Do you sin?

The Apostle John tells us, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).

So, yes, you and I do sin.

Yet the same apostle also tells us, “You know that [Christ] appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.  No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him” (1 John 3:5-6 New American Standard, which is quite literal here).

So you and I must not sin.  

All Christians thus live in the tension between Scripture’s call to purity and its judgment of universal sinfulness. How do we resolve the tension?

Twenty years ago, D.A. Carson and John Woodbridge wrote a series of letters from a fictional seminary professor named Paul to a young man named Timothy who recently had come to faith in Christ. Letters Along the Way (Crossway, 1993, available now for free as a pdf download) intersperses those letters with Timothy’s descriptions of the occasion that prompted each.

The early chapters focus on Timothy learning to live the Christian life. Letter 11 is particularly helpful for dealing with this important tension:

Read 1 John – doctrine, obedience, and love go together. Read Galatians and Romans – Christology, justification by faith, and the obedience of faith stand or fall together. Read 1 Corinthians – the gifts of the Spirit, the doctrine of the resurrection, transparent love, and moral probity stand or fall together. Jesus is Lord.

I do not for a moment want to convey the impression that Christians simply do not sin. Here, too, 1 John is of enormous help. Writing to Christians, John says that, on the one hand, if anyone claims he does not sin or has not sinned, he is a liar, self-deceived, guilty of calling God a liar (since God says we are all sinners-1 John 1:6,8,10). On the other hand, John insists that Christians do not go on sinning, that they obey Christ and love the brothers (see especially 1 John 3:7-10). How can both emphases be true?

In fact, unless you hold both emphases strongly and simultaneously, you will go seriously astray. Stress the former, and you will become lackadaisical about sin; stress the latter, and you may gravitate toward some version of Christian perfectionism where you hold you have already attained perfection when all your colleagues (and especially your family!) can see you are deluded. The fact is that until Jesus’ return, we will sin. As we grow in holiness, we will become aware of inconsistencies and taints we had not even spotted before. Most of us will sometimes stumble and drift, at times rather seriously. There will be different rates of progress, different degrees of spiritual maturity; all of us will have to return to Jesus for renewed cleansing and forgiveness. But at the same time, if we are Christians, we will insist that there is never any excuse for sin. In no case do we have to sin. Though in our lives as a whole, we may ruefully recognize we will sin, in any particular instance we do not have to sin, and that particular sin is therefore without excuse. Sinning is simply not allowed in the Christian way. No provision must be permitted to encourage it; no excuse ever justifies it.

You and I live in this tension. The only solution is not a theoretical one, but a practical one, an existential one. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9).

That, Tim, is God’s answer to your sin and your only hope. And it is enough. Never, never treat God’s forgiveness lightly, as if you may sin with impunity because God is there to forgive you; but never, never wallow in the guilt of some sin you have committed in the fear that God is not merciful enough or gracious enough to forgive you. Learn not to flirt with sin; and when you fall, learn to beg God’s forgiveness for Jesus’ sake and press on. That is the only way you can live with a clean conscience; it is the only way that your confession of Jesus as Lord will have any bite in your life.

I write as a fellow sinner, forgiven and pressing on.

Or put another way: Ask yourself two questions:

(1)    How do I anticipate sin in my life? Like a child of God?

(2)    How do I respond to sin in my life? Like a child of God?

May we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and thus hate and fight against the sin He hates; and may we know that, as God’s children, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, who paid the penalty for our every sin.

(For more on this topic, see the sermon “No One Who Abides in Jesus Sins” on 1 John 3:4-10.)