Do Christians Sin?

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

 

1 John 1:8

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

 

1 John 3:9

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

 

How do we resolve what appears to be a contradiction in the verses above. 1 John 1:8 tells us that Christians sin and we are deceived if we claim we are without sin. But 1 John 3:9 tells us that if we are a Christian that we won’t continue to sin. What are we to make of these verses that seem to contradict each other?

 

Before I attempt to answer this question let me share some thoughts from history.

 

Many years ago John Wesley, one of the founders of the Holiness Movement, introduced the idea that Christian perfection can be achieved in this life. In other words, he felt that a Christian could achieve a state of spiritual perfection through a second work of grace – the Baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby they could live a sinless life. In this idea of “Christian perfection” there is the corollary idea that excuses sins of ignorance. In other words, you can reach a state of “sinless perfection” where you don’t sin, but this does not include sins you might commit unknowingly. Christians who believe in “sinless perfection” believe that such a person does continue to commit acts of what they refer to as “faults, shortcomings, mistakes or deviations from a standard of perfect conduct.” They refer to them as being “involuntary and innocent.”

 

But the problem I have personally with this thought is that it appears to be a redefinition of what sin is and seems to be reclassifying some sin as acceptable and other “worse” sins as true sin. I believe we have a questionable understanding of sin if we attempt to do this and wonder if any of us fully comprehend how deep and perverse any act of sin is when it is compared to the holiness of God. God is totally pure and holy and His standard is so high and perfect even the most menial and what we might call trivial sins are abhorrent to Him. His perfect holiness required a truly perfect sacrifice to pay for our sins. That is why only His Son Jesus Christ could pay the debt for the sins of the world. In many ways there are sins that seem to us to be worse than others such as murder, child abuse and the torture of human beings. But we must also realize that any sin, no matter how small, causes God great concern.

 

The Bible is full of examples of what is considered to be sin and the law of the Old Testament was given to convict us of not only our “inherited sin” from Adam, but also our “personal sins” that we commit each and every day.

 

There are also sins we commit that come from our personal convictions. Several verses are rather convicting regarding these sins. In Romans 14:23, it states, “Everything that does not come from faith is sin.” This verse is implying that anything that might be perceived by a person’s faith to be a sin is sinful. In other words something might be considered to be fine or okay by one person, but if another person feels it might not be a good thing to do, for them, it would be a sin if they proceed to do it. But there are also sins of omission as mentioned in James 4:17, “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” This verse is speaking of actions or decisions we are convicted to carry out but fail to and because we do not follow through with them we are committing a sin.

 

This extends the definition of sin even further than we might usually think. There are sins of action and behavior that are mentioned in the Bible of what is obvious sin (the 10 commandments, Exodus 34), there are sins of the thoughts in the mind and heart that Jesus taught (Matthew 5:28, Matthew 15:19) and there are even sins as mentioned in Romans 14:23 and James 4:17 that come from our own personal convictions. So I don’t believe we can claim we can live without sin by putting sins into a “bad” sin category and a “small and excusable” sin category.

 

Charles Finney an evangelist of the 1800’s differs from John Wesley slightly on this issue in that he doesn’t excuse sins of ignorance. And he furthermore had the belief that one loses their salvation every time they sin. I can’t agree with this notion either for the security we have in Christ would be put in question.

 

So to get back to our original question of how to resolve the two verses in 1 John how can we understand what John is attempting to communicate to us?

 

We must understand that 1 John was written to expose the false teachings of Gnostic teachers. Gnostics believed in a separation of the body and the spirit. They felt the spirit of a person was good and the body was evil. Since the body was inherently evil, any sinning you did with the body was fine because it was evil anyway and was totally separate from the spirit. Gnostics felt that the spirit of a person was not affected by any sin done with the physical body so they were involved in all sorts of sinful acts. Unfortunately their false doctrine was having a negative influence on Christians of the day.

 

In God’s Word mankind is described as a triune being, body, soul and spirit. These are intertwined and are not separable here on earth until death. When we sin we sin with our whole being. Some sins are done physically, but they originate from within our heart and mind. Some sins are committed only in our thoughts. And some sins are ones of omission when we don’t take action on convictions we have.

