Christian Sin: Can A Christian Keep On Sinning?

"Can Christians Sin" is one of the most difficult concerns in the Bible.. When I became a Christian I wanted to be familiar with everything about my fresh life. While reading through John 1 I ran accross this declaration: "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." ( 1 John 1:8) I told myself, "O,k.! My question about Christian sin has been answered. Christians have to ability to sin. In fact, if we say that we don't sin, we are lying.

I hungrily read further. In a little while I arrived at chapter 3, where I read: "No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him." (1 John 3:6) I deliberated, "Wait a minute! A few minutes ago the Bible declared that a Christian can sin, now it seems to be stating that one who sins doesn't even know God! What is going on here?

Now I know that most Christians trip over this issue at some point. I have revisited it on several occasions because I am intolerant of puzzles and uncertainty. I'll concisely share my conclusions with you because you may be perplexed, as well.

The key to the mystery is to acquire an adequate understanding of the meanings of these two passages. I am going to discuss them in a little more detail now:

1 John 1:8. Review a parallel view of a number of Bible interpretations of this passage. Parallel Bibles can be used on the Web by doing a Google query. Most of them use phrases like "claim to be without sin" or "have no sin" For most interpretors the passage does not appear to be stating that Christians are sinful, but only that they have the ability to sin. This is not the same circumstance that is applied to non-Christians, who are said to be not only sinful, but unable to do other than sin.

1 John 3:6. If you study a parallel Bible translation of this verse you can see that most interpretors use interpretations like "does not keep on sinning" and "does not continue to sin" to express the disposition of the Christian. In other words, Christians do not repeatly sin with the comprehension that what they are doing is wicked. Again, this is in contrast to the non-Christian, who not only sins over and over again, but cannot do anything else.

I believe that to "keep on sinning" can be interpreted as "sinning with without consequences." In other words, to have the ability to declare, "I am aware that it is wicked but I'm going to continue to it anyway," or, in the case of a Christian, to have the ability to go on sinning even with the knowledge of what it costs God, as well as others. Both of these verses can be made consistent in the discernment that Christians can commit sins but can't do so repeatedly without being affected by it. That is irreconcilable with the redeemed nature.

When we talk about Christian sin we cannot dodge the issue of what makes up the "Christian nature"? We must work out what scripture is trying to convey by "...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:17) If you are like me, you would perfer to suppose that God recreates Christians so they are unable to sin. This, however, isn't true; at least until we are liberated from this "corruptible" body. (I Corinthians 15:53, KJV) The "new things" brought about by our salvation are the things of the spirit. God has changed us from a creature that stumbled into slavery to sin into a new creature with the ability to choose to behave honorably. Doing that is a journey that we call "sanctification."

By: Robert McCluskey

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For more information on this topic click on the links below:

The Rocky Road to Christian Sanctification
Christian Hopes and Expectations