Lesson for March 25, 2020
Christian Integrity
Rebound: Leaving and Reentering God’s Power System
We Rebound after sinning by naming, admitting, acknowledging, confessing or citing a particular sin directly to God. The believer in the Church Age is a royal priest and represents himself/ herself before God. We are not to confess our sins to another human being. Another human being, regardless of religious title, has no authority to forgive sin. Only God can forgive sin. The Greek word for naming, admitting, acknowledging, confessing or citing is “homologeo” and means “same name.” In other words, call it what God calls it. If it’s resentment, call it resentment and if it’s being judgmental call it being judgmental, etc.
Royal Priesthood
As members of the Royal Family of God, every believer in this age is appointed as a royal priest. This appointment is a grace function and therefore does not depend on spiritual advance. All believers, male, female, old, young, mature or immature are members of the Royal Priesthood. However, this does not mean that all priests are equal. It means that they have equal privilege to perform the duties of a priest. (I Peter 2:5-9; Revelation 1:6)
As believer-priests we represent ourselves before God. We do not need to confess our sins to a member of the clergy; we confess our sins directly to God. This is to be done in private, silently and immediately. We do not need someone else to pray in our stead, though we always appreciate the prayers of others on our behalf. As priests we are to come boldly before God and offer prayer for ourselves. Unlike the Levitical priesthood in Israel, which was based on physical birth, the priesthood of the believer is based on the “new birth” (salvation). We actually share Christ’s priesthood because we are in union with Him, our High Priest. (Hebrews 3:1; 4:16)
Since we represent ourselves before God, it is our individual responsibility to grow spiritually through the perception and application of Bible doctrine. Your spiritual life is your unseen relationship with God and functions as a part of your Royal Priesthood. Until such time as your spiritual life is developed by consistent study and application of Bible doctrine you will be unable to fulfill your responsibility as a priest. (Ephesians 4:12-15; II Peter 3:18)
The second part of the Rebound Technique is to isolate your sin, put it behind you and forget it. This should eliminate any feeling of guilt for past failures. Remember that God casts our sin as far as the east is from the west and remembers them no more. We need to learn to do the same. The final part of Rebound is to resume your spiritual life – move on under the filling of the Holy Spirit. Rebound means to be restored to fellowship with God. Confess it, isolate it, forget it and move on! (I John 1:6-9; Hebrews 10:17; 12:1-2; Philippians 3:13-14)
Divine Discipline Related to Rebound
The Rebound Technique can stop divine discipline and turn potential cursing into blessing. We are told continually throughout Scripture to evaluate ourselves. We are to be constantly checking our spiritual health. Occasionally God allows suffering to come our way in order to call attention to our spiritual health. Failure to properly evaluate yourself and correct the problem results in divine discipline. God is a patient Father and will give a believer every opportunity to correct his/her own sinful practices. When God has to discipline a believer, it normally begins as a gentle reminder, but failure to heed the warning signs can result in more severe punishment. (I Corinthians 11:31-32; Hebrews 12:5-7)
The three primary reasons God gave us this system of recovery are: 1) to restore fellowship with God. God desires to have fellowship with His children. Sin separates us from fellowship temporarily until we confess our sins. 2) to avoid being condemned with the world system. God wants us to be happy and He knows that sin puts us under the control of the sin nature and can only make us miserable. Therefore, God desires that we live as spiritual royalty separated from the negative effects of this world system. 3) for the production of divine good. Through the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit, the believer can execute the Christian Way of Life, which results in a life of divine production. Divine production can be overt or invisible. (I John 1:5-7; Proverbs 1:23; I Corinthians 11:32)
The Basis for Rebound
The basis for the restoration to fellowship with God and recovery of the filling of the Holy Spirit is what Christ did for us on the Cross. Jesus Christ was judged for all sins in human history and therefore these sins cannot be judged again. God was completely satisfied with Christ’s substitutionary payment for our sins. The blood of Christ, pictured in the Old Testament as animal sacrifices, is a technical term for the spiritual death of Christ on the Cross. Christ’s spiritual death is the foundation for all forgiveness both at salvation and afterwards when a believer acknowledges his/her sin. The Word of God is very clear that the wages of sin is death. This refers not to physical death, but spiritual death, which means separation from God for all eternity. Christ paid the penalty for sin by dying spiritually on the Cross, and then dying physically. Both deaths and the resurrection of Christ are part of our salvation. (II Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 10:10-14; I John 1:6-10; 2:2)
The Sin Nature Related to Rebound
The reason we need the Rebound Technique is that we all are born with a sin nature from which comes the temptation to sin. Temptation is not sin but succumbing to it is sin. It is important that we understand the sin nature if we are going to be successful in controlling it. The sin nature has both an area of weakness and an area of strength. The area of weakness tempts us to commit personal sins, such as mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue and overt sins. The area of strength produces deeds of human good, which we have studied as wood, hay and straw. These are dead works and can be performed by the believer being controlled by the sin nature and the unbeliever alike.
