Sin in NOT inevitable

Have you ever been at the point where you consider that sinning is inevitable for you? You have sinned and confessed that sin many times before without any victory? You may think to your self "I can never hold out. I'm going to end up doing the sin anyway, so why should I torture myself? I may just give in and sin because God will forgive me." Now It is wonderful to be forgiven, but when you continue to live in defeat and failure you are rejecting the truth of the Cross and act as Christ’s death on the cross and His resurrection was insufficient to totally defeat sin. You are calling God a liar when you act if there is no remedy for sin and no remedy for dealing with temptation.

When you are sick and tired get to the point you can say "I can't go this way anymore; is there a way out?" Yes there is way-out available and this availability of deliverance opens the door to faith. Once the possibility of rescue is realized, the desire for it will increase more and more. God's keeping power looks better now than it ever did, and you know that going the same old way again is futile and stupid. Then desire intensifies to show you your own human powerlessness and His divine strength - God living through human weakness. When all your will powers and efforts have totally failed then you find out and know "I cannot do it , that is impossible - only Christ can do it in me." Then through Him you do it. It is you doing it, but it is He doing it - as you.

The desire alone, however, is not enough. Desire will move toward faith through increased tension, which God uses as the set up for us to take Him. What you take, takes you. This is the law of faith, even when it does not appear that you have been taken by what you took. Hold on; God is testing your faith. Do not draw back, but rather stick with what God says. Agree with Him now that He is keeping you no matter what your experience may be. This is the taking.

Now by faith, you can thank God that you are dead to sin. Thank Him that He is keeping you - and He is doing a perfect job of it. How could He not? Do not worry about apparent delay of the Spirit's witness or the devil’s lying voice that says, "See, you have claimed that you are dead sin,' but it's not working. You just sinned again" The witness of the Spirit will come in God's timing, which is always perfect. Do not try to get the witness; just know it is coming.

I'm convinced that the devil fights viciously against christians being sanctified. Sadly many christians and pastors have experienced defeat after defeat and part of their theology is that no one can have complete victory over sin.

Charles Finney met a woman that said she had not consciously sinned in decades (he believed her). Her life proved it.

I see no reason why a christian is forced to sin, in fact I find the complete opposite; Jesus died for us so we can be free from sin. I know some people will call this perfectionism. It is a hard doctrine for some people to understand. People have quoted 1 John 1:8,10 to try to prove to me that a christian can't be free from sin; I just can't believe that. I think those verses are twisted and taken out of context often.

I'm okay with people disagreeing with me on this subject, but I would recommend they read Heart Talks On Holiness by Samuel Logan Brengle.

SIN IS INEVITABLE BUT WITH THE GRACE OF GOD IN CHRIST BY FAITH WE HAVE RISEN ABOVE SIN AND WE CAN NO LONGER SIN BECAUSE WE NOW LIVE A LIFE OF CHRIST.

Kire wrote:
"AND WE CAN NO LONGER SIN BECAUSE WE NOW LIVE A LIFE OF CHRIST.”

Do you mean it is impossible for us to sin or that it is possible for us not to sin?

There is a subtle, yet vital difference.

To clarify my position and answer the question to Kire; It is possible for us not to sin.

I agree in principal because I think it is possible to go minutes, hours, maybe days without sinning in word thought or deed, so theoretically at least it would be possible to go much longer.

Realistically however I do not think it is possible for a Christian to never sin.

Caleb,
Yes! AMEN 🙏🏻
Very well articulated- and believe the scriptures bear this out.

