Q&A – WHY DO BELIEVERS STILL SIN? - 1

WBS.282

Q&A –  WHY DO BELIEVERS STILL SIN? - 1

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

This verse is one that believers typically read, then shake their head in wonderment, then move on to the next verse without really ever considering its Truth. Why is that?  It is because we still sin; and we know we do.  We still choose to do things we know are not pleasing to IAUE. We still choose, at times, to directly disobey His clear direction and instructions.  We even, at times, do things that even our society has deemed inappropriate or even criminal.  Many believers have an entire “secret life” kept in the dark…a life of sin that they protect their friends and family from ever discovering.  In this post, we will simply introduce the subject and will develop the answer more fully in the following posts.

When it comes to the experience of sin in the life of the believer, there are several ways we respond to it; and that generally corresponds to the level of our allegiance to the mastery of Messiah in our lives.  Moving from the best to worst there is:

1.  We are sorrowed unto genuine repentance.  Sin grieves our hearts because it is never our intention.

2.  We are frustrated by the repetition of sin in our lives; and we vow to do better.

3.  We are frustrated by the repetition of sin in our lives; and we reluctantly acquiesce to its inevitability.  

4.  We freely entertain certain sins; and accommodate them by giving them opportunity and occasion.

For the disciple of Messiah who has indeed bowed his/her knee to the Master, their lives are a daily exercise in knowing Him and loving Him more intimately.  Their life, no matter how involved in “this” world through business and activity, duties, responsibilities, chores, etc., is perceived through the lens of their relationship with Messiah Yahushua and with IAUE.  They develop their senses to recognize the hand of their Master showing up in every little detail of every day. Their love of Messiah focuses their heart on obedience to His every whisper; and when they experience disobedience at any level, their hearts are saddened with the thought of their having displeased their Master. There is no hiding their guilt. They race to His grace and confess their disobedience and receive his lovingkindness and mercy.

There are more disciples who are likely to find themselves in the second category above. Their intention is to be “good” and to be obedient servants; but they have repetitive sins in their lives.  They confess them each time they are committed, and generally follow up their confession with some sort of vow that they will never do it again; unfortunately not recognizing that the force of human will is an inadequate defense against repetitive sin.  They read verses in the Scripture like this one.

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

It sounds so easy…like a simple choice; and yet these believers have seemingly made that choice over and over and over again with little or no results.  Their sins hang around like an addiction; and a much as they truly want to be free of them, they are beaten down by the guilt of their repetition in their lives resulting in joyless lives of defeat.  Still, they are determined to do better next time…each time.

The third category represents believers who simply ignore verses such as Hebrews 12:1.  They have embraced the inevitability of sin and have ceased trying to overcome it; while still endeavoring to be an obedient servant of the Master in all other areas of their lives. They do not realize that such acquiescence to Satan in one area of their life makes the rest of their life an absolute façade. In their minds they measure it thusly: 10% of my life is bound by sin, while 90% of my life is committed to walking in obedience to Yahushua.  Weighed in a scale, they consider, would make them a pretty good person. They ignore the words of Paul to the Romans.

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

13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto IAUE, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto IAUE.

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

15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? IAUE forbid.

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?

The disciples who have allowed sin in their life to progress to this level of acceptance will shortly find themselves in our 4^th category, above.  Not only have they acquiesced to the sin in their life, since they have decided they cannot beat it, they will now join it.  They now begin planning for it…making provision for it…creating time and opportunity to “enjoy” it.

Galatians 5:13 For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

14 But put ye on the Master Yahushua Messiah, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

This level of accommodating sin, of even planning for sin, is a very dangerous stage because it represents a clear displacement of the Messiah as their Master. Sin is no longer the unfortunate manifestation of “accidents” in lives that are otherwise purposed to serve Messiah.  It is an embraced reality of their existence. They have become a servant of sin, and an instrument of unrighteousness.  Any instructions from Messiah, any voice of the Holy Spirit heard directing them to do something that would interfere with their scheduled sinful activity would be regarded as inconvenient and unwanted. They tune out the voice of the Holy Spirit, deciding when they will opt to permit His voice to be heard.

The ability to progress to this level is predicated by one of two mental dispositions.  1) They have prayed the “magic prayer” and they believe they are saved and “going to Heaven when they die” no matter what they do for the rest of their lives; so sin really is of no consequence.  Their thinking is, “Let the ‘holy men’ dedicate themselves to purer lives.  This one will work for me;” or 2) They have embraced the very real possibility that they are potentially forfeiting their eternity for the pleasure of sin in the now.  Such thinking is truly warped by sin and irrational. It is this irrational thinking that is Satan’s ultimate objective with every whisper he makes.  It is one reason why we are instructed NOT to be conformed to this world; but we are to have our minds renewed so we can always hear and comprehend and obey the good and perfect and acceptable will of IAUE (Rom 12:1-2).

I could give personal illustrations of each of these levels in my own life during my 48 years in Messiah; but I suspect each reader already has their own stories; and can relate to each of these stages at one time or another in their life.  We all know that sin is not to have any place in our lives once we come to Messiah; but the experience of such freedom often escapes us.  There are reasons for this; and they are not insurmountable.  We have a lot of wrong thinking to overcome to walk in the purity and holiness that is our inheritance in Yahushua Messiah.  We will address this wrong thinking as we continue to develop our answer to this question.