Sin and the Christian
Does the person who is born of the
Spirit of God commit sin?
Written by
Ken Walker - revised September 2001
Introduction
This is
the third article written by the author on the subject of the fullness of life
in Christ.
The first
article Searching for the Promised
Fullness of God is one of the articles listed on the Internet
at http://www.vicnet.net.au/~gnaust/life/index-gr.html
That article examined how a correct understanding of Romans 7 opens the doorway
to both and full and proper understanding of the Gospel and the operation of
faith in a believer.
The
second article Biblical Stages of the
Christian Life examines the scriptural descriptions of three
stages of development of the Christian life that the Bible itself describes.
That article is listed on the same internet page mentioned
above. It is hoped that this present article will unfold another aspect of the
Christian life for those moving towards fullness of life in Christ. A proper
understanding of the sin issue is a necessary part of achieving that fullness.
Part One
1 Do
Christians sin - or sin not?
The book
of 1 John says both Yes and No but then qualifies the issue with integrity, as
it must do in keeping with the Word of God which ultimately never contradicts
itself.
There are
three main verses in 1 John that say that Christians who are truly born of the
Spirit of God do not sin, and in fact cannot sin. They are:
No one
who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:9)
We know
that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him and
the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18)
No one
who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. (1 John 3:6)
On the
other hand John also makes the following statements, which appear to contradict
his other statements. They are:
If we say
that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1
John 1:8)
If we say
that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. (1 John
1:10)
Then he
seems to change tack a little as though acknowledging the possibility of sin,
apparently hoping that we will not sin, but if we do, we have an Advocate in
Jesus Christ, who can appear on our behalf before Father God Himself.
My little
children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; (1 John
2:1)
And then
he says, as if acknowledging we might sin or have sinned, that our sin will be
forgiven if it is confessed before the Lord. Not only that, but we will be cleansed
from that sin. He says:
If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)
2 An Apparent Contradiction.
So John,
in writing in this way seems to be backing himself both ways. Christians do not
and cannot sin, but if we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. Then,
if we do sin we can have that sin forgiven and be cleansed from it.
1 John
2:1 seems to eliminate the possibility that we can become or are perfect, because
it says "if anyone sins", indicating the possibility of sin. Remember
the full verse says:
My little
children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
Moreover,
the experience of life in Christian circles provides fairly convincing evidence
that Christians do sin. One does not have to think too hard to recall obvious
public sin of Christian notables or in our own church or homes or indeed in our
own lives. Christians can sin, and if aware of their biblical obligations,
confess it in order to be forgiven and obtain cleansing.
So what
does John mean when he says Christians do not sin and cannot sin?
Walvoord
and Zuck in their Bible Knowledge Commentary suggest the following on page 894.
"A
widely held explanation of 1 John 3:6 is that the believer does not sin
habitually, that is, sin is not his way of life. They say that the Greek text
has no words to represent phrases such as "keeps on" or
"continues to" or "habitually". .........For the believer,
sin is abnormal and unnatural; his whole bent of life is away from
sin........... The Christian still experiences a genuine struggle with the
flesh and overcomes its impulses only by the power of the Holy Spirit."
Spiros
Zodhiates in his Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible seems to have similar views. He
says on page 1529 that: "...yet he ( John ) speaks even of himself, as
well as those whom he addresses, as capable of committing sin - sin considered
however, not as a habit, but as an uncharacteristic act."
A further
view is worth stating. Barker and Kohlenberger in their NIV Bible Commentary on
page 1095 say this: "....those who "live" in the "sinless
one" will. like Him, live a life of
righteousness...but if they do sin, they will confess it as lawlessness and
abandon it........ John acknowledges that the life of righteousness is only
possible in Christ. By "living" in Him, in his
"sinlessness," one can expect conformity to His righteousness."
Joining up these views we can say that no sin in a
life means no habitual sin and that the only way we
can live close to a sinless righteousness is by living in Him - that is by
having and knowing we have the life of Christ within us as a complete
replacement for our old sinful life.
The
apparent contradictions here are resolved even further by reference to Dan
Stone’s description and relevance of the spiritual and temporal realms in
Chapter 2 of his book The Rest of the Gospel. Based on 2 Corinthians 4:18, he places
the Eternal Unseen Realm above an imaginary line and the Seen Temporal Realm
below the line. The eternal
realm is the realm of the spirit where we have been perfected at the time of
our regeneration and are dead to sin.
