The Wet Paint Principle (Freedom From Sin)

[justbyfaith]

Freedom from Sin: Overcoming the Wet Paint Principle

By Victor Jedidiah

A Blood of the Covenant Tract or Booklet

Preface​

May the Lord the Holy Spirit impart to you what He wishes to impart to you as you read this; and also give you discernment that you may be a Berean (Acts 17:11) and sift it wisely in order that you may receive the truth alone. Receive it as on a par with the word of God (1 Thessalonians 2:13); and yet if anything be unworthy, I pray that He will show you by speaking to you, what you ought to receive and what you ought not to receive. Even though I am the one who wrote this, I read it again and again to remind myself of its truths.

Body​

1
1 I am not under the law, am dead to the law, and am delivered from the law—I am not obligated to obey the law for my salvation. Romans 6:14, Romans 7:4, Romans 7:6.
2 But because I am saved, I desire to obey the word, including the law of the Old Testament—I desire to obey the law because I am saved.
3 If I fail to obey the law, I am not condemned—but because I am not condemned—because I am born of God—1 John 3:9—I will not fail to obey the law.
4 If I fail to obey the law, the Lord will not impute it to me as sin—Romans 4:8. Now I cannot sin because I am not under the law, am dead to the law, and am delivered from the law—and sin is the transgression of the law. Because where the law does not apply, there is no transgression. Romans 4:15, Romans 5:13.
5 Therefore I am perfect in Christ no matter what I do—and yet this is predicated on a heart that desires to obey the Lord and all of His commandments—and He is the God of the Old and New Testaments.
6 Because I am born of God I don’t want to sin and I don’t have to sin. Therefore I cannot sin, not because I couldn’t go down that path if I wanted to, but because I don’t want to and don’t have to go down that path.
7 I am under the law to Christ in that I willingly subject myself to the law of God because I am spiritually-minded. Romans 8:7.
8 Now the wet paint principle of the law might take effect, if I begin to think that I am justified by the law. If I base my salvation on my performance rather than on the finished work of Christ on the Cross, then sin will take advantage of the law and I will sin in that thing wherein I base my salvation on my own obedience.
9 But when I begin to understand that nothing can ever separate me from the love of God—not even my violation of the principle of the law—
10 When I begin to understand that I am that blessed man to whom the Lord will not impute sin—the wet paint principle is then dealt with because its power lies in the condemnation that the law brings to the one who is not counted as forever perfect in Christ.
11 The wet paint principle has its effect because we begin to think that we are saved through our obedience and the Lord will not allow this to compete with the Cross as our means of salvation. So God will allow us to sin so that we will be driven to the Cross as the only remedy for sin.
12 When we stay on the Cross as the only remedy for sin, then it truly acts as the remedy for sin at every level, and obedience is produced within us because we are born of God and are abiding in Him.
13 As those who are abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are subject in our minds to the law of God for that we are not carnally-minded. Romans 8:7.
14 The wet paint principle might begin to take effect any time our focus is on the law—our key to victory being the understanding that I am not saved through law-keeping but through faith in what Christ has done for me.
15 Therefore I obey the law because I am in love with Jesus Christ—and I love Him because He first loved me.
16 I do not obey the law in order to be justified. If I did that, I would be obligated to obey the whole law and would be fallen from grace.
17 But grace has as its effect in my life deliverance from sin—and sin is the transgression of the law.
18 Therefore because I am delivered from sin by the grace of God, I obey the law because obedience to the law is the antonym of its transgression.
19 I obey the word of God because He has redeemed me and because I love Him, with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because I love Him, I love my neighbor as myself—and on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. And these two are one, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
20 His commandments are not grievous or burdensome—1 John 5:3—and this means they are doable.
21 As one who is born of God, I cannot sin because love is the fulfilling of the law and is also shed abroad in my heart through the infilling of the Holy Ghost.
22 Sin is the transgression of the law, and as long as the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me, I do not sin.
23 Wherefore if I walk in love I will fulfill the law: for walking in the flesh is the antithesis of love.
24 Therefore I do not sin as long as I am walking according to love.
25 Now I study the law in order that I might learn of the specifics of the love of God. As I read and study, I learn what it means to love the Lord my God with all of my heart, mind, soul, and strength—and my neighbor as myself—in more specific ways. I learn the details of how to love God and neighbor by studying the law.
26 And by the law is the knowledge of sin. Therefore when I place my trust in Christ and allow Him to live His life in me and through me, I will walk according to the details of God’s love. But if my trust is not in Christ, the wet paint principle will come into effect, and I will sin against those details of obedience on which I begin to predicate my salvation. And the law will condemn me as a sinner.
27 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 1 John 3:9.
28 Therefore the one who is a saint cannot be a sinner.
29 I am therefore made perfect for ever through faith in Jesus Christ; and this righteousness is not based in the law.
30 I am counted as perfect in Christ because I am born of God; and this means I desire to obey the Lord perfectly.
31 Therefore I obey Jesus because I want to, not because I have to.
32 The law cannot condemn me as long as I place my faith and trust in Christ.
33 Because I am not under the law, am dead to the law, and am delivered from the law, the Father sees me as perfect and I am therefore set free to obey the law to the best of my ability apart from fear of condemnation.
34 The wet paint principle is also stripped of its power because I know that I am accepted in the Beloved.

