By: Robert McCluskey
Submitted: 2010-08-26 06:46:42 | Word Count: 726
"Can Christians Sin" is one of the most mystifying concerns in bibical study.. When I first started to take the Christian life seriously, I wanted to be acquainted with what God tells us about the Christian nature and its link with sin. I started reading the first letter of John one day and ran across 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 thought, "O,k.! My uncertainty about Christian sin has been solved. Christians have to ability to sin. We are liars if we even state that we can't sin.
I continued reading through the book. Shortly 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 thought, "Wait a minute! Just a few chapters ago the Bible asserted that a Christian has the ability to sin, but here it seems to be saying that one who sins doesn't even know God! This is bizarre!
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Now I know that nearly all Christians trip over this issue at some point. I have come back toit many times because I don't like uncertainty and enigmas. I am going to relate my conclusions in this article. Possibly someone else will find the answer appealing.
The uncertainty can be cleared up by understanding the real meanings of the two passages of scripture. I will discuss them below:
1 John 1:8. Review a parallel view of several Bible interpretations of this verse. You can get hold of a parallel Bible by searching for the term on the 'Net. Most of them use expressions like "claim to be without sin" or "have no sin" Most authorities seem to conclude that the earliest vernacular does't mean that Christians are sinful by their nature, but simply that they still have the capacity for sinning. Quite the opposite, Biblical doctrine appears to indicate that non-Christians are unable to do anything other than sin..
1 John 3:6. If you investigate a parallel Bible translation of this passage you can see that most translators come up with interpretations like "does not keep on sinning" and "does not continue to sin" to express the character of the Christian. Said another way, Christians do not persistently sin with the knowledge that what they are doing is wrong. One again, this is in contrast to the non-Christian, who does not only repeatedly, but can't do otherwise.
I like to say that "to keep on sinning" means "sinning with impunity." In other words, to be able to say, "I am aware that it is sinful but I'm going to keep doing it in any case," or, in the instance of a Christian, to have the ability to keep on sinning even with the understanding of what it costs the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as other people. Both of these passages can be made consistent in the discernment that Christians can commit sins but can't do so repeatedly without being affected by it. To do so is not consistent with a Christian nature..
When we consider Christian sin we can't avoid the question of what makes up the "Christian nature"? We have to ask what the Bible means when it says "...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) I imagine most Christians would wish to suppose that the "new creation" cannot sin. This, however, isn't true; at least as long as we are in this "corruptible" physical body. (I Corinthians 15:53, KJV) The "new things" brought about by our deliverance are the things of the desire. We have been converted from a being that is controlled by the will to sin into a new creation that is capable of being controlled by the will to act blamelessly. That is a course we call "sanctification."
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