Great Mysteries of the Faith
Can I Be Without Sin in this Life?
1 John1:8; 1 John 3:6
A few years ago, I was watching a message on television be a relatively famous evangelist. In this message, the evangelist made a statement that stuck with me for quite awhile. He stated that it had been over 20 years since the last time he had sinned. I immediately let out the following response. “What – that can’t be true.” As I thought about this for awhile, I came to the following conclusion. It is either a lie, and the man just sinned again by telling it, or it is the truth. And, if it’s the truth, I’ve got a lot of work to do because I probably sinned last 20 minutes ago as opposed to 20 years ago. As I pondered this more and more, I turned my attention to the Bible for the answer.
I know that God has a sense of humor for many reasons, but this is one of that really sticks out to me. I decided to read the book of 1 John because I know it has a great deal to say about sin. It did not take me long to find the first verse that had to deal with this topic. In 1 John 1:8, it says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” There it was, plain as day. This man was lying because this verse tells us that if we claim to be without sin we do not have the truth in us. I felt satisfied with solving the problem, but I kept on reading that night.
I was still pretty proud of my discovery because I kept thinking about how I was right through chapter 2 and into chapter three. Then, a red flag went up. I had just been reading through the chapter when suddenly I realized what I had just read a few verses earlier. I thought to myself, “Did that say what I think it said?” As I returned to look at 1 John 3:6 my fears were realized. “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” At this point, I thought my head was going to explode. At first, it said that if we say we are without sin then we are liars. Now, God’s Word is telling me if I keep sinning, I have never seen him or known him. These verse seemed to be contradicting themselves. I knew God’s Word is flawless, but I also knew that both of these verses could not be true the way I was reading them. So which was the truth? It would take years of study and teaching to understand them – and I am still getting there. This morning, I believe a question many Christians have is this – Can I be without sin in this life? This morning, I want to delve into this mystery with the help of the Holy Spirit to reveal what the truth is on this issue according to God’s Word. Before we do this however, let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
The Case for Sin in the Life of a Believer
A Sunday School teach after giving a lesson on the gospel decided to review by asking some questions. The first one she asked was, “What must we do before we can receive the forgiveness of sins?” One student quickly responded, “We have to sin.” I think he was right.
Now, I know we are all in agreement with this fact. We are all sinners before we become Christians. Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” We all know that. When we look back at our lives before we were saved, we can point to numerous things that we did that were clearly sins. However, does it all go away? One of the most convincing evidences for this viewpoint is by looking at the experience of other believers. How many of you have committed a sin since you have been saved? I want you to raise your hand if that applies to you, and I want you to look around at how many hands are in the air. If we are honest with each other, all of us have sinned since we have been Christians, so either all of us are not Christians and we think we are, or it is still possible for sin to enter the life of a believer.
I like how Paul phrases this situation in Romans 7. In my Bible, it has a heading above it called “Struggling With Sin.” In verses 15-20, Paul explains the battle raging inside of himself. “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is the sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is the sin living in me that does it.” How many of you have been in this situation? You want to do the right thing. You want to live and try and please God. You want to live without sin, and then, you trip up. You sin and start to think, “Why did I just do that? Where did that come from?” You commit the sin and immediately you wonder why you did it and you feel terrible. If you have been in this situation, you are in the same predicament as Paul was. There was a battle raging inside of him. He wanted to do what was right and good, but it did not always turn out that way. So, it is easy to see that Paul struggled with sin even after he was a believer.
Now, most of us look at this and think that it is good news, and it is. We can go through times when we struggle with sin as a Christian and know that we are not alone; however, this viewpoint can cause a few problems. First of all, we can become complacent in our sins. We can do this and that wrong and still know that God forgives us, and before long, we don’t think twice about sinning. After all, God is going to forgive me, and everyone else struggles, so I might as well go ahead and sin. Then, before long, we begin to loose our sense of conviction when we sin. This is taking this viewpoint too far. After all, just one chapter earlier, Paul addresses this issue. “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!” God’s grace is not a license to sin, and we must never be content with sin in our lives, but we can see from this viewpoint that sin can still show up in the life of a believer.
The Case for a Sinless Christian Life
Now, on the other side of the coin, we have the preacher that I mentioned in our opening story who had not sinned in over 20 years. He would adamantly disagree with the previous point of view that a believer could have sin in his or her life. And, he would have plenty of backing in the Bible for this.
Along with our verse in 1 John 3, we need to look at 1 Peter 1:14-16. “As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But, just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written, ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’” Again, this is another verse that seemingly tells us that we need to be rid of all sin. After all, we are to be holy as God is holy. And let me tell you, God is truly holy.
If I were to ask you to fill in the phrase, “God is…”, what would you put in the blank? Did you know that the most mentioned characteristic of God is His holiness? It’s not His love or His grace or His compassion or His mercy. It’s His holiness. In fact, God is called holy, holy, holy. This is a significant thing in the Hebrew language. There are not many adjectives in the Hebrew language, so when they want to get their point across, they repeat themselves. So, when they say something three times, it is either very important, large, or the like. For example, if I tell you that I stepped into a hole the other day while walking in a field, what would you expect me to be talking about? You would probably picture a ground hog hole or something of the like. However, in the Hebrew language, if I said I stepped into a hole hole, then it becomes more dramatic. Then, they would picture a rather large hole that I may not be able to get out on my own. However, if I said I fell into a hole, hole, hole, then I would be referring to something like a canyon or a crater. By repeating the words, they can show size and place an emphasis on things. That is what they chose to do when describing God’s holiness – not only repeating it, but writing it three times. No other attribute is mentioned more than once.
