Bible Study Do Christians Sin

[for_his_glory]

Do Christians Sin

When a true child of God goes astray, our Father administers discipline to bring us back into obedience. Hebrews 12:7-8 says, "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating us as sons/daughters. For what son or daughter is there whom their father will not discipline. If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not son's or daughter's.

As a true child of God we no longer choose a lifestyle to sin, or in other words we no longer willfully sin, Hebrews 10:26-27, as the heart change that the Holy Spirit brings will result in a new attitude toward sin. But yet, and this is no excuse to sin, we still live in this fleshly body where the sin nature dwells and will cause us to fall short at times as flesh and spirit will always battle against each other and in moments of weakness, like that of Paul even after his conversion, we will fall at times, Romans 7:21-23.

Romans 12:2 instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind and renewal can take some time, but it is a lifelong process that produces a change of behavior.

Do Christians sin? Yes. Do they continue to willfully sin? No. Scripture indicates that while we will always fall short of the glory of the Lord, Romans 3:23, we have the hope that the power of God is at work in us to make us more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image, 2Corinthians 3:18.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

2 Peter 1:5-8
5...make every effort to add to your faith virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, the Christian sins, but he sins less and less as the qualities of the Spirit increase as they grow up into them, maturing to the full measure of the stature and image of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

 

[Who Me]

There are so many exhortations not to sin in the N T, that it is clear that Christians sin.

Fortunately God will forgive us our sins.

 

[for_his_glory]

Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Notice vs. 27 as those who willfully sin are the adversaries of God for they are not of God, but follow after the lusts of the world. A true child of God will not willfully sin, but yet being in this fleshly body where the nature to sin dwells we will mess up at times, but when we confess our sin God is faithful to forgive.

1John 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1John 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Sinless "perfection" means the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects. The action or "process" of improving something until it is faultless or as faultless as possible. God's grace does not give anyone a license to sin, but as being His own when we do and confess our sin He is quick to forgives us.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

I suspect that the answer is more unpleasantly but truthfully found by looking into the mirror rather than the Bible. When a scripture tells us (the obvious) that believers are not sinless, that feels pretty good. When we look at how we behaved to others in the last 24 or 48 hours, that is a lot less pleasant. The first procedure comforts us in our sin. The second can move us to repent. Just something to think about.

 

[2ndRateMind]

There are so many exhortations not to sin in the N T, that it is clear that Christians sin.

Fortunately God will forgive us our sins.

Sure, we are forgiven. But to make things right again, we need to repent of our sins (which isn't easy, and requires taking long, hard look at onself) and atone (which isn't easy either, and requires the agreement of everyone else, including God, that so far as possible, sufficient has been done to restore those injured to their former state).

Best wishes 2RM.

 

[Christ_empowered]

Repentance….
A not so easy component of Christianity.

 

[Who Me]

and atone

No Jesus atoned for our sins.
We have to repay anything we stole etc or take the legal consequences of our sinful acts, but we don't atone for them.

 

[JLB]

Yes, the Christian sins, but he sins less and less as the qualities of the Spirit increase as they grow up into them, maturing to the full measure of the stature and image of Christ (Ephesians 4:13).

Yes, so true.

However, there are some here in this community who believe that Christians are sinless; that their physical body is born again, when they are baptized in water.

They believe and teach that if a person does sin, they were never really saved.

This is disheartening those who are young in the Lord and haven’t figured out how to walk in the Spirit, and lack the maturity to live in dominion over the sin in their physical body.

Some end up giving up, saying “I tried Christianity but it doesn’t work”.

Sadly they go in search of other religions trying to fill the void in their life only Jesus can fill.


To me, the “sinless perfection“ message is just as dangerous as the
“once saved always saved” message, in that their message says the same thing; “if you wander away from Christ in sin, you were never truly saved to begin with”

We know that one of “His sheep” can indeed wander away and become lost.