The temporal realm is the realm of the soul and body, the visible
temporal realm.
Relating that perspective to
this issue of whether Christians sin or not, Dan agreed with my assessment of
it as follows. There is no sin in
the eternal unseen realm and if we are living and operating in that realm, then
we do not normally sin.
However, if we continually live in the soul/body realm, the seen realm
of life, without reference to the spiritual, then we may well sin, needing the
cleansing and forgiveness that comes from 1 John 1:9. As can be seen from other articles
listed at http://www.vicnet.net.au/~gnaust/life/index-gr.html,
yieldedness to the Lord brings about a separation of soul and spirit by the
Holy Spirit as per Hebrews 4:12, the consequences of which are that the
Christian does not sin habitually.
A study of Dan’s book is included in a course Fullness of Life in
Christ, which is available online at the above address.
3 Why are
not more Christian lives lived in righteousness?
Misinterpretation
of Romans 7
One
reason would be that many Christians and many churches teach and live with an
incorrect interpretation of Romans 7. This was the subject of the first article
in this series entitled "Searching
for the Promised Fullness of God".
Readers
really need to refer to this 15 page document which attempts to clarify the
problem and open the way for a full faith to operate in the believer. The
essence of that article is that in Romans 7:13-24 Paul describes his own
experience when in
It is my
belief that each believer must go through his own Romans 7 experience of
finding out their true status in Christ, to eventually realize that both sin
nature and Christ nature cannot be both fully operating at the same time. It is
something for which each believer must rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal that
state to him, quite apart from any intellectual understanding he may already have
of it from scripture. Christians who rely solely on the printed word of
scripture and not on the leading of the Holy Spirit cannot expect to have full
truth within them. "It is the Spirit who gives life" John 6:61
The
argument about wrong interpretations of Romans 6, 7, 8 and 1 John doctrines
suggests that those who consider themselves believers can and probably will
still sin if they have not worked through those scriptures and come to full
faith in what these verses say. This is because they continue to allow and
believe in the flesh - spirit struggle, which does not exist in Romans 8 for
those who live in the Spirit, for anyone that has full faith in what these
scriptures say:
Knowing this, our old self was crucified
with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;
for he who has died is freed from sin.
(Rom 6:6-7)
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin,.... (Rom
Therefore,
my brethren, you also were made to die
to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined
to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for
God. (Rom 7:4)
But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also
give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells
you. (Rom
No
one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in
him; and he cannot sin,
because he is born of God. (1 John 3:9)
We
know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God
keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. (1 John 5:18)
No
one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. (1
John 3:6)
So a significant part of the answer to the question of
why are not more lives lived in sinless righteousness, is that many or even
most people of my acquaintance still consider that both natures operate within
them and therefore struggle with the sin nature instead of assuming that they
are dead to sin and law, and consequently they are not operating in full faith
that Christ is their life.
4 What
believers need to do.
What
needs to happen in believers is:
5 Not
sinning habitually is normal
John is
able to so confidently asset that Christians do not sin - meaning that they do
not habitually sin - it is not a normal characteristic of their life. Remember
he said:
No one
who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot
sin, because he is born of God. (1 John 3:9)
So it is
quite true that Christians not sinning should be the normal state of their
lives. They are not sinners per se. However, as we have already said John was
also instructed by the Holy Spirit to write that, although we are righteous, we
may well still sin and how we obtain cleansing for any such sin that may occur.
If we are not considered righteous but sinners, then what has salvation
achieved? We cannot be righteous and unrighteous at the same time.
John
asserts that it is not the normal custom of Christians to sin. The big value in John's assertion that Christians do not normally
sin, is that it opens up the Christian's life to allow the Holy Spirit to
control the life and for the believer to not be continually striving against
sin - they are dead to it already. To do so would be trying to live by
self-effort and not by the Spirit of God as scripture says we can. It is also
denying that we are dead to sin as scripture says. This then means that
believers can live without fear of sin and live in God's fullness knowing that
the guidance of our mind is almost certainly the Holy Spirit and not the enemy.
"We have the mind of Christ" Paul says. So also can we have a full
faith that we are kept by Jesus Christ.
6
Believers take care!
Those who
believe that true Christians commonly sin in their lives, that it is there as a
characteristic state, need to be careful they don't throw the baby out with the
bath water. If we believe John's words that it is uncharacteristic for
believers to sin, then we should be asking questions and examining scripture as
to what our true status is and why we might permit ourselves unwarranted sin. We
also need to check this unscriptural thought to interfere with the operation of
the full faith of Romans 8, the fullness of God of Galations 2:20, and the fact
that Christ is in you - Christ is in
ME!!! Christ is dwelling in any true believer, as the following verses clearly
say.
