If you owed a billion dollars and someone graciously paid the entire amount, you would be free of the debt.

That would be fantastic!

But now your bank balance would be zero and you would still be bankrupt.

You would have no assets, and you would still be without the means to support yourself.

Similarly, God has made payment for our sin debt through the blood of Christ.

But now where do we get the power to overcome the sin that indwells us so we can live righteously from here on out?

This line of inquiry can provide a number of stones-in-the-shoe when talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

In asking about this situation, you aren’t accusing the Witnesses of anything.

You are simply addressing the problem we all have as descendants of Adam.

In its study book, What Does the Bible Really Teach?, the Watchtower states, “Since Adam became imperfect when he sinned, all his offspring inherited sin from him.”[1]

It gives an illustration of a dented bread pan that produces bread loaves with the same dent.

That’s interesting, but Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t seem to understand that our problem is far worse than a mere dent.

You can say:

  • That’s an interesting illustration, but I think our problem is far worse than that.

I recommend that you ask one of them to read aloud from his Watchtower translation Romans 7:18-20:

For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells nothing good; for I have the desire to do what is fine but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good that I wish, but the bad that I do not wish is what I practice. If, then, I do what I do not wish, I am no longer the one carrying it out, but it is the sin dwelling in me.

Ask:

  • How can we overcome our sinful compulsions that Paul is describing?

They will probably talk about dedicating ourselves to Jehovah and eventually progressing to perfection during the millennial kingdom on earth.

You can say:

  • It seems to me that the sinful nature involves an inner compulsion to sin that we can’t overcome by education, commitment, and self-effort, even if we live through the full 1,000 years of Christ’s millennial kingdom on earth.
  • As wonderful as it is to obtain forgiveness through Christ’s sacrifice to save us from the penalty of sin, don’t we also need to be freed from the power of sin that controls us from the inside?

Ask one of the Witnesses to read aloud Ephesians 2:1: “Furthermore, God made you alive, though you were dead in your trespasses and sins…”

Say:

  • If all Jesus had done for us was to pay our massive sin debt to God, that would still be a wonderful thing. In no way do I mean to minimize the significance of that. But, as marvelous as that is, if that were all he did for us, where would that leave us? It would get us out of debt, but it wouldn’t put us any righteousness inside us. We would still be the same sinful people as we were before, slaves as always to the power of sin.
  • Just as we are unable to pay our sin debt, we are also incapable of living the kind of righteous life God desires.
  • It seems to me that self-improvement plans can’t make us righteous. We need a way to become righteous inside so that we can live the kind of life God desires. In short, we need

Ask one of the Witnesses to read Romans 6:3-6:

Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? So we were buried with him through our baptism into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in a newness of life. If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united with him in the likeness of his resurrection. For we know that our old personality was nailed to the stake along with him in order for our sinful body to be made powerless, so that we should no longer go on being slaves to sin.

Ask:

  • Have you had this experience or are you still trying to make yourself sufficiently righteous to merit God’s approval?

You can add:

  • You may disagree with me, but I believe this is what the new birth is all about.
  • Without that, we’re just sinful descendants of Adam, trying fruitlessly to overcome the inner unrighteousness we inherited from Adam.

Ask them to read aloud Galatians 2:19-20:

For through law I died toward law, so that I might become alive toward God. I am nailed to the stake along with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who is living in union with me. Indeed, the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and handed himself over for me.

Jehovah’s Witnesses may tell you that union with Christ and the new birth are only for the anointed 144,000.

You can counter this by having them read aloud Romans 8:8-11:

So those who are in harmony with the flesh cannot please God. However, you are in harmony, not with the flesh, but with the spirit, if God’s spirit truly dwells in you. But if anyone does not have Christ’s spirit, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in union with you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If, now, the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his spirit that resides in you.

Ask:

  • Don’t you belong to Christ or is that just for the 144,000?
  • Also, maybe I’m misunderstanding, but do you believe the 144,000 will have their mortal bodies made alive through Christ’s spirit?
  • I thought the Watchtower teaching was that their mortal bodies would never be raised.

Summary

This line of discussion raises some deep theological issues, but the main point is that none of us can overcome the power of sin that dwells within us.

Only God’s Spirit can do that, and that only happens when we come to Christ by faith and enter into his death and resurrection.

[1] What Does the Bible Really Teach? p. 29

 

 

 

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