Why Do You Say Sin Is Inevitable When God Says It Isn’t?

Why do you say sin is inevitable when God says it isn’t?

1 John 3:5-6 And you know that He (Jesus) was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. Whoever abides in Him does not sin...

The sin I tolerate allows the devil to harm me and cuts me off from God’s power to stop it

Smith Wigglesworth was used mightily by God in the first half of the 20th century to win tens of thousands of souls to Christ and to deliver multitudes from the power of sin and Satan. The following is taken from Smith Wigglesworth’s daily devotional for November 23:

“You will never be able to discern or deal with the evil powers as long as there is anything in you that the Devil can touch. Before Satan can bring his evil spirits, there has to be an open door. Hear what the scriptures say “We know that no child of God keeps on sinning, for the Son of God keeps him safe, and the Evil One cannot harm him”. 1 John 5:18 TEV and “The lord shall preserve you from all evil, He shall preserve your soul”. Psa 121:7. How does Satan get an opening? When the believer ceases to seek holiness, purity, righteousness, truth, when he ceases to pray, stops reading the Word and gives way to carnal appetites. Then it is that Satan comes. Don’t fool yourself, don’t mislead yourself. Never think that God overlooks sins. Sins have to be dealt with, and the only way God ever deals with sin is to absolutely destroy its power. You can be made so clean that the Devil comes and finds nothing in you “(Jesus) The ruler of this world (Satan) is coming, and he has nothing in Me” John 14:30”.

Eph 4:26-27 …Do not sin… nor give place to the devil.

For God to free me from sin I must first see in the scriptures the possibility of it

Freedom from the power of sin (having already received freedom from the penalty of sin) is one of God’s greatest gifts to the Church that many Christians have yet to receive. In order for a Christian to be freed from sin, and the exceedingly harmful access that such sin gives the devil into that Christian’s life, he or she must first see from the scriptures that God promises freedom from sin.

Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him (Jesus)…that we should no longer be slaves of sin.

7 For he who has died (with Christ) has been freed from sin.

11 …Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ..

14 For sin shall not have dominion over you…

However if a Christian believes based on their own past experience of unsuccessfully trying to conquer sin, and not based on the truth of God’s word, that sin is inevitable then for that Christian, sadly, ongoing sin will be inevitable because they have believed a lie – and whatever we believe be it God’s word or a lie we thus insure its fulfillment based on these scriptures : Prov 23:7 For as he thinks in his heart, so is he… Matt 9:29 (Jesus) …According to your faith be it unto you. If this unwise approach, of taking past experience over the truth of God’s word, that many Christians adopt with respect to sin, had been the approach they took to their salvation they never could have been saved.

When a Christian who knows the truth of both God’s promise of deliverance and the necessity of deliverance from the power of sin, begins to proclaim this truth to other Christians who don’t yet know it he may encounter these reactions: They may shut up their hearts, or walk away or make reference to 1 John Chapter one and either verses 8 or 10 in the mistaken belief that these scriptures justify ongoing sin in the life of a Christian:

1 Jo 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 Jo 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

To better understand these scriptures, which are often quoted to exonerate ongoing sin with disastrous results, lets consider the writings of one of the finest and most widely respected, in many denominations, of all Christian Bible Teachers, Andrew Murray. Here let God show us that these two scriptures are not in the least bit inconsistent with the opening scripture from 1 John 3: 6 Whoever abides in Him (Jesus) does not sin and Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you. These writings are taken from Andrew Murray’s classic book “Abide in Christ”.