Col 1:25-27 "......
the mystery which has been hidden from
the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints,
to whom God willed to make known what
is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ
in you, the hope of glory."
This then
is the true state of the believer. Christ in us - as our life. A further
question to be asked is how can Paul say we have His fullness if we are not
basically without sin? After all, he says:
"and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
that you may be filled up to all the
fulness of God." (Eph 3:19)
Moreover,
we have the divine nature -as Peter says:
"as
His divine power has given to us all
things that pertain to life and godliness, through the
knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to
us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." (2 Pet
1:3-4)
Being referred to as having the divine nature complies
with John's statements that we do not habitually sin. How could someone with the
divine nature habitually sin?
7 The
place of faith
Faith
plays an important part in all this. It would be very difficult for a person
focusing on their own works or personal effort to overcome flesh and sin to
then to also say they are acting in full faith in God and His power to keep.
After
all, God's Word says:
"And
without faith it is impossible to
please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." (Heb 11:6)
"Then
He touched their eyes, saying, "Be
it done to you according to your faith." (Matt
"Jesus
said to him, "If you can believe, all
things are possible to him who believes." (Mark
So without faith, personal effort to overcome sin will
predominate. We cannot overcome sin without a true biblical faith.
A summary
of part One - Does the person who is born of the
Spirit of God commit sin?
Sinning
habitually is not the norm for Christians, but if they do inadvertently sin,
they are forgiven on their confession. Those who do not have the Spirit of God
do sin habitually, for they do not know God or are born of His Spirit. However,
it should be of great comfort for true believers to know that their life is
characteristically without sin, providing they fully believe and have faith in God
that His promises are true.
For those who are confused about the issue a proper
study of Romans 6,7,8 and 1 John would help to clarify
the position. This and other related articles will be able to be located on the
internet at http://www.vicnet.net.au/~gnaust/life/truthgr-04.html
Part Two
1 Another
possibility
There is
another possibility as to why a person (who considers themselves a believer)
might be living without normal Christian righteousness. This is the tragic case
of those who are in fact not saved, born again and still unregenerate, but
believe they are saved. One's salvation is so precious and so important and one
needs to be sure of it according to how the Bible reveals it. Salvation is so
simple and yet so profound, it is possible due to wrong or incomplete teaching
that some are not truly saved.
If in fact a person is not truly saved, then this of course would position them
without the Spirit of God and unable to operate from His presence within.
Such a
person is discussed by John when he was comparing believers with unbelievers,
just so we would know the difference. John also covers that situation in the
following verses.
If you
know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices
righteousness is born of Him. (1 John 2:29)
By this
the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does
not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his
brother. (1 John 3:10)
So John
is saying that if a person cannot practice righteousness, then they are not
born again. They are still children of the devil.
John also
provides a verse to indicate the positive side of this issue. He says that
keeping commandments means that the person has the Spirit of God and is abiding
in Him. He says:
And the
one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. And we know by
this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1 John 3:24)
The
argument from John says that those who do sin:
Have not
seen Him or know Him.
Do not
keep His commandments
Do not
abide in Him.
Do not
practice righteousness
Do not
love their brother.
Are not
born of Him
Are
children of the devil
Summary
of Part Two
It is best to encourage all who say they are believers
to treat them as such, but at the same time encourage them to study the
relevant Romans and 1 John teachings. No man can determine the salvation of
another - it is the
Summary
So there
seems to be two possible reasons why people may sin habitually. Firstly, through not being true born again believers and secondly,
through not knowing and practising right doctrine and interpretation of
scripture.
It would seem obvious that if John were asked which
reason was more likely he would choose the first - that
they are really not true believers. However, whilst that is certainly true I
have observed some confusion in the church and in many believers about the
presence of two natures in the believer, and the battle that is said to go on
between them. This I believe, could easily lead to a
person sinning on the basis of a misunderstanding of relevant doctrine.
Ken
Walker
Email:
kgww-@tpg.com.au
Ken
Walker. PLEASE NOTE. When using this email address, please remove the dash
(-) before the @ otherwise the email will not work.
This dash is there to stop search engines picking up my true email address and
bombarding me with useless emails.
September
2001
Updated March 2003 to include additional materials.