(ThyBlackMan.com) A child of God can sin. In other words, any true believer can do what we are not supposed to do and transgress against God’s natural or spiritual law, rules, guidelines and instructions. That is clear when the scripture points out that when we do sin, we have an advocate with the Father. In fact, not only can we sin, we will sin every week of our lives by either omission or commission. By either something that we should’ve done but didn’t do or because of something that we did do which we should not have.
Christ did not come to stop us from sinning. You heard me right. He came because we could not stop sinning. Why couldn’t we stop? Because we were slaves to sin and it had dominion over us. It was our carnal nature. On top of that, even if we could stop on our own, we would still have the imparted or inherited sin of Adam to answer for all the way down to us today because sin entered the world through Adam. Therefore, by the way, the “second Adam” came to fix it.
Our new life in Christ as believers comes with a new mind, a new heart, a new destination, a new Parent, a new Savior, a new way of life, a mission and eventually a new body. We are being completely transformed and rebuilt from the inside out. And while it is a process, some parts of the process do happen right away and other parts happen during the journey.
Our roll in accepting the new life in Christ is to therefore turn from sin because now we have the power within to do so via the Holy Spirit. Thus the Bible says “sin shall no longer have dominion over us.” We are no longer ruled by sin. Nor do born again believers have the nature of sin. And those changes allow us to turn from sin when we do what we shouldn’t instead of being trapped in the willful lifestyle that comes along with transgressing the rules of the kingdom. Before we are born-again believers, we don’t really want to tell the devil no. But once we are born again, especially as we mature in Christ, the Holy Spirit encourages and empowers us to tell the devil and sin no. Hell no.
In the Bible willful and deliberate or intentional sin are treated differently from error. This is where so many people including ministers get confused. And that is why the Bible tells us to rightly divide the word of truth. A believer sinning is different from an unbeliever sinning, though both will have penalties.
For the unbelievers, sin is counted against him or her regarding eternal life and still requires payment because the unbeliever has neither accepted the plan nor the payment that was given for atonement and redemption. Thus there is no restoration. If you don’t accept when someone is willing to pay your speeding ticket, you have to try and pay it yourself. In this case, the unbeliever will never have enough ability to pay it. And the unbeliever is not qualified to do so anyway. That is because the payment for sin requires a death, and a qualified death from an unblemished sacrifice, thus Christ himself.
For the believer, sin is not counted against him or her in regards to eternal life and the debt has been paid. Steel, we reap what we sow on earth so our transgressions still have earthly consequences. However, the difference between us and the unbelievers (or even the religious person) is that when we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father. Furthermore, when we sin, the Holy Spirit chastens us so we will return to the fold and repent, turning away from sin. When we sin, we are still not slaves to sin. When we sin, we still do not have the sin nature. What I am saying is we do not have the penalty that goes with sin eternally. However, again, remember we do reap what we sow on earth for doing what we do that we shouldn’t.
So what about the verse that says “sin is sin”? Very often the mistake people make is to take one verse and make it an entire doctrine without reading the other verses throughout scripture which relate to the same topic. But only by putting together all the verses you can find on the topic of sin will you come to get the full picture of how it operates, who it rules, consequences in this life or the next, redemption, restoration, atonement and who can turn from sin. Taking one verse out of context to use it as a pretext for an entire doctrine can be very dangerous, problematic and inaccurate.
Connecting the relevant scriptures on the topic of sin, we can easily see that there are different categories of sin. There are sins against your neighbor or your brother. There are sins against your own body. There are sins against God. There are sins against your spouse. And what has been called the “unpardonable sin” is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, for which the Bible says there is no redemption.
There are some sins that are like others and some that are not. For example, the Bible says rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. And clearly if blasphemy is an unpardonable sin, it is on a far worse level than all other sins. Why? Because its consequences are more severe than any other sin. Which is why it is unpardonable yet other sins can be pardoned.
Here is the million dollar question that always comes up when I talk about or write about this topic. If sin keeps people out of heaven and everybody sins, then how is it that anybody can go to heaven? That answer is really simple. Christ (Yeshua) died in your place because the wages of sin is death. So He took death upon him that you would be able to have the eternal life He brought. It was an exchange by the Messiah who had the power to take death upon himself then leave it and rise again (resurrection and glorification). And in doing so, he satisfied the death debt (or payment) that sin required. Once you except this, believe this and surrender your life to Christ, you are justified by faith to receive eternal life. And the fruit of the Holy Spirit who comes to dwell in you is to produce a continually growing life of holiness, thereby neutralizing sin and the desire for it.
Of course the next million dollar question from people who are confused is this. They ask or wonder if that means a believer has a “get in free card”, then can’t believers continue to sin and go to Heaven anyway? My first answer is that there is no “get in free card”. Salvation was not free. It cost God his son. It cost Christ his life. And it cost you to surrender your life in exchange for the new one hidden in Christ. So never think Salvation is free.
The second part of my answer is this. Children of the Most High do not find ways to sin and use loopholes when they do. That way of thinking is the the chatter of an unrenewed mind and comprises the thoughts of an unbeliever, religious person or someone who does not understand how God, sin, salvation and redemption work. Believers therefore find ways NOT to sin, we do not find the reverse. And when we fall or fail, as all believers do, the Holy Spirit in us quickens our spirits with godly sorrow which leads to us repentance. Not just saying we are sorry or remorseful, but turning from those things that we should not do.
A true believer is confident by the fact that there is no condemnation in Christ. And no means none. It does not mean just until you commit a few big sins or a bunch of little ones. No condemnation for the believer means no condemnation for the believer. Yet because people don’t understand the power of grace, they have a hard time understanding such a gift that covers us.
The Bible teaches when we turn away from God just as the prodigal son did, true believers will return. You see the dog in scripture returned to its vomit because it was always still a dog. It was not a dog that became a sheep and turned back into a dog. Religious people can go to church their entire life and still bust tail wide-open. People with a good heart can help people their entire lives and still go to hell anyway. The foundation of salvation is not what we do, it is what Christ has done and our acceptance of it. So you see, for the believer, good deeds don’t get you in and bad deeds don’t have the power anymore to keep you out.
And if we need motivation to return to who we are, all God has to do is remove certain hedges of protection, let the devil take a bite out of your butt and you will come running back to the kingdom. The failsafe system is even more intense. The scripture teaches that if one strays away, Christ will leave the 99 and come out of the one. And when scripture says “come after”, it does not mean a lamb is coming after you. It means the Lion of Judah is coming after you. That is motivation of the strongest kind. A quick lesson in watching National Geographic or the nature channel will show you just a small part of what that means.
So now you know the truth, at least a bigger piece of it regarding sin. The rest of the study is yours just like the journey is yours. And a victory is yours, if you take hold of it.
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw
A Free Thinker, who loves to talk about Politics, etc. Also, all about uplifting the Black Community even if it doesn’t fit your mindset. One may hit me up at; TrevoCraw@ThyBlackMan.com.