 

[justbyfaith]

2
1 God sees me as perfect and I am growing up into the finished product seen by the Lord—I am growing up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
2 And in my heart I am already perfected because there He has placed the fullness of His love.
3 I am righteous in His sight, even as He is righteous, and therefore I practice righteousness. 1 John 3:7.
4 All things are naked and opened and laid bare before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Hebrews 4:13.
5 Therefore if I am righteous in His sight, I am truly righteous—and this will bear itself out in the way that I behave.
6 He has given me the free gift of righteousness which I receive through faith in His shed blood upon the Cross. Romans 5:9, Romans 5:17
7 As through the disobedience of Adam many were made sinners, so through the obedience of Jesus Christ many are made righteous—and this is the free gift of God received by faith in what Christ did for us on the Cross. Romans 5:19, Romans 5:15-16.
8 He has chosen us in Him from before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Ephesians 1:4.
9 He is making us into a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that we should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:27.
10 He sanctifies and cleanses us with the washing of water by the word—and His blood also sanctifieth us and cleanseth us from all sin. Ephesians 5:26, Hebrews 13:12, 1 John 1:7.
11 He gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2:14.
12 To him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him as righteousness. Romans 4:5.
13 Therefore it is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy that He has saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5.
14 And faith without works is dead, because all who have been saved through faith are transformed within and this produces attitudes and behaviour conducive to good works.
15 If I sin willfully after receiving the full knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of the judgment and fiery indignation that will consume the enemies of God.
16 Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
17 Therefore if I desire to and am able to come to Christ in repentance, I have not willfully sinned against Him as one who knows the truth in all of its fullness.
18 If I say, I did not know the truth, and therefore I had license to sin willfully, will not God say that I willfully ignored the truth?
19 Therefore in knowing the truth I become bound to righteousness and must not sin.
20 And yet this is to speak in human terms because of the weakness of the flesh. The truth of the matter is that I am no longer a slave but a son.
21 If I focus on what seems to contradict, the gospel may fail to have its effect. But if I receive the message as a whole, salvation will be wrought in me, and sin will be eradicated as a practice from my life. Matthew 1:21, 1 John 3:5-9.
22 He is able to make me holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight—and is it not true that He sees and knows all? Colossians 1:22, 1 Thessalonians 2:10.
23 If I relish a heart of disobedience after coming to the knowledge of the truth, I will find that I am still under the law, and am NOT dead to the law, and am NOT delivered from the law—I will find that the law condemns me as a sinner.
24 But if my heart is a heart of obedience, condemnation is for me an impossibility.
25 Did not Jesus say, “I give them eternal life; and they shall never perish; neither can anyone pluck them out of my hand”?
26 Therefore do not throw away your confidence which hath great recompence of reward; for we are His house if we hold fast to the confidence and rejoicing of hope firm unto the end.
27 Nevertheless it is ordained by the Lord that eternal security is predicated on the body of Christ working together to keep every member in the safe zone so that they will not fall away.
28 So exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin; towards departing from the living God because of an evil heart of unbelief.
29 The foundation of the Lord stands strong in these two things: The Lord knows the ones who are His; and, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
30 Therefore if any man desires assurance of salvation, let him live a holy life.
31 And the root of all true holiness is faith in Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the Cross of Calvary.
32 As many as receive Him, to them He gives the power to live as sons of God, even to all those who believe on His name.
33 And those who live as sons of God are sons of God: provided that their holiness is not cut off from the primary root: faith in Jesus Christ.
34 Herein is power in the Holy Ghost to live a holy life: Christ in you, the hope of glory; the fullness of God’s love.
35 Therefore if I appear to be holy, but this holiness does not come from faith, my holiness will avail for me nothing.
36 For a heart of obedience, if it is not the result of faith in Jesus Christ, is not truly a heart of obedience because in it there is no substance of faith and therefore it is as the outside of a cup that is cleansed when the inside is not clean.