The sin nature also has two trends. One trend is toward legalism and the other is toward antinomianism. Legalism is the futile attempt to earn salvation, spirituality or the approval of God through morality or human works. This person is often self-righteous and arrogant. Antinomianism is lascivious lawlessness or unrestrained immorality. This person is most often seeking self-gratification in his rebellion against God, which is also arrogance. This is not to say that we don’t all have trends toward both, but most of us tend to go toward one or the other when we are out of fellowship.
The sin nature also has a lust pattern. Lust is an illicit desire of either trend of the sin nature. Lust causes a person to become a slave to their desires and to become divorced from reality. Lust includes power lust, sexual lust, monetary lust, revenge lust, approval lust and many more. Controlling the sin nature stifles these lust patterns and allows the believer to live a victorious Christian life. The Rebound Technique, of course, is the beginning of the solution to these problem areas.
The Rebound Technique does not give the believer a “license to sin,” as some legalistic Christians would suggest. Though some may be guilty of just that, God, as a good father will discipline accordingly. God gave us a system of recovery so that we could execute His plan by living our spiritual lives under the control and power of the Holy Spirit and spend a maximum amount of time in fellowship with Him. Rebound has to be the first of the Problem-Solving Devices, because none of the others can be used unless the believer is being controlled by the Holy Spirit. Rebound is the means to restore this control.
The Absolute Standard of God
We have studied this principle under the filling ministry of the Holy Spirit. You will recall that as a believer, you are either 100% spiritual or 100% carnal at any moment. Most Christians are shocked by the sins of others, failing to see their own sins. Overt sins are what most people are shocked by, but God is not shocked. As a matter of fact, in the list of sins in Proverbs 6:16 that God hates, only two of the sins listed are overt. The rest of these sins are either mental attitude sins or sins of the tongue. We need to stay with what the Word of God says and apply God’s solution.
Rebound Illustrated by The Prodigal Son
A perfect illustration of the Rebound Technique, forgiveness and restoration from the Bible is the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32. In this parable, Jesus illustrated the extraordinary forgiveness of God. We have three characters in this parable, the father, the older brother and the younger brother. You’ll remember the story of how the younger son took his inheritance and departed to a far country. He squandered all he had and ended up living with the pigs. This son is a perfect example of the believer continually out of fellowship through “chain-sinning.” The consequences speak for themselves. Once the younger son exhausted his inheritance and realized his terrible state, he decided to return to his father. Luke 15:19, was the prodigal son’s prayer of Rebound, but he was confused about forgiveness. The son convinced himself that his father no longer loved him or even considered him a son. Therefore, he began to think the same thing many Christians do. They think, as he did, that they must do some sort of penance to “make up” for their sins. Of course, he was wrong.
The story ended with the father seeing the son coming, and the father running to greet his son with loving embraces and kisses. This is a vivid portrayal of how God forgives us. God’s righteousness and justice insure forgiveness through Christ’s payment for our sins. When we name, acknowledge or admit our sins to God, it is as though He is lovingly embracing and kissing us, as He welcomes us back into fellowship. This is truly the grace of God in action.