The Truth About Sin & Sinning

‘Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.’ ~ 1 John 3:9

The Devil has spread many false teachings through the modern church but the ones he holds most dear are those misconceptions about sin.

Satan knows that you can have a misunderstanding on whether or not to keep a Sabbath day or eat certain foods and still inherit the Kingdom but you absolutely cannot misunderstand the implications of sin and inherit the Kingdom!

Do we have to actually stop sinning? Should we expect to sin from time to time as Disciples? Will a Disciple be damned if they sin?

The Scriptures Teach That We Must Stop Sinning

False teachers say that sin must continue and that no one can ever stop but the scriptures teach something very different.

Genesis 4:7 ~ If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Directly after the fall of Adam and Eve we find their child Cain struggling with temptation to hurt his brother.
God tells Cain that sin is like an evil force right at his door of moral choice, that it was knocking and desiring to have Cain, but that he must rule over it.
Even from the very beginning, men were commanded to rule over sin and temptation and not to give in. This was before the New Covenant and before any Scripture was given. Should we now have less of a responsibility to overcome sin?

Exodus 20:20 ~ Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.

God brought great punishments upon sinners and told the people that they must fear God and stop sinning.

Isaiah 1:16 ~ Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil.

All the true prophets like Isaiah told the people that they had to stop doing evil things. They had to stop sinning!

John 8:11 ~ And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The greatest prophet ever, Jesus Christ, also taught that people were to sin no more. They were to repent and stop sinning.

John 5:14 ~ Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Jesus told a man, that he had just healed, that he now needed to repent and stop sinning because if he did not then worse things were going to happen to him.
Jesus would not tell this poor man to do something he had no power to do and also threaten horrible things in his life if he did not do it!

I John 2:1 ~ 1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not.

John says that the entire purpose for writing this Epistle was so that people would choose to not sin. Why spend all that effort telling people to not sin if it was impossible?

I Corinthians 15:34 ~ Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

Paul also said that some Disciples did not have the correct knowledge of God and that they needed to wake up and stop sinning.

I Peter 2:21-22 ~ Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.

Peter said that we are to follow in the same steps of Jesus and that to follow in his steps was to live a life without sin or deceit.

2 Timothy 2:19 ~ The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

God commands that everyone that bears the name of his Son Jesus must depart from all sin. Only those who do so belong to him.

Romans 6:12 ~ Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

Does this remind you of God’s words to Cain? We now, as Cain, are told that sin is a force that wants to reign in our bodies.
We too are told that we must not let this sin reign or obey its lusts.

Romans 8:13 ~ For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

We are commanded to put to death the sinful deeds of our bodies in order to live.

I Peter 4:1 ~ Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin.

We are to have the same mind as Christ had and suffer under temptation and not give in.
If we do so, then we will have stopped sinning.

Disciples Are Not Expected To Continue Sinning

In today’s church, and among most professed believers, there exists an expectation that everyone will most definitely continue to sin against God. This also is in direct contradiction to what the Scriptures teach.

Romans 6:1 ~ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

When Paul considered the question of whether we should expect to continue to sin he gave a hearty ‘God Forbid!’
He says that it is an impossibility for those who are dead to sin in Jesus to continue committing sin.

Psalms 119:3 ~ They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.

David says that all God’s true people do not sin but rather they keep his commandments.

Psalms 119:11 ~ Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

Those who have God’s word in their hearts do not continue to sin.

1 John 3:9 ~ Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

The Bible says that if someone is truly born of God they will not and they cannot commit sin because God’s word is in their hearts and they are born of God.

Romans 6:14 ~ For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

The devil and his teachers teach that sin will have dominion over you. What does the Bible say?
Sin shall NOT have dominion over you! You shall not be ruled by sin. Do not expect to continue in sin!

John 8:34&36 ~ Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

Jesus said that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. It was for this purpose that Christ brought the truth to men. It was to set them free from slavery to sin.
Those who have been set free from sin by the Son surely cannot expect to continue sinning.

Romans 6:20 ~ For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

There was a time in the past, before you were converted, Paul says, that you were servants of sin.
This is a time of the past and should not now be the case.

1 John 3:6 ~ Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

Those who abide in Jesus do not sin. It is an impossibility to abide in Jesus and sin at the same time.
If we are presently in sin then we do not see or know Christ.

1 John 3:8 ~ He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Those who continue in sin are not Disciples but rather children of the Devil. The very act of committing sin means you are of Satan not God.

2 Peter 2:1&14 ~ There shall be false teachers among you. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin.

It is a characteristic of false teachers that they cannot stop sinning.
This is in direct contrast to true teachers and disciples. They can and do stop sinning.

Any Sin Willfully Committed Will Result In Loss of Justification

It is this teaching that Satan and his teachers fight the hardest against. They do not want anyone to come to the realization that willful sin will surely result in condemnation on judgement day if not repented of.

There are many verses below which mention death as the consequence of sin. We know that everyone will die the first death. Therefore, these scriptures must be speaking of the second death which is permanent final destruction in hell.

Genesis 3:3 ~ But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

If you disobey God you will die spiritually and eventually experience the second death if you do not repent.

Ezekiel 18:20 ~ The soul that sinneth, it shall die.

Those who sin will die. The law did not change from Adam to Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 18:24 ~ When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and doeth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in his sin that he hath sinned, in them shall he die.

If a righteous man decides to stop living righteous and commits sin then none of his past righteous acts will be remembered by God.
This man, for his sin, shall die the second death.

Ezekiel 33:18 ~ When the righteous turneth from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, he shall even die thereby.

The truth was so important that God recorded it twice.
If a righteous saved man turns from that state of holiness and chooses to commit sin he will die.

Romans 6:23 ~ For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All sin committed before or after salvation will result in death.
The fruit of willful sin is death.

Mark 9:47 ~ And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

Jesus said that the reason you should pluck out an eye that causes you to sin is because if you do not, you will end up in hell fire.
Clearly, Jesus taught that sin before or after salvation will keep you out of the Kingdom of God.

Romans 6:16 ~ Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

If you choose to submit to your sinful desires then you become slaves to sin and that will result in death.

Hebrews 10:26 ~ For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.

After a person is saved and has knowledge of the truth they can choose to sin.
If they do, the Bible says there is no more forgiveness for sin. That person must repent or they will be lost.

Romans 8:13 ~ For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

If we choose to fulfill the passions of our sinful desires, we will surely die and not live.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ~ Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul went to great lengths to warn saved people that if they sinned they would be deemed unrighteous and would not inherit God’s Kingdom.

Galatians 5:19-21 ~ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Several times Paul lists these many sins and warns us that we absolutely must not do such sinful things if we wanted to have any hope of inheriting God’s Kingdom.

James 1:15 ~ Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

James speaks to believers and warns them to stand strong against temptation.
He tells us that if we yield to sin that its fruit will be death.

Romans 14:23 ~ And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

The Bible says that if we do things that are doubtful that we will be damned. The reason is that doubtful things are sin.
Therefore, it is the state of being in sin that will damn a person.

James 5:9 ~ Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.

Those who hold grudges and unforgiveness in their hearts will be condemned. The reason is that unforgiveness and grudged are sin against men.

1 John 3:15 ~ Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

John shows us that even having simple hatred in our hearts will ensure that we do not inherit eternal life. It is sin that bars us from gaining life because no sinful person has eternal life in them.