 

[justbyfaith]

3
1 It is clear that our Lord sprang out of the tribe of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood; and therefore in order to be High Priest, as He is High Priest, Jesus must be High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
2 And the priesthood being changed from Levitical to Melchizedekan, there is of necessity a change also of the law.
3 Therefore has even one jot or tittle passed from the law?
4 Every jot and tittle of the Old Testament remains inspired and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
5 Every sacrifice points to the ultimate sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.
6 Every moral tenet speaks to me on how to more specifically love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and my neighbor as myself.
7 The change in law therefore refers to the transition from looking to obey a set of do’s and don’ts, to walking according to the Spirit rather than the flesh.
8 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, relegated sin to the flesh.
9 Therefore the law is now this: anything I do according to the flesh is sin.
10 If I give in to fleshly desire then I walk according to the flesh.
11 If I do anything in my own ability or strength, I also walk according to the flesh.
12 And if I do anything contrary to the love of God, I am also walking according to the flesh.
13 However the law of the Old Testament properly lays out, in its set of do’s and don’ts, what it means to walk according to the flesh if I were to disobey any of its tenets.
14 If I disobey a law in the Old Testament that is not fulfilled by the New (in that Christ is sacrificed for us), I am walking according to the flesh.
15 And therefore the Old Testament law is still valid as an old way of defining what it means to walk according to the flesh and to walk according to the Spirit.
16 By the Old Testament law is still the knowledge of sin.
17 Sin is still the transgression of the Old Testament law.
18 And yet in the New Testament we also find moral tenets given as a set of do’s and don’ts that also tell us what it means to walk according to the flesh and according to the Spirit, defining sin for us.
19 Because of certain things the wrath of God falls on the children of disobedience!
20 We are to mortify such things as fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
21 Also no whoremonger nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
22 Therefore the New Testament is not nullified by the Old, and neither is the Old Testament nullified by the New: but the moral tenets of both together produce a codified law.
23 And this is what it means when “the law” is mentioned in scripture: the combination of moral tenets found in the Old Testament and the New.
24 The law says to those who are under it that they are not righteous; sinners in need of a Saviour.
25 But sin shall not have dominion over you and you are righteous if you are in Christ: for you are not under the law but under grace.
26 In that you subject yourself willingly to the law of God, being spiritually-minded, you are under the law to Christ: and this is the exception to the rule, because you are under the law not by obligation but by free will; and therefore you are righteous in Christ because you are at the same time not under the law.
27 Is Christ therefore become of no effect to you because you are not under the law but under grace? Sin shall not have dominion over you; are you not therefore justified according to the law in due process of time?
28 As it is written, “For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.”
29 And yet in another place it is also written, “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace!”
30 Therefore I am justified before God by faith in Christ, which produces the obedience whereby I am justified before man according to the law.
31 God knows that I am the chief of sinners: And that I am made righteous through His blood, and that this changes me from the inside out so that I become blameless in the sight of God and man.
32 Therefore in the sight of God I am not justified by the law but by faith in Jesus Christ: for He sees what is invisible and what can become visible because the effect is not very far from its cause.
33 Now I am face to face with the wet paint principle once again, if I begin to think that I am justified by the law.
34 Wherefore, since grace makes me blameless according to the law, I find that I am justified according to the law because of grace.
35 I must therefore consider that the root is grace; and the fruit obedience to the word of God.
36 And if I were to make the root of grace obedience and the fruit of obedience the grace of God in my life, I would have the cart before the horse and would indeed be justified by the law.
37 But because the root is grace, truly by grace am I justified before God and am justified by the law only in the sight of man.
38 And God alone sees the whole of the reality: for man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart.

