In our study of Mark we are in Mark 7:23; where Jesus explained to his disciples that a person is defiled by what comes out of their thinking not from what they eat or weather their hands are washed before they eat.

Jesus was focusing on reality rather than ritual because it is spiritual death and the OSN that predisposes everyone to perform sin and evil and that is the real problem that mankind faces. So we took up a study on the doctrine of the OSN.

In that study last time we left off in a discussion of the fragmentation that occurs from the OSN.

When believers use their volition to sin, they fragment their own life. The Bible refers to this self-fragmentation as carnality or being under the control of the sin nature. It is the function of life in satan's cosmic system that leads to the believer being sucked deeper into the cosmic system.

The OSN trend toward lascivious lawlessness and the OSN trend toward self- righteous arrogance causes conflict among believers. People who participate in this conflict between the two opposite trends of the OSN fragment themselves.

Moral and immoral degeneracy are constantly at war so fragmentation is not only a source of sinning, but it is also a state of confusion. Once fragmentation has been perpetuated in a believer's life, they will be confused and have no objectivity so they are unable to grow spiritually.

The only way to recover is for the believer to reorient to Jesus Christ and His work on the cross where all personal sins in human history weather they were committed before or after salvation were judged.

All personal sins in the human race, past, present, and future, were recorded in the divine decree in eternity past and at the time of the crucifixion, God the Father called for the recording of all the sins in the decree and imputed them to Christ and judged them in Him during the three hours of darkness while He was on the cross.

It is important to note that it is judgment not forgiveness that occurred on the cross. All sins were judged in Jesus on the Cross and that is why they can be forgiven at salvation on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ alone.

1Pet 2:24; "He carried our sins in His own body on the cross."

2Cor 5:21; "He who did not know sin was made sin as a substitute for us."

Rom 5:8; "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us."

1Pet 3:18; "Because Christ died once for our sins, the righteous One as a substitute for the unrighteous ones, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh (humanity of Christ), but made alive by means of the Spirit."

Gal 3:13; "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by means of becoming a curse as a substitute for us, for it stands written, `Cursed is everyone who hangs on a cross.'

The Solution to pre-salvation sins is salvation through faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ. Gal 3:26; "For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."

Gal 2:16; "Knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no person will be justified."

Rom 5:1; "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph 2:8; "For by grace you have been saved in the past with the result that you have been saved forever through faith, and this (salvation) is not from yourselves; it is a gift from God, not of works lest anyone should boast."

Rom 3:22; "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe."

Rom 3:28; "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law."

John 20:31; "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have eternal life through His person."

John 3:15; "That everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life."

John 3:16; "For God loved the world so much that He gave His Son, the unique One, in order that anyone who believes in Him shall never perish but have eternal life."

John 3:18 "He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the person of the unique Son of God."

John 3:36; "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

John 11:25-26; "Jesus said to her (Martha), `I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?"

1John 5:11-13; "This is the deposition: God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

v12 He who has the Son has this (eternal) life; He who does not have the Son does not have this (eternal) life.

v13 These things I have written to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have (eternal) life."

The problem of pre-salvation sinning is solved by personal faith in Jesus Christ because at the moment that anyone believes in Christ, all pre-salvation sins are forgiven.

Isa 43:25; "I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins."

Col 1:14; "In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Faith plus anything does not secure salvation. If anything is added to faith, the Holy Spirit cannot make it effective for salvation under His ministry of efficacious grace.

Faith plus "commitment" does not secure salvation. Faith plus "lordship" does not secure salvation. Jesus Christ is your Lord at the moment of salvation no matter what you do after salvation. Christ is Lord, what someone does not "make Christ Lord."

Faith plus morality does not secure salvation. Faith plus baptism or any other church ritual does not secure salvation. Faith plus "repentance" does not secure salvation. "Repent" actually means to change your mind about Christ. It does not mean to feel sorry for committing sins.

Faith plus emotion does not secure salvation. Faith plus psychological works does not secure salvation. Reverse invitations exclude faith. In salvation, God invites us to Him. Therefore, we cannot reverse that and invite Christ into our hearts or lives. Inviting God excludes faith.

This means that inviting Christ into your heart is the spiritual equivalent of inviting Christ into a spiritual garbage dump, Jer 17:9; "The heart is desperately wicked." And inviting Christ into your life is the spiritual equivalent or inviting Christ into a spiritual tomb because the unbeliever is spiritually dead.

Under the doctrine of common grace, the spiritually dead unbeliever has spiritual brain death. Therefore, when the Gospel is presented, the Holy Spirit acts, as a human spirit so that the Gospel, that is spiritual information, can be understood. The Holy Spirit uses the accurate information that is understood and believed.

At that point under His ministry of efficacious grace, the Holy Spirit takes faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ and makes it effective for eternal life. This means that if anything is added to faith, God the Holy Spirit cannot and does not make that effective for salvation.

John 16:8-9; "And He (Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me." Sin is really not an issue in your life as an unbeliever; the issue is Christ. Because Jesus Christ was judged for all your sins

Rom 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile."

So the solution to pre-salvation sins is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

God's remedy for post-salvation sins is found in 1John 1:9; and 1Cor 11:31;

1 John 1:9, "If we acknowledge (admit, cite, name) our sins, He (God the Father) is faithful and just (righteous) with the result that He forgives us our sins (post-salvation sins of cognizance), and cleanse (purifies) us from all unrighteousness (post-salvation sins of ignorance)."

The substitution of self-judgment for divine discipline is the subject of 1Cor 11:31. "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." Self-judgment is equivalent to the confession of sins.