faith, repentance, confession, and baptism as necessary to have remission of sins. They do not deal with the church, its work, its worship, and other such matters. These lessons are used extensively in different communities under the sponsorship of various persons and churches. Now, let us imagine the results.

One lady responds to the sponsor of those lessons expressing her desire to obey the gospel that she learned through the home study. A preacher calls on her, baptizes her without further instruction, and announces to his church at the next meeting that they have a new member. Later, she begins to hear him and others in the group talk about their expectancy of the rapture, the imminent return of the Lord, the setting up of the kingdom, and the reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years. Being a novice in Bible study, she supposed that those things are true without questioning.

In another community a family of four studies those lessons by mail and responds with a request to be baptized. They go to a service at the sponsoring church, are baptized, and are considered as members of that church. New converts don't usually inquire about such things as the organization of the church; so they did not. It so happened that that congregation was directed by a pastor (the elder) and a board of deacons. This seemed to be of no concern to the members of the church; so the new converts had no concern about it, either.

In another community a man is brought to the point of obedience of the gospel by those studies. He calls the number supplied on the lessons and a preacher comes to assist him. This minister takes him to a building of the Christian Church where he is baptized and accepted without further question or instruction. The new convert attached no special significance to the name of the group.

Then, there was a couple who called the number of the sponsoring church in their community. This was a Church of Christ. The minister assisted them in their obedience and the congregation rejoiced at having them as new members. Months passed before the sincere couple became aware that the group was so sectarian in spirit that it did not fellowship others in Churches of Christ in the same city.

We might use many other realistic situations to illustrate, like persons being brought into congregations where women lead singing and prayers, where someone plays a piano, where choirs perform, where healing services are conducted, or where others claim to speak in tongues.

Now, let us ask some questions about those situations. Assuming that all of those situations involved sin, who sinned, and when did it occur? Or, is any sin involved?

If the entire congregation was in sin, could a new convert be baptized into it since the Lord is the one who adds the convert?

If the preacher sinned by being in one of those groups, did that make void the obedience of the converts? Does the validity of one's obedience depend upon the correctness of someone else?

If the convert sinned in being baptized into an errant group unknowingly, does that mean that a person can sin by obeying the gospel?

If the sin lies in the various congregations rather than in the new convert, how long may the convert remain in the congregation without becoming a sinner also? Is he accepted without blame until he matures into a stage of accountability which makes him a sinner?

If being baptized into an errant congregation nullifies the obedience of the convert, then is not the obedience of each of us invalidated since there is error in all congregations?

Must the prospective convert become thoroughly schooled in all doctrinal matters and then search out a church which is entirely free from error prior to his obedience to the gospel so as to avoid the possibility of fellowship with a group which is in error?

Or may the convert just be content with membership in the universal church without association with a local group until he can learn all doctrinal matters and then make his search for a congregation that measures up?

After finding that church which measures us doctrinally, must one investigate the moral and spiritual qualities of each member in order to make sure that he is not entering into fellowship with sinful individuals?

In each and all of these imagined circumstances, who sinned? When did it become sinful? Do people sin corporately, or only individually? Does one sin by association? Must one judge every other person before associating with him or her?

Finding The Answer

To answer these questions, we must return to square one. When you start out in the wrong direction, the route becomes more confusing as you go along. The road of legal justification, doctrinal correctness, and patternism which many of us have started out on has led us over some bumpy, muddy, twisting paths with puzzling forks of uncertainty. This is the route of accomplished righteousness where we supposed that we must be right in all things in order to reach the goal of salvation.

Starting from square one, we must take the route of imputed righteousness instead of trying to cut a path of accomplished righteousness. We must accept the grace which accounts us as sinless while we can never be anything but sinners, either individually or collectively. No individual or congregation can ever be legally correct or styled after some definitely specified pattern. Although we are called upon to do righteous works, none can become righteous by accomplishment. Although we are called to holy and pure living, none can attain that fully. We are life-long sinners saved by grace through which we are accounted as sinless and forgiven. It is a matter of being identified with Christ who is our righteousness and truth rather than our attaining correctness and learning and conforming to all truth. Although we cannot establish and sustain our relationship in Christ without knowing some vital facts and obeying some necessary requirements, a perfect knowledge and obedience is impossible and, hence, unnecessary, and if it could be accomplished, it would make us sinless and in no need of grace.

When the disciples asked Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?", Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be made manifest in him." Surely, his blindness was a result of sin even though we may have to trace it all the way back to Adam. Both the blind man and his parents were sinners, which probably had nothing to do with his blindness. But the gracious work of God was manifested in that God erased the effect of the sin in one who himself was a sinner.

It is not a matter of pinning the blame on the convert or the church; it is a matter of the grace of God being made manifest in saving the sinner and in continuing to uphold the corporate group of sinners known as a church. Neither can ever be free from the practice of sin, but they can all be accounted as free from sin by the gracious work of God through the merits of Jesus Christ.

The Lord saves each convert, thus making him or her a part of his church, his congregation. That is the universal body of those justified by grace through faith. That corporate group is no more sinless than the individual member is sinless. Contrary to a common belief, the Lord does not add the convert to a local group, or congregation. We join the local groups by identifying with them or "placing membership" in them. That is how we become parts of sectarian groups. These local groups differ in teaching and practice. None can claim perfection any more than any individual can boast of it. They are sinners accounted as righteous who are constantly striving to overcome sin and unrighteousness.

If the blind man had been rebellious, defiant, reprobate, or disbelieving, he would have continued in his blindness. If a person exhibits any of those attitudes, the work of grace will not be shown in him or her. Neither can a congregation be acceptable to God when it is characterized corporately by any such attitudes. However, both persons and churches can be lacking in understanding and misguided in practices while humbly seeking to know and do the will of God. The glorious grace of God can account these as righteous because they are in Christ humbly seeking to do his will.

God does not bind my scruples on others; neither should I try to bind them. I must accept others on the same basis on which I hope to be accepted by God. To answer the questions asked previously in this treatise, I have only to trust the grace of God. I need not ask, "Who sinned?" God tells us that we are all sinners and that all the saved are sinners saved by grace. Thus, the work of God is manifested in us.