Do We Sin Daily?

By Carl O. Cooper

No where in the Bible will you find sinful behavior excused or winked at as though it was “not really so bad”. And nowhere in the Bible will you find that God expects people to live a life of “part religious obedience” and “part sin”. In fact, it is really just the opposite. God hates sin!

Today we are beginning to find a cultural acceptance of sin. Our fathers and forefathers told us it would happen. The 1960’s brought a cultural revolution against authority of all kinds. There was a flaunting of immoral things that was intentionally making a statement against submitting to any authority higher than one’s own self. This has led our people into a culture that has little respect for the authority of God. The movies and the TV shows, and even the music have reflected this lack of respect for God. The immoral scenes and words have gotten worse and worse over the years until today hardly anything is off limits. And what is even worse is the fact that over the years the constant association with the sinful culture of our society has caused the average citizen to become desensitized to the shock and alarm of being drawn away from living a good moral life in subjection to the authority of God. And what is even worse is that a very great number of religious people have been led astray as well.

A disturbing trend that bothers me is what appears to be a lessening of the distasteful nature of sin even within some members of the church of Christ itself. I’m hearing a softening of sin by a claim that we all sin every day and perhaps even every few hours. This has the effect of making sin appear to be “not so bad” if Christians are constantly involved in sin all the time. After all, we are approved by God and we are saved. If we are free to be involved in sin constantly and God still approves of us and saves us any way in spite of this constant sinning, then sin must not really be so bad. This mindset is taken, partly, from;

Romans 3:23 (NKJV)

            23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

Notice that this verse says, “All have sinned”, and it does not say that “all are sinning constantly” after they are saved. The context of this verse is about the comparison between the Jew under the law, and the Gentiles who were not under the law and the equality they have because of the blood of Christ. This is not justifying sin and it is not talking about the condition of the Christian who has been saved.

God does not approve of sin and those who are sinning constantly are in danger of not being saved at all. The Bible does not describe Christians as sinners. Christians have been cleansed and made free of sin by the blood of Christ. When we are properly baptized into Christ’s blood we are sanctified and cleansed and we become Holy people of God. We are forgiven of all past sins and the blood of Christ keeps on keeping us clean and forgiven as long as we continually walk in the light, trying to live a proper Christian life. Look at these Scriptures;

Romans 6:1-7 (KJV)

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from           the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Sin is not to be a part of a Christian’s life.

Is it impossible for a Christian to sin? No, not at all.

Verse 6 tells us that we should no longer serve sin but it does not say that we cannot sin. It is still possible for any Christian to become unfaithful and to fall away from salvation because sin becomes out of control in his life.

But for the Christian who continues to be faithful and who walks in the light with a pure heart and does all he can to be faithful to God, if he sins unexpected or ignorantly, the blood of Christ continually cleanses him from all sin. This man is not to be called a sinner, he is Holy and Sanctified by God. I feel confident that most of us are in this category.

And in addition, read this;

1 John 1:6-7 (NKJV)

6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice    the truth.

7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the    blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

We should not be calling our fellow Christians “sinners”. This is not how the Bible tells us to address Holy and Sanctified things.

Acts 10:15 (NKJV)

15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, “What God has cleansed you must not call             common.”

            But accusing members of the church of Christ of being sinners has not been instigated by accident. It may not seem like it on the surface but there is misguided reasoning behind this. While visiting in a Bible class at a church of Christ, I heard a comment made by one of the young men of the congregation about members of the church and members of the denominational religions of the world.

His comment was, “How can we act so arrogant toward the religious people in other churches? What makes us think that our sin is any better than theirs? We are all filled with sin because we sin constantly so what makes us think we are better than them?” 

This is where this mindset is leading us. If it is true that we are sinning constantly and we are sinners like everyone else, then this young man was right. We are no better than them.

But our people are not like that. If there are those in the church who are still serving sin, then I would question their commitment to Christ. There may be some like that, but not most of us. A great majority of the members of the church of Christ are faithful Christians and are trying to walk in the light. They deserve to be called Holy.

Carl O. Cooper