Also it helps in discussions like these to all be on the same page. When there are so many perspectives there’s usually a reason and in this case there’s 7 -

Here’s a cut/paste overview;

"7 WORDS FOR SIN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT"

Contrary to many modern teachings, all sin is not the same in the New Testament. There are at least 7 different Greek words for sin, each one having a different shade of meaning. This subject is so large that we only have space, in one devotion, to introduce the Greek words for sin:

1. "Hamartia" = "To miss the mark", as in archery competition, and therefore fail to receive the prize, or blessing. This is the general Greek word for sin, and is used 221 times. "Hamartia" encompasses the other 6 words for specific sins, in the sense that in all types of sin, we are "missing the mark". Example: Heb. 12:1, KJV = "the sin (hamartia) which doeth so easily beset us". We are aiming at God's best, but miss it.

2. "Hettema" = "Diminishing what should have been given full measure". Example: 1 Cor. 6:7, KJV = "there is a fault (hettema) among you". We all need God's constant help on this one! Placing emphasis on the things that please God will bring God's wonderful blessings into our life.

3. "Paraptoma" = "Falling when one should have stood". This one is actually an unintentional slip. I guess you've experienced this, as I have, and we are surprised when we realize we've sinned. Example: Eph. 1:7, KJV = We have "the forgiveness of sins (paraptoma), according to the riches of His grace". Even our "slip-ups" are forgiven.

4. "Agnoeema" = "Ignorance when one should have known". Example: Heb. 9:7, KJV = "the errors (agnoeema) of the people". This passage speaks of how the Old Testament was a shadow of the New Testament. Ignorance is no excuse, that's why we stay in the Word!

5. "Parakoe" = "To refuse to hear and heed God's word". Example: 2 Cor. 10:6, KJV = "disobedience". In this passage, Paul urges us to hear God's Word and to bring every thought into captivity for Christ.

6. "Parabasis" = "To intentionally cross a line". Example: Heb. 2:2, KJV = "every transgression (parabasis) & disobedience (parakoe) received a just recompense of reward". When God "draws a line in the sand", we can suffer great loss of rewards and blessings by intentionally "stepping over".

7. "Anomia" and "Paranomia" = "Lawlessness, or willfully breaking God's written rules". Example: Titus 2:14 KJV = Jesus gave himself for us in order to "redeem us from all iniquity (anomia)". God has "rules" to bless us, not to curse us. Someone said "the Bible is the owner's manual for human beings". Can you imagine trying to operate something as complicated as a human life without referring to the owner's manual? That would be just asking for frustration and failure!

The GOOD NEWS is that Jesus paid the price in full for ALL our sins! Isn't our Heavenly Father wonderful! He has given us an owner's manual; permanently forgiven us all 7 types of sins; He disciplines us to correct us when we commit the sins Jesus paid for on the Cross; He restores us to fellowship when we honestly confess our sins to Him; and, as we maintain fellowship with Him, He empowers us to live a life pleasing to Him!

God has provided everything we need to live a successful Christian life, and in Phil. 3:15 , He even promises to reveal to us the areas where we are falling short.

Bob Jones

One would think, if sin were inevitable, that the Bible would be full of gracious sympathies for those who sin.

It would have many passages resembling the sympathy cards on the rack at the Dollar Store, telling us how wonderful and talented we are, encouraging us to do the best we can, to always be encouraged, and to put things on our walls with angels and poignant calligraphy.

It does not. It tells us rather that as sinners we are the children of Hell- in fact, Jesus referred to the religious leaders he met as the children of Satan. They were, of course offended. Because that was exactly what they were, and they proved it.

Sin is disobedience to the law of God- given to us to ensure our good, and never requiring that which we cannot do. (Deut. 30:11)

Moreover, sin can be forgiven when individuals properly present themselves for such- the gospel we know well.

I understand Repentance as a character quality. One that can always be kept in close readiness in a humble person, and used when the Holy Spirit throws down His challenge flag. Some will get the flag more often than others- but repentance always cleanses and clears the heart so that righteousness can continue. God has a reasonable expectation of our righteousness, because His burden on us is not too hard for us!

Jesus had a very simple word for the woman taken in adultery- "Go and sin no more."

So......Did Jesus have the authority to speak that to her??

