Should I Just Accept that I Will Sin Every Day?
Recently a new contact on LinkedIn (click here to connect with me) sent me a message. It led to a wonderful conversation. His name is James Church and he’s a great guy looking to grow closer to Jesus, just like all of us here. Let me give you a bit of what James had to say (I have his permission to share).
“How can we ever truly turn away from sin, repent, and run right back to sin? I know that even Jesus' disciples sinned against him. It's reassuring that He forgave them still. The Bible makes it seem like they never sinned again after Jesus met with them after the Resurrection.”
The struggle James is bringing up is the same one many Jesus followers deal with. The challenge is this, if all of us sin every day, how can we understand scriptures like this one?
“You know that He 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 NASB 1995
This leads us to work through two issues.
Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the Bible
What is the Power of Sin?
Gaining a Deeper Understanding of the Bible
Let me say this, when you encounter an especially difficult or confusing passage, it’s a good idea to get some more depth on it. There are three sources I like to use.
Checking other Bible translations.
Looking in a reliable physical or online concordance.
Getting insights from trusted, more mature Jesus followers.
I should point out that the Bible does not have errors. It is perfectly consistent throughout. If you’d like to read more on this, check out our post, “Does the Bible Have Errors?”.
Just as a quick exercise, I can easily resolve the issue of 1 John 3:5-6 by looking at some other translations. I’ll just pull out two.
“You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who remains in Him sins continually; no one who sins continually has seen Him or knows Him.”
1 John 3:5-6 NASB
“You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”
1 John 3:5-6 ESV
Of the two, the first one is the most recently updated version of the New American Standard Bible, released in 2020. You’ll notice that this version adds the word “continually” twice. This reflects a more accurate understanding of the words of the author, the apostle John. John was saying that if you abide in Jesus, that is you remain in His presence, read and obey His word, and if the Holy Spirit lives in you, then you cannot keep sinning all the time. You cannot both remain in Christ and live a lifestyle of sin.
The second translation, the English Standard Version renders the exact same idea, just as accurately, with the phrase, “keeps on sinning”.
My physical concordance of choice has these words to say as part of the explanation for 1 John 1:6.
“The fact remains however, that Christians do not experience the sinless life perfectly on this earth; hence 1:8, 10 remain true. The two ideas are not really incompatible. The Christian still experiences a genuine struggle with the flesh and overcomes its impulses only by the help of the Holy Spirit of God. (Gal. 5:16-26)”
So, in the first part of the answer to the conundrum of my friend James, the solution is to check other sources for a deeper understanding of the passage…which in this case, resolves the majority of the issue.
But what about the second part of the answer, and our main question. Should I Just Accept that I Will Sin Every Day?
What is the Power of Sin?
Is sin so powerful that the Jesus follower must resign herself or himself to a life of continual sin?
No. Remember what John the apostle said? The person who “keeps on sinning” or “sins continually” doesn’t know Christ. In fact, why did Jesus come?
According to John the Baptist:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
-John 1:29b ESV
Jesus came to take away our sins. In fact, more than once He told people to, “go and sin no more.”
Jesus came to call all sinners, which means every person, to repentance. Based on the Encyclopedia of the Bible, repentance means:
“to turn about, to have a change of mind, to express regret. It is used both of God and man. The verb means the act of turning about; the noun means the result of such action.”
Because of the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, we have the option to choose not to sin. Let’s not miss this. You do NOT have to sin. I do NOT have to sin. If sin was completely unavoidable then the power of God is limited…and we know His power is without limit.
The point is this. When we repent, we turn away from our tendency to sin. It is in our nature as humans to sin. We are born into sin.
“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.”
-Romans 5:12 BSB
Sin is our nature, that is, until we come to Christ.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
-2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
When we come to Christ, part of being a new creation is the Holy Spirit coming to live inside of us, and He gives us the power to choose to no longer live a lifestyle of sin.
Sinning vs. Sinner
Let me make something (hopefully) clear. You cannot be a consistent sinner and also a Jesus follower. Jesus called us to repentance, to turning away from sin. The Jesus follower is always working to grow ever nearer to Jesus, and therefore to continually turn away from sin.
But if you do sin, which is possible due to a momentary lapse, we have these promises.
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
-1 John 2:1
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
-1 John 1:9 ESV
As we prepare to wrap up, let me say this. If you expect to sin, you will most certainly sin. But if you pray frequently, staying in communion with God, if you spend regular time reading and obeying His word, and if you confess sins not only to God, but to other trustworthy Jesus followers, you will find your frequency of sin and your desire to sin getting lower and lower over time.
Remember, as someone who has the Holy Spirit inside of you, sin does not control you, and the Lord will always provide a way to escape the temptation to sin if you ask Him for it.
If you have follow-up thoughts, feel free to reach out to me directly via our contact form. Also, if you’d like to learn more about me and why I create all this content about following Jesus, check out my About page. If you love the content and would like to support this work, please visit Troy Stoneking (buymeacoffee.com). Finally, would you like to see a list of ALL our blog posts? Here it is!
Love you Jesus follower!