 

[justbyfaith]

4
1 What shall I say then if I come to Christ as one who is blameless according to the law? How does my life then change? I will count my blamelessness as dung in order that I might be justified by grace, and be found in Christ.
2 If in seeking to be justified by Christ it becomes evident that I am a sinner, does that make Christ a minister of sin? God forbid.
3 For if in my blamelessness I think that I am justified, I might forget that the root of my blamelessness is Christ: even faith in Him.
4 Therefore shall I sin in order that I might abandon my blamelessness so that I will no longer be justified according to the law? God forbid.
5 But I will place the highest value on my faith in Christ and the lowest value on its result in order that I might keep a proper perspective on faith in Christ.
6 If I was ever blameless according to the law, I will count that blamelessness as dung in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
7 Therefore I conclude that righteousness is imputed to me through faith in Christ apart from anything I might do.
8 All that God requires of me is faith. And my faith is counted as righteousness although I am an ungodly man. Romans 4:5.
9 All the godliness I can muster will never save me in the eyes of God.
10 It is only Christ: what He has done for me is all my righteousness.
11 Knowing this makes me desire not to sin: not because of fear or obligation.
12 But the Cross of Christ consumes me as I realize that Christ died for me and that this is all my righteousness.
13 I am undone: all my self-effort availed for nothing. I see the light in knowing that Christ and His sacrifice is everything.
14 All my righteousnesses I count as dung and as filthy rags as my eyes are opened to the fact of His righteousness and how nothing I could ever do will ever measure up to His holiness.
15 And I simply trust therefore in the complete work that Christ has wrought on my behalf. And I simply enter into His rest.
16 Shall I then sin because I have entered into His rest? God forbid. If we have learned anything, we have learned that the wet paint principle is dealt with when we cast ourselves upon Christ for our salvation.
17 Therefore by trusting in Christ I will find that I have victory over sin; because I have taken my focus off of the law for salvation and have placed it on my Saviour, even on what He did for me on the Cross.
18 No longer must I strive not to sin in order to maintain my salvation; but as I focus on the Cross, my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will keep me from sinning against Him because the Cross is clearly in view and therefore the poison of the serpent is nullified because I look on Christ in faith.
19 And as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, even so has the Son of man been lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:14-16.

5
1 The wet paint principle is the principle spoken of by Paul the apostle, which can be explained as our inclination, if we see a green bench with a WET PAINT sign on it, to touch that bench to see if it is still wet.
2 It is the principle that when faced with the law of God the inclination of unforgiven sinful man is to violate the law because he says, “Why am I not allowed to do this or that?”
3 This principle is described most aptly in Romans 7:7-13.
4 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Romans 7:7.
5 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. 7:8
6 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 7:9
7 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. 7:10
8 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. 7:11
9 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. 7:12
10 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. 7:13

 

[Lamb]

Are you Victor Jedidiah? If you are not, then we don't allow full publications to be posted on our site to avoid any copyright violations.