Galatian 6:1

Brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted

Nowhere does the Bible say that a Christian in this life will ever be completely perfect, that is, free from all sin (1 John 1:8).

I did say it's a hard doctrine to understand.

I don't mean that christians can reach a point where it is not possible for them to sin anymore. While we are on this earth it is always possible to sin.

I do mean that we can be sanctified by the Holy Spirit day by day, stay in close communion with Jesus, and be free from sins power.

"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not." 1 John 2:1a

I believe this thread is addressing the inevitability of sin, not the other- and very important reality that all have sinned, not one being found in his or her own righteousness. I can testify to that easily!!

The Bible does say things like "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect." We mostly ignore this verse, preferring to speak of other things. Yet its presence is very important in that God's expectation that his people live righteously with one another is thus shown to be a reasonable expectation. And further thus, sin should be regarded as a very big deal when it is discovered in our lives! It needs to be repented and put away- that the stream of our righteousness, while wounded, might heal and continue.

The problem I see is not whether it is possible in theory to live in sinless perfection, that always ends up as a useless discussion, and is often decorated with sins of anger and insult! Rather, do we see righteous living, manifesting the sweet gifts of the Spirit as our normal state, blessing and prospering one another, setting out the image of the Savior we claim lives within us, and doing this to actually please God?

Ever mindful that sin crouches by the door, seeking to have us! And as God told Cain- post the murder of Abel- that he was to master it!

Sin is never light and easy to God. Unfortunately, it often is to us!

Thank you Brother Caleb, I appreciate your thoughts and posts also. There's still a LOT of scripture, I don't understand, but as long as I can recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit in my Christian walk, I'm doing fairly well. :-)

Matthew 5 (selected verses)

43 "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Perhaps there is other way of understanding the concept of perfection here.

Thoughts as we grapple with with The Words
‘be ye therefore perfect’.
I ask a question that we all go through,..can we reminisce,..think back to our beginning when the *The Spirit of The Grace of God , at the first,
began to draw us to Himself?,.. how we followed that drawing ?.. and it’s changing us ? ... it worked some change, a difference in our lives on that narrow road,.. but at what point, did we decide to turn onto
a road of our choosing.

