Lesson for October 1, 2025

The Doctrine of Hamartiology

Lesson 5

Isolation of Personal Sin

Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sin on the Cross. However, our sins were not forgiven at the Cross. All personal sins, prior to believing in Christ, are forgiven at the moment of salvation. All personal sins committed after salvation, are forgiven by confessing (acknowledging or admitting) them to God. (I John 1:9)

Philippians 3:13-14 says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind (past sins), and reaching forth (studying and applying God’s Word)) unto those things (God’s plan for your life) which are before, I press towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (exhibiting the character of Jesus Christ).” 

When we name our personal sins to God, He forgives the sins we confess and purifies us from ALL wrongdoing (sins we have forgotten and sins that we did not even know were sins). Forgiveness means God completely blots out our sins and remembers them no longer. (Psalms 103:12; Isaiah 43:25) 

Once we confess our sins to God, we are restored to fellowship with God and filled with the Holy Spirit. This prepares us to move ahead in our Christian lives, utilizing the power of God the Holy Spirit and the Bible doctrine stored in our souls. This is the power that we need to be delivered from our personal sins.

But what happens if we begin to think about certain past failures or mistakes, and begin to talk about them, and worry about them? “Out of fellowship we go” and we lose the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. This is the pattern that plagues many believers, and they stay immature believers until they die! This is not how God wants us to live our lives. The solution is found in the Word of God. This solution is isolation of sin, and it is something that each of us must learn how to accomplish, if we want to successfully fulfill God’s plan.

The fastest way to get out of fellowship, right after getting back in, is to begin thinking and worrying about the sin that you just acknowledged to God. It is Satan’s plan to keep Christians constantly in a stew about their past sins, so they won’t be able to operate successfully in their spiritual life. 

Failure to use God’s system of recovery can result in “chain-sinning” or building one sin upon another (even if it’s the same sin over and over). However, failure to isolate sin normally leads to other sins like guilt, bitterness, or hatred (even of self). This type of sin pattern will also incur divine discipline. God is a good father and wants only the best for His children. Therefore, He does everything it takes, short of violating our volition (free will), to get us back on track. This does not mean that God is trying to hurt us or torture us. It means that He loves us. (Hebrews 12:6)

Here’s what most of us do: we commit a sin, we confess it, and God turns what might have become divine discipline into divine blessing. However, sometime later when the pressures of life close in on us, and we are facing adversity, we immediately think that we are being disciplined for that past sin (our pet sin or worst sin) and we start feeling guilty. We are not being disciplined, since that “confessed sin” has been dealt with and was blotted out by God. But in the process, we have committed a “new” sin, guilt. 

The truth is that the pressure or adversity in our lives may have nothing to do with divine discipline. It may be simply a test to strengthen our faith or even just the result of making some bad decisions. Everything “bad” that happens to a believer is not because of sin in his or her life! This is exactly what Job’s friends said was causing his adversity, when in fact it had nothing to do with divine discipline. (I Corinthians 10:13)

Since we have no right to dredge up any sin that we have confessed, we must learn to put it away from us (isolate it) and stop thinking about it. The best way to do this, according to the Word of God, is to replace it with Bible Doctrine. The more time we spend thinking and applying God’s Word, the less time we will have to think about any past failures. (Romans 12:1-2)

Guilt also produces self-recrimination or self-torture. And no one can torture you like you can. This torture comes in the form of self-pity. “I don’t feel forgiven,” “I’m being punished for my past failure,” “I’m a failure,” “I’m a loser,” “I’m worthless,” “I’ll never amount to a hill of beans for God,” blah, blah, blah. What are we doing? We’re emoting and thinking human viewpoint. 

We must remember that even “great” believers in the Bible failed at some time during their lives. One reason they became great is that they learned to isolate their sins. When they confessed them, they knew that God had forgiven and forgotten them. Did they sit around and cry about it? No! They never looked back. They just picked up the pieces and moved forward by the grace of God. They didn’t allow past failure to hold them back in their service to the Lord.

God is gracious! (Isaiah 30:18) In His grace, He not only made salvation easy for us, but He also made fellowship with Him easy for us. Both are functions of God’s grace. Both are appropriated in a non-meritorious way – salvation by faith, fellowship by confession. God does all the work! (John 3:16; I John 1:9)

Isolation of sin, like everything else in the Christian Way of Life, is a grace function. We don’t earn or deserve forgiveness (blotting out of sin) from God. (Ephesians 1:7) Failure to apply the grace of God will lead us to failure. We’ll try everything and everybody to make us happy or tell us how to be happy, and all we will find is misery. Why? Because spiritual health and happiness are not found in getting involved in any type of activity, they are found in Divine Viewpoint Thinking! (Hebrews 12:1-3,15; Psalms 146:5; Proverbs 3:13)

Divine Viewpoint Thinking is the key to overcoming the power of the sin nature. When we begin to think the way God thinks, we will be able to recognize overt and mental attitude sins in our lives. Once these sins are recognized, we can acknowledge, isolate, and avoid them. This, of course, can eventually break the power that certain sins have over us. However, we must constantly be on guard.

We must learn how to “break” old bad habits and thoughts by replacing them with new divine viewpoint thoughts and actions.

When a temptation to commit a sin presents itself in our minds, we use a predetermined plan to eliminate that thought and replace it with a divine viewpoint thought. This is where the principle of enforced and genuine humility comes into play. This principle begins with enforcement, meaning that we force ourselves to use this technique to stop any temptation in its tracks until such time as we have perfected it and it becomes “second nature” to us. (Isaiah 40:31)

Victory over certain sins comes as we use (apply) the doctrine that we have learned. Therefore, it is imperative that we have more than mere academic knowledge of God’s Word. We need to believe that the doctrine we have learned is enough to set us free from a lifestyle of sin and give us the happiness and contentment that we all desire as Christians. It’s all about priorities!

Jesus Christ is our best friend and has given us all the information and methods we need to solve the problems and challenges of life: unhappiness, loneliness, depression, wrong priorities, chain sinning, bitterness, resentment, jealousy, hatred, self-pity, etc.

We can never find happiness and contentment by looking for them! We achieve happiness and contentment when we are thinking and acting the way God has clearly laid out for us in His Word. We might say that happiness and contentment “finds us” when we’re in the right place! (Matthew 6:33)

In summary, we must avoid the three characteristics that keep us in a state of unhappiness and discontentment: self-deception, self-justification, and self- absorption. Telling ourselves or others, “well, that’s just the way God made me,” or “well, that’s just who I am,” or “well, that’s just the way I am,” are invalid excuses for not following the plan of God. God made each of us with a divine purpose that will make us happy and content when we find and follow it!!!!

The Ten Problem-Solving Devices encompass every aspect of the Christian Way of Life, the victorious life that God has planned for every believer. The Problem-Solving Devices are to be used as a system of problem solving for every Christian, regardless of their stage of growth in the Christian life. In other words, no one ever outgrows the need to use all ten. Depending on the problem to be solved, the believer may use one or several of the devices simultaneously, as the solution to any of life’s challenges. 

When learned, believed, and applied, the problem-solving system will stabilize, sustain, empower, and liberate a believer. Consistent utilization of the system will advance a believer far beyond what they can imagine, to a lifestyle of a relaxed mental attitude toward circumstances, toward self, toward others, and most importantly, toward God, by realizing that He is a God of love and grace – not a God of vindictiveness. (Matthew 6:19-21)