Devils love this one. Admit defeat and lose. Jesus says, “Go and sin no more,” but Satan says it’s impossible to do as Jesus commands. Jesus says, “Be perfect even as your heavenly Father is perfect,” and man says, “Impossible!” But whoever said anything about trusting ourselves for righteousness?
“But Jesus looked on them and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26 MKJV).
Who is it that loves the Lord? He tells us:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him” (John 14:21 MKJV).
Did He say, “He who tries his best to keep My commandments, but fails, he it is that loves Me”?
Did He say, “I know I’m asking you to do the impossible, but try”?
Did He say, “Try and do the impossible, but if you don’t obey Me, I’ll understand that you love Me anyway, and nothing worse will come on you, though I said it would”?
Did He say He would reveal Himself to those who try, but fail to keep His commandments?
Think about it. Who will you believe, the liar or the Lord?
There seem to be two diametrically-opposed Bibles in this world, one being God’s Word and one being man’s. If we couldn’t do what He asks of us, why would He ask it of us? How hideous is the thinking of man! How contradictory! He either makes God out to be a tyrannical ogre, a fool who asks you to do something you can’t do, or a wimp who will let you do as you please, provided you’re “sincere” or make some kind of token effort, even if you don’t obey him. “Let every man be true and God a liar,” this doctrine of devils declares!
Satan’s job is to discredit God and His Word. He was effective in discrediting Him in the Garden of Eden, and he does very well in his job now. While it is true that, in ourselves, we find it impossible to keep the Law of God, being carnal, Jesus Christ has given us the wherewith, by His crucifixion and resurrection and the gift of His Spirit – His life, to walk in holiness and obedience to Him. If we don’t obey Him when He has provided the power and means to do so, we no longer have excuse and damn ourselves.
Nowhere in the Bible is there such wicked doctrine that we can’t help but sin. Such teaching condemns God and makes the cross null and void. If we can’t be saved from sinning, why do we have a Savior?
Sin is breaking the Law of God; in other words, it’s going against God. Amos prophesies, “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” So how can a righteous and holy God live in, and with, sinners? Didn’t God have Moses remove His tabernacle from the midst of the congregation of Israel because of sin? (Exodus 33:3, 7: “For I will not go up in the midst of you, for you are a stiff-necked people, lest I consume you in the way…. And Moses took the tabernacle and pitched it outside the camp, afar off from the camp….”) How much less can He dwell within one who sins?
How is it that so many boldly declare they preach nothing but the Bible, yet preach so contrary to it? With their hearts and with their lips (for lips represent the heart), they preach another Jesus and another Bible. They use Romans 7 as an excuse, claiming Paul lived his entire earthly life sinning, unable to do otherwise. However, Romans 7 continues to Romans 8, describing deliverance from sin, so that man is without excuse. The provision is there to secure total victory:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. But the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2 MKJV).
The blood of the spotless Lamb is all powerful, doing a perfect work. We defile perfectly, but His blood perfectly cleanses us from all unrighteousness:
“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” (1 John 1:7 MKJV).
“But the Law entered so that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, so that as sin has reigned to death, even so grace [the power to overcome sin] might reign through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21 MKJV).
The righteous rejoice that they are freed from the power of sin, but the wicked who claim His salvation rejoice that they are now free to sin.
Is this “sinless perfection” we preach? Perhaps, but if so, we do declare it’s by His virtue and work, and none of our own:
“For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10 MKJV).
If we are His workmanship, doesn’t He do just a little more than a whitewash with those He saves, or does He do no differently than the Pharisees, whom He calls “whitewashed sepulchers”?
As for those who have come to believe in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, yet struggle with sin – don’t give up. There is a time of being tutored by the Law, learning that it is good and we are evil. There is a time of reaping as we have sown. There comes a time, however, when we receive grace through Christ to live without sin:
“For we yet being without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6 MKJV).
Some of the confusion in this topic arises from what is sin and what is not. Some people teach that things are sin, but they aren’t, and teach that other things aren’t sin, but they are. We’re not speaking of the infirmity of the flesh now – we all have that – but of willful sin.
Those who are the Lord’s, and choose to remain His, will not and do not willfully sin. They may have trouble in the flesh against their own wills, but with the mind they do indeed serve the Law of God and seek after righteousness and holiness, without which they won’t see God.
As the Groom is without spot or blemish, so must be His Bride, Who happens to be none other than His own Body, even as the Scriptures declare. Tell me, does He sin in His Body?
1 John 3:4-10 MKJV
(4) Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.
(5) And you know that He was revealed that He might take away our sins, and in Him is no sin.
(6) Everyone who abides in Him does not sin. Everyone who sins has not seen Him nor known Him.
(7) Little children, let no one deceive you. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as that One is righteous.
(8) He who practices sin is of the Devil, for the Devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was revealed, that He might undo the works of the Devil.
(9) Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because His seed remains in him, and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
(10) In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the Devil: everyone not practicing righteousness is not of God, also he who does not love his brother.
Then there’s the foolish notion that a physical death, the ultimate consequence of sin, will end all our troubles of sinning. Death doesn’t bring victory; only Jesus Christ does, and He is LIFE, bringing victory over death.
Says Hezekiah, King of Judah:
“For the grave cannot praise You, death cannot rejoice in You; they who go down into the pit cannot hope for Your truth. The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I do this day; the father shall make Your truth known to the sons” (Isaiah 38:18-19 MKJV).
As Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13).
If I can’t walk without sin, then just what does “all things” include, and what is the point of casting ourselves on Christ, if walking without sin is impossible?
Read Obedience, Law and Grace, Grace – The Reality, and Do Christians Sin?
Consider the alternative to this doctrine: Isn’t it far better for me to believe in my Omnipotent Savior for perfection in spirit, rather than believe that I can’t attain to life without sin?