They were indeed one of His sheep. They continue to be loved by the Father, and all of heaven rejoices when one of them returns, and is restored back to the Father.

Words of Christ in red —


And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost!’ Luke 15:6




JLB

 

[Christ_empowered]

I’m in the Christians sin but become better as we die a bit each day and Jesus becomes more apparent in each believer.

 

[Dorothy Mae]

I’m in the Christians sin but become better as we die a bit each day and Jesus becomes more apparent in each believer.

Some Christians get worse and worse as they depart from the faith they once had. I’ve known a few who participated in sins they never would have in earlier days.

 

[Christ_empowered]

Not to sound judgmental but we’re they genuinely converted?

 

[WIP]

Do Christians Sin

When a true child of God goes astray, our Father administers discipline to bring us back into obedience. Hebrews 12:7-8 says, "It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating us as sons/daughters. For what son or daughter is there whom their father will not discipline. If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not son's or daughter's.

As a true child of God we no longer choose a lifestyle to sin, or in other words we no longer willfully sin, Hebrews 10:26-27, as the heart change that the Holy Spirit brings will result in a new attitude toward sin. But yet, and this is no excuse to sin, we still live in this fleshly body where the sin nature dwells and will cause us to fall short at times as flesh and spirit will always battle against each other and in moments of weakness, like that of Paul even after his conversion, we will fall at times, Romans 7:21-23.

Romans 12:2 instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our mind and renewal can take some time, but it is a lifelong process that produces a change of behavior.

Do Christians sin? Yes. Do they continue to willfully sin? No. Scripture indicates that while we will always fall short of the glory of the Lord, Romans 3:23, we have the hope that the power of God is at work in us to make us more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image, 2Corinthians 3:18.

Couple questions came to mind.

1. How does one recognize the discipline from the Father? I mean, I have committed sin on more than one occasion but I cannot in all honesty describe or define a time when I felt I was being disciplined.
2. If a Christian can't sin willfully, then what about those times when one's willpower is tested and fails? I know there have been times when I committed sin knowing that it was wrong at the time and yet failed to resist the temptation. I certainly find myself upset and even angry about giving in to the temptation and have even decided that I will resist it the next time but alas I fail again and again. Does this mean I am not a Christian and God has forsaken me?

 

[for_his_glory]

How does one recognize the discipline from the Father? I mean, I have committed sin on more than one occasion but I cannot in all honesty describe or define a time when I felt I was being disciplined.

I should have defined that in a better way. I don't mean discipline like the Father's wrath when we mess up, but that small still voice of the Holy Spirit that tells us we did slipped off the straight and narrow path and makes our feet straight again. It's like when I know I have done wrong the Holy Spirit always convicts me of it.

If a Christian can't sin willfully, then what about those times when one's willpower is tested and fails? I know there have been times when I committed sin knowing that it was wrong at the time and yet failed to resist the temptation. I certainly find myself upset and even angry about giving in to the temptation and have even decided that I will resist it the next time but alas I fail again and again. Does this mean I am not a Christian and God has forsaken me?

Willful sin is intentional as doing something deliberate. As a child of God we do not deliberately sin, but that we get into the flesh sometimes and the Holy Spirit has to reel us back in again. We all fall short at times in resisting temptations as we are still human and have not received our incorruptible glorified body yet, but when we do fall God is always there to pick us up and forgive us when we repent of our shortcomings. Those who are not God's own will willfully continue to sin and there is no forgiveness for them unless they turn back to God.

 

[for_his_glory]

Some Christians get worse and worse as they depart from the faith they once had. I’ve known a few who participated in sins they never would have in earlier days.

And this is the willful sin of Hebrews 10:26-27 as they would rather enjoy the lust of the world seeking after it, after receiving the knowledge of truth.

 

[Christ_empowered]

Just going by personal experience….

One needs to come to their senses and genuinely repent. I think my own repentance was Jesus having mercy on me. Maybe that’s often the case?

Without genuine repentance and conversion it’s all surface level changes.