What Happens When a Believer Sins?

Every Christian knows about the penalty for sin. “The wages of sin is death...” (Romans 6:23). In fact, the working definition of a “Christian” is one who recognizes that there is a penalty for sin to be paid, and that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay that penalty for all sinners. And the Christian accepts Christ as his Savior from that penalty. The awful punishment due to sin must be paid.

But what becomes of sin after conversion when Christ has come to indwell the Christian in a living union - Spirit of Christ with human spirit?

For the first half of my life, I was taught and believed that, as a Christian, I was “in a state of sanctifying grace” when I repented of and confessed my sins. God was close to me and I was going to heaven if I died then. BUT, if I sinned again, I lost my “state of sanctifying grace”, I was separated from God and I was going to hell if I died then. My life was a constant swing between going to heaven and going to hell. What a frustrating experience!

Finally I discovered that the Bible does not have this idea at all. God has a much better approach in the life of His children.

There is a book of the Bible whose main topic is: “What happens when a believing Christian sins?” This book is the First Epistle of John. Many Christians have read this book with much confusion. What they read is misunderstood. Many statements made by John do not seem to be true in their everyday lives.

Let us look at this book and come to an understanding of “sin” in the Christian. Jesus said that knowledge of the truth will set you free. And the understanding of the First Epistle of John is an important key to a joyful, free Christian life.

Sin is a tough subject to deal with, because the whole Bible - Old Testament and New - deals with sin as a slap in the face to God and a state of rebellion against God, regardless of who sins. In this issue of what sin is