So, God is very, very, very holy, and we are to be holy as He is. And, we cannot do that if we have sin in our lives, so we must abstain from sin. Also, the reasoning goes that God would not call us to do anything we could not accomplish, so it must be possible for Christians to live a sin-free life. After all, Jesus did it and we are to model our lives after Him.
Now, this viewpoint has its drawbacks as well. First of all, it can easily cause a “holier-than-thou” complex in the church that really turns people away. It can also hinder our relationships with sinners because we think we need to keep our distance from sin. People with this mentality must walk the fine line between hating the sin and yet still loving the sinner.
The Solution to the Problem
So, which is the right viewpoint? They both are. Now, before you accuse me of taking the easy way out, let me explain. They both have to be right. After all, they are both in the Bible, and the words of the Bible cannot be false because they are the very words of a God that cannot lie. He is, in fact, the very definition of truth itself. So, we must discover how they can both be true.
Now, we must begin by stating that there are two works of grace by God that lead to holiness. When you are saved, that is the initial work of grace and it is often referred to as justification. Basically, it’s just a church word that means made right. This is what happens when you ask Jesus into your heart. When you confess with your mouth that He is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you confess your sins and repent or turn back from your old ways, you are justified before the Lord. That means that you are made right in His eyes because you have accepted His Son, Jesus, who is the only one who could pay the price to make you justified. Most of us view this as the end of our Christian journeys. We are saved so now we’ve made it, and all my troubles and sins are going to disappear. We forget to leave room for God’s second act of grace which is sanctification.
When we mention the word sanctification, we are talking about a setting apart, consecrating, or setting something free. In this case, we are setting our soul free and consecrating it to do the Lord’s work and be in the Lord’s will. After all, that is how it was created to be in the beginning before the fall of man in the garden. This is what it means to be holy. It means that you have been justified, and now, you are making the commitment to set apart your life for the work of God. And, the only way you can do that is by giving control over to the Holy Spirit.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 says this: “As for us, we always thank God for you, dear brothers and sisters loved by the Lord. We are thankful that God chose you to be among the first to experience salvation, a salvation that came through the Spirit who makes you holy and by your belief in the truth.” When we read this passage, who does is say that makes us holy? It is the Spirit. This should come to no surprise to us. After all, God is holy, holy, holy. So, who better to rely on to get holiness than God? I believe that we can achieve holiness here on earth, which involves letting the Holy Spirit lead your life – for a time. However, there is that battle that is raging on inside of us between the flesh and the Spirit like Paul was talking about in Romans 7. The question is this – which are we going to choose to follow? Are we going to follow the flesh which seems so inviting at the time? Sometimes we do. But, the more we grow in the knowledge of the Lord; the more we grow to love Him; the more we get into His Word and seek his face in prayer and make the commitment to be all that He has called us to be, the easier it will be to follow the guidance of the Spirit. After all, we are told in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.” We can live a sinless, holy life here on earth if we follow the guidance and voice of the Holy Spirit and seek the way out He provides. But, sometimes we slip up, and God will be there to pick us back up when we fall and fail and lose the battle raging within us.
I want to close with an illustration this morning that I think really will help with this topic. Now, in days gone past, it was quite common to see silver tea sets that people would use when they had special guests come by. The sets were very valuable, so they were set apart for only the finest of occasions. Now, as time would go by, the silver would begin to tarnish. No one would think of serving a valued guest with a tarnished set; however, the tarnish was not cause for throwing out the set. The set was still valuable. All that would have to happen was the set would have to be cleaned so that the tarnish would be removed. Then, it could be used again by the owner. That is how we are in the eyes of God. We are very valuable to Him, and He has set us apart to do many good things. However, when we become tarnished by sin, he cannot use again until we can be cleaned up. He doesn’t toss us aside – we are still very valuable to Him. But, we must decide to get rid of the tarnishes before we can be used by Him again. We are like God’s fine china. We are of great worth to Him and He has great and special plans for us, but we must be clean in order to be used. God has designed us to live holy lives, but he has always set up a safety net. If we fall, His grace will be there to pick us up when we tell Him we are sorry. Yes, it is possible, when we live in the power of the Spirit to be without sin, but it is hard to completely let go and let God take over everything. Sometimes, the power of the flesh seems too much to handle and we slip up. Fortunately, God loves us anyway and gives us chance after chance to get it right. What a great God we serve. He truly is holy, holy, holy!
As we get ready to partake of Communion, I want you to think on the holiness of God and your Christian walk. Are you striving to be holy or are you satisfied with just being saved? God has designed you for holiness. This morning, I hope you make the commitment to strive for holiness by letting the Holy Spirit lead you and by learning how to follow His leading. In order to do that, you may have some confessing to do to get rid of some of the tarnish that has built up over the years. Won’t you do that as we pray and partake this morning? Let us pray.
