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LST 1154
Guest
A posting I made in the Wesleyan area here on CF was copied and pasted into a thread in the Baptist area and renamed "I Don't Sin" and it started an interesting debate, but since I'm not a Baptist I was "not allowed" to respond and when I did my responses were deleted. So I moved it here!
This is the original posting I made. "I was a born again only Christian for 33 years and yet I still loved sin and in those years I sinned thousands and thousands of times. Everything from sexual sin, to drunkeness, lust, greed, theft, extreme anger, cursing pride and other sins I'm ashamed to admit. There are millions of born again only Christians living in defeat. Victory over sin as found in 1 Cor 10:13 is just a dream for them (as it was for me for 33 years.) If you doubt me check out the pornography forums here on this site and read about the addictions to porno and sex these born again only Christians still have as I did for 33 years. If you need scriptural proof that born again Christians still sin frequently read 1 Corinthians and see what carnality born again only Christians are capable of. Romans 7 would be another chapter to show how powerless the born again only Christian is against sin.
Being born again is just the first step toward defeating the sinful nature found within us. There is at least one more step in the Christian's life that must be taken before the Christian will have 100% victory over sin."
To set the record straight from the outset, you can easily see I never made any statement in that posting that I don't sin any longer. There is a teaser that one will have 100% victory over sin however, but I never said I had arrived at that point (but I'm pretty close!) So lets start there.
Most of us are familiar with hyperbole. There are several instances of it in the scriptures, one of which is found in John 21:25, "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." Now that would be a lot of books! My 100% comment was hyperbole, but actually it is not too far off. Would you like to go from sinning 25 times a day to 25 times a year? Read on.
So the question is can a sinner have 100% victory over sin? No. A sinner can only do one thing and that is sin. Sinners cannot "do" righteousness because they have none, so sinners will never have any victory over sin. So that begs the question are born again Christians sinners? Or is the born again Christian a saint? We are called "saint(s)" 61 times in the NT. In Luke 5:32 Jesus said "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (see also Luke 15:7.) The righteous are not sinners according to these passages. Then Jesus in the very next passage (5:33) contrasts the difference between the righteous and sinners when He said "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same."
Prior to Pentecost the disciples were a bunch are bumbling powerless men who sinned on at least two occasions. See Luke 9:46; the sin of pride, Mark 9:29; the sin of prayerlessness, but after Pentecost the only sin that is recorded of any disciple is where Peter refused to eat with Gentiles (Gal 2:12.) I assume if there were other sins that they had committed they would be mentioned but they are not so by the silence of the scriptures we can assume they didn't sin any longer. As we all know the bible doesn't sugar coat anyone's sin especially God's own children. So what was the difference between the disciples of the gospels and the disciples from Acts chapter 2 and on? The infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us power over sin. In fact according to one passage we cannot sin! 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." 1 John 5:18, "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him." We have, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, absolute power over the evil one. Jesus prayed in John 17:15 "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." 1 John 5:14-15 says "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him." Does not God want us to be free from the power of sin? Have we asked God to deliver us from the evil one? 2 Thess 3:3, "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." We are told twice that we "have overcome the evil one" in 1 John 2:13 and 2:14.
So it appears to be a matter of belief. If you are absolutely convinced in your heart that you are still a sinner, you will sin because that is what sinners do. But if you are absolutely convinced in your heart that you have been imputed with the very righteousness of God Himself, and you know you are a child of God, and the Holy Spirit has absolute reign in your heart, you will live a life that is virtually free of sin. "For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he." Prov 23:7. So what do you think?
LST 1154
This is the original posting I made. "I was a born again only Christian for 33 years and yet I still loved sin and in those years I sinned thousands and thousands of times. Everything from sexual sin, to drunkeness, lust, greed, theft, extreme anger, cursing pride and other sins I'm ashamed to admit. There are millions of born again only Christians living in defeat. Victory over sin as found in 1 Cor 10:13 is just a dream for them (as it was for me for 33 years.) If you doubt me check out the pornography forums here on this site and read about the addictions to porno and sex these born again only Christians still have as I did for 33 years. If you need scriptural proof that born again Christians still sin frequently read 1 Corinthians and see what carnality born again only Christians are capable of. Romans 7 would be another chapter to show how powerless the born again only Christian is against sin.
Being born again is just the first step toward defeating the sinful nature found within us. There is at least one more step in the Christian's life that must be taken before the Christian will have 100% victory over sin."
To set the record straight from the outset, you can easily see I never made any statement in that posting that I don't sin any longer. There is a teaser that one will have 100% victory over sin however, but I never said I had arrived at that point (but I'm pretty close!) So lets start there.
Most of us are familiar with hyperbole. There are several instances of it in the scriptures, one of which is found in John 21:25, "Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." Now that would be a lot of books! My 100% comment was hyperbole, but actually it is not too far off. Would you like to go from sinning 25 times a day to 25 times a year? Read on.
So the question is can a sinner have 100% victory over sin? No. A sinner can only do one thing and that is sin. Sinners cannot "do" righteousness because they have none, so sinners will never have any victory over sin. So that begs the question are born again Christians sinners? Or is the born again Christian a saint? We are called "saint(s)" 61 times in the NT. In Luke 5:32 Jesus said "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (see also Luke 15:7.) The righteous are not sinners according to these passages. Then Jesus in the very next passage (5:33) contrasts the difference between the righteous and sinners when He said "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same."
Prior to Pentecost the disciples were a bunch are bumbling powerless men who sinned on at least two occasions. See Luke 9:46; the sin of pride, Mark 9:29; the sin of prayerlessness, but after Pentecost the only sin that is recorded of any disciple is where Peter refused to eat with Gentiles (Gal 2:12.) I assume if there were other sins that they had committed they would be mentioned but they are not so by the silence of the scriptures we can assume they didn't sin any longer. As we all know the bible doesn't sugar coat anyone's sin especially God's own children. So what was the difference between the disciples of the gospels and the disciples from Acts chapter 2 and on? The infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us power over sin. In fact according to one passage we cannot sin! 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." 1 John 5:18, "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him." We have, through the indwelling Holy Spirit, absolute power over the evil one. Jesus prayed in John 17:15 "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one." 1 John 5:14-15 says "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us-whatever we ask-we know that we have what we asked of him." Does not God want us to be free from the power of sin? Have we asked God to deliver us from the evil one? 2 Thess 3:3, "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." We are told twice that we "have overcome the evil one" in 1 John 2:13 and 2:14.
So it appears to be a matter of belief. If you are absolutely convinced in your heart that you are still a sinner, you will sin because that is what sinners do. But if you are absolutely convinced in your heart that you have been imputed with the very righteousness of God Himself, and you know you are a child of God, and the Holy Spirit has absolute reign in your heart, you will live a life that is virtually free of sin. "For as [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he." Prov 23:7. So what do you think?
LST 1154
