Self-Deception: Not an Issue for the Believer

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1: 8)

All of humanity has been convicted of sin:

"And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

"Of sin, because they believe not on me" (John 16: 8-9)

Jesus Christ, through His death, has made the full and final sacrifice for all our sins:

"For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God." (Romans 6: 10)

and

"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." (Hebrews 10: 10)

and

"And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." (1 John 2: 2)

So, the one sin that will send people to hell is simple refusing to believe that Jesus is the One whom the Father hath send to be the mercy seat for all our sins.

When reading First John, it is important to rightly divide the Word of God (2 Timothy 2: 15), and recognize that the first chapter is a generic, open statement, but not to believers. Only in the second chapter does John address believers, calling them "my little children.

So, as long as men and women do not believe that they are dead in their trespasses, that in their own works they work obedience and righteousness, then are they "self-deceived". However, once we come to believe that Jesus Christ died for us, and through Him we receive His Life that He may live through us, then we are dead to our former selves, and resting in His righteousness we reign in life.

No longer do we spend time looking over our shoulders, making sure that we do not offend God or break His law, because in Christ the Law has been fulfilled (Matthew 5: 17), and we have been purged of a conscience of dead works (Hebrews 9: 14)

Enter His rest, and you need never fear self-deception or wandering away from the life that He leads in you.