 

1 John 1:8 states, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”

 

What John is trying to communicate here relates to the bad influence the Gnostics were having on the early church. The Gnostics claimed they were without sin because of their false belief that the physical was separate from the spiritual. The Gnostics felt they could physically sin without any consequences. John is confronting the Christians of the early church with the fact that if they did physical acts of that were against the laws of God and good Christian behavior it was really sin. He was stating that if we claim to not sin when we behave in such a manner we are deceiving ourselves. He is also saying if we continue in this behavior without repentance there is question as to whether we are actually Christians.

 

So John is saying that Christians can and do sin at times. He also reaffirms this idea with 1 John 1:10 where it says, “If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”

 

He follows up with the fact that Christians do sin at times with the following verse for what a Christian should do when they do sin. 1 John 1:9-10 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

 

But someone might ask, “I thought our sins past, present and future are forgiven when we accept Christ as our Savior, so why do we have to ask for forgiveness again?” Let me share a little to answer this question.

 

When we are saved, we repent of all our sins and the blood of Jesus, His sacrifice on the cross, pays the penalty for all of our sins, the ones we committed in the past and the ones we will commit in the future. This is the doctrine of justification, that we are justified in God’s eyes and considered clean and pure of all sins because payment for the debt of sin has been paid. But while our position before God has been changed, the transformation of our spiritual condition has just begun.

 

While our spiritual standing before God is instantaneously holy when we accept Jesus as Savior, our spiritual condition takes time to mature and grow and this is called the process of sanctification. Sanctification is the process of a Christian becoming holy, as God is holy (1 Peter 1:15). Sanctification is a lifelong process that will not be finished and complete until we get to heaven. This lifelong sanctification process is the responsibility of both the Lord and us. We cooperate with Him to change the condition of our lives. He can’t force us to be Holy but commands we seek to be Holy. We can’t be Holy in our own strength and we must rely upon His power and strength to be Holy. Philippians 2:12-13 is a good verse that reflects this dual responsibility of a Christian becoming Holy. “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” We are to work out our salvation and God works in us to accomplish it.

 

Some verses that address the task of becoming holy after we are saved are as follows: Romans 12:1-2 encourages us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices and not being conformed to the pattern of the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. 1 Peter 1:15 commands us to be holy as God is holy. Romans 6:12-14 commands us to not let sin reign in our body or to let our body be instruments of evil. Hebrews 13:17 commands us to obey the pastors and elders that are shepherds over us because they teach and watch over us so that we may continue to work with God to grow in our sanctification. These and other verses are encouragements and commands that address the issue of clean holy living of Christians. We need to be reminded that it is necessary to obey the Scriptures, to seek to be Holy and to listen to instruction from the Holy Spirit because we still have the capacity to sin, even as Christians.

 

Scripture, especially the New Testament is crammed full of encouragements and especially commands to live a sin free life. There are numerous examples of how to obey the Lord and therefore demonstrate our love for Him. We are saved by grace through faith, but a life without works of faith is a dead faith because there is no evidence in our lives that we have been changed by accepting Christ as our Savior (James 2).

 

I believe a Christian can live a holy life but can stumble at times in their walk. Christians can also struggle with sins at times as they strive to die to self and walk in God’s strength to overcome sin. While they have been forgiven for these sins, they must seek to restore fellowship with God by confessing these sins to the Lord. This confession restores fellowship with God and is not a request for a second forgiveness of sins to re-justify the Believer. Our justification remains steadfast because it is based on Christ’s sacrifice. When a Christian commits a sin they turn away from obedience and the Lord and confession helps us turn back and restores our fellowship with God. Confession also aids in the process of sanctification as we work out our faith.

 

But now we come to the second verse, 1 John 3:9 that states,

 

“No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

 

This verse is addressing the issue of continual and habitual sin by a person who claims to be a Christian. It implies that if someone claims to be a Christian but continues in habitual sin, knowing it is wrong and is making no efforts to reform or repent there is serious question as to their claim to be a Christian. This is the person who sins without guilt or remorse, who does not seem to have any conviction about their actions of sin. This was also the case with the Gnostics in the first century that were infiltrating the early church.

 

Another verse in 1 John corroborates this thought. 1 John 2:3-6 states, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” So the quality of our obedience to the Word and how we follow the example of Christ as Christians reflects the truthfulness of our commitment to God.

 

The great Apostle Paul had struggles in his own life with sin (Romans 7). In Philippians he shares how he didn’t live the “perfect” life of a believer as he felt he should, but this did not deter him from seeking to be holy and perfect as his Heavenly Father.

Philippians 3:10-14

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”