As we read the Scripture given below, ...Study this: this man still had some good things that The Lord had worked in him,... but at what point did he return to love of self,..deciding how he would live on his own?.. being led by self ?
~~~~~~~~
Revelation 2:1-7 (KJV)
1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sast laboured, and hast not fainted.

4 Nevertheless I have [somewhat] against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Key verse:
5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

””””””””””””””””
elizabeth

The offense of the cross was that it turned on its head every attempt to be righteous through self-effort and keeping of the law. Paul, in Romans, makes it very clear that those who sought righteousness by law did not attain it, but those who sought it by faith attained it. In Romans, Corinthians, and Galatians stronger than in his other letters, Paul says that the law was a ministration of death and was intended to make sin come alive, to show man just how sinful he was. Trying to keep the law never produced righteousness, nor could it ever. It is had, according to Hebrews, then Christ died for nothing.

That being said, it has been put forward in this thread that sin is the breaking of the law, the commandment. I agree with that. It is Biblical. But it is important that we make a distinction that Paul made in Romans 6. There are two words for sin that he uses. One is a noun, the other a verb. The noun is the body of sin that dwelled in man. The verb is the action of breaking the law. Paul says that we, through dying with Christ and being resurrected with Him, have been set free from the body of sin. We are dead to sin. This means totally dead to sin; dead to its stain, its condemnation, its shame, and its power over us. Since I am born again, I am freed from sin just like a man whose wife has died is freed from his marriage (see Rom. 7). I have been declared righteous through the blood of Jesus. His righteousness has been imputed unto me and I am now just as righteous as Jesus. See 1 Cor. 1:30 and 2 Cor. 5:21.

So if I commit an act of sin, it does not reintroduce to me the body of sin. I am dead to that and have been freed from it. Jesus is my propitiation, not myself. So Paul in Rom. 6 says, since you have been set free from sin (noun), don't yield your members to sin (verb or acts of sin). Don't you know that when you do that, you willingly submit yourself as a servant to that sin.

A couple verses that were alluded to that I think are worth noting. Hebrews does not say that willingly committing a sin causes you to become reprobate, or unable to be resaved. The falling away that is referred to here has to be interpreted in the context of the rest of the letter. Jews who converted to Christianity were under IMMENSE pressure to return to the law and give up Jesus as Messiah and savior. They were castigated by their families, friends, communities, and all of Jewish society. Paul tells them that if they would decide to reject Christ and go back to trying to be righteous by dead works, there was no more sacrifice but a looking forward to the judgment of God. Why? Because they rejected righteousness and relationship by faith and returned to the enmity of the law.

Tne other is "by ye perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect." If you read the context of this verse, it goes like this. You have heard the Pharisees say that if you want to be righteous then you need to do this or that. But I say that this picture of righteousness is only a shadow of what God's righteousness is like. Keeping the law does not make you righteous in yourself. If you want to be righteous by keeping laws, then you have to be righteous like God. In other words, you have to be perfect like He is perfect, not like the law, only a shadow of Him.

So can we commit an act of sin? Absolutely. We can miss the mark. Does this sully our spirit or cause us to be a sinner? Absolutely not. So whosoever is born of God does not sin(the noun), because he is born again (has God's seed in him). So he cannot commit acts of sin (verb) because he is born of God.

We have been so sensitized to sin and so desensitized to the power of God in the rebirth and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have preached the gospel as if it is all about going to heaven and hell, which has done much to destroy the work of God in men. We have become, as a result, so focused on whether an action is sin or not. But if the power of God is in us and we realize what sonship, intimacy, the power of the Holy Spirit, and walking in the Spirit and not the flesh is all about, we will begin to walk in levels of holiness and purity that we could only dream of when we were focused on sin and our own actions.

Self-effort can only produce death since it is enmity against God and one of the things God called us to repent of. When we focus on sin and trying to overcome it we only strengthen it in our lives. But when we focus on what God has done for us in Christ, we begin to walk as Jeremiah prophesied, with the law (the true righteous nature of God) written on our hearts. Our actions will follow this law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

Do I miss the mark at times? Absolutely. But I never dwell on it. I have learned to bring that to the Lord and ask Him to show me what is wrong and how to bring myself back into His ability and not my own in that area. Perhaps there are things that I have to do (acts of obedience) to distance myself from influences that led to me missing the mark. This is what a person who is born again will naturally do. Sin is not inevitable. I am reaching the point where I no longer give sin a second thought in my daily life. I go through each day seeking Him, walking with Him, communing with Him, and learning what His righteousness lived out through my life looks like.

Just my take on the topic.

Well explained Travis!

WOW!!! This post is excellent.

Travis wrote

"We have been so sensitized to sin and so desensitized to the power of God in the rebirth and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We have preached the gospel as if it is all about going to heaven and hell, which has done much to destroy the work of God in men. We have become, as a result, so focused on whether an action is sin or not. But if the power of God is in us and we realize what sonship, intimacy, the power of the Holy Spirit, and walking in the Spirit and not the flesh is all about, we will begin to walk in levels of holiness and purity that we could only dream of when we were focused on sin and our own actions.

Self-effort can only produce death since it is enmity against God and one of the things God called us to repent of. When we focus on sin and trying to overcome it we only strengthen it in our lives. But when we focus on what God has done for us in Christ, we begin to walk as Jeremiah prophesied, with the law (the true righteous nature of God) written on our hearts. Our actions will follow this law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus."
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This is so true because even the attempt to keep the law by self effort is the very essence and core of sin. Do not forget that whatever is not of faith is sin. It appears that many of us have no clue who we really are in Christ. Are we not now the SON'S of God who NOW have the same Spirit within us that raised Christ from the dead?