EXCERPTS FROM THE MINISTRY

The Source of Sin—the Devil’s Private Possession

In John 8:44 the Lord Jesus said to the Jews, “You are of your father the devil...He was a murderer from the beginning...When he speaks the lie, he speaks it out of his own possessions.” This is the proper translation according to the Greek text. The Chinese Union Version translates it this way: “When he speaks the lie, he speaks out of himself.” Lü Chen-chung’s Version translates it another way: “When he speaks the lie, he speaks out of his own nature.” Both are not the meaning of what the Lord Jesus expressed at that time. The Lord Jesus’ speaking was full of wisdom. In describing the relationship between Satan and sin, He said that sin is something of Satan’s own. Greek experts affirm that this expression denotes something that Satan has within himself, something as Satan’s private possession, something as a secret in him. Hence, the Lord Jesus’ word means that the devil lies out of his private possession, which is the source of lies.

Up to the present we still cannot explain what Satan’s private possession is. However, by the word of the Lord Jesus we can be sure that this private possession of the devil is the source of sin. Because of this, Satan has a name that is called “the evil.” Within Satan there is an evil thing that is not found in any other angel or any other creature; it is uniquely his. If you ask me what this evil thing is, then I would tell you that this evil thing which uniquely belongs to Satan is called “sin” in the Bible. Then if you ask me further where sin came from, I can only tell you that although many have been trying to find out where sin came from, it is still a secret. Even the Chinese philosophers who achieved a great deal in their study concerning the origin of sin were unable to answer this question.

Nevertheless, the Bible impresses us deeply with the fact that sin is Satan’s private possession, something of Satan’s own, something that is uniquely and exclusively his. Therefore, he is the father of liars and the father of lies. Not only the liars are of him, but even the lies are essentially of him. There is something within him as his private possession, and this is the gene of sin. When he seduced Eve and Adam by instigating them to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the gene of sin entered into man. This is why Romans 5:12 says, “Through one man sin entered into the world.” World here denotes the people of the world. It is the same as the word for world in John 3:16, which says, “God so loved the world.” This is the way sin entered into man.

Therefore, strictly speaking, the understanding of the early Chinese theologians concerning sin was not quite accurate. They considered yuan tsui, the original sin, as the sin committed by our forefather Adam, and pen tsui, our own sin, as the sins committed by ourselves. Actually, the original sin is not the sin committed by Adam. The sin committed by Adam, to Adam himself, was Adam’s own sin. The original sin is something of Satan’s own, something as Satan’s private possession. This is the origin, the source, of sin.

The Dealing with Sin—the Inward Sin and the Outward Sins

What the Lord Jesus dealt with on the cross was sin, the sin itself. This is why, after Romans 7, Paul says in 8:3, “God, sending His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” This means that there is something called sin, and when the Lord Jesus was crucified, sin was also crucified. In this way God judged sin in the flesh of the Lord Jesus. Furthermore, God condemned sin by sending His Son “in the likeness of the flesh of sin” and also “concerning sin.” Concerning sin means including anything that is related to sin.

Although this One whom God sent was “in the likeness of the flesh of sin,” there was no sin in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). This is typified by the bronze serpent, which Moses lifted up in the wilderness (Num. 21:9). In John 3:14 the Lord Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” This word indicates that the bronze serpent is a type of Him as our Substitute on the cross. The bronze serpent had the form of the serpent but was without the serpent’s poison; it had the serpent’s form but not the serpentine nature. When the bronze serpent was hung on the pole, only the serpent’s form was hung there; it was not an actual poisonous serpent. In the same principle, when the Lord Jesus was put to death on the cross, He was crucified in the flesh; that flesh was “the likeness of the flesh of sin,” the form of sin. It was in such a “likeness of the flesh of sin” that God condemned sin and dealt with everything related to sin.

Not only so, since man has the gene of sin within, he surely has the deeds of sin without. The Lord Jesus dealt with our inward sin, the gene of sin, by becoming sin on our behalf and condemning and judging sin in the flesh of sin. He dealt with our outward sins by bearing our sins and suffering God’s righteous punishment on our behalf to satisfy God’s righteous requirement. This was Christ’s passing through death to deal with our sins. This is proved by Isaiah 53:6, Hebrews 9:28, and 1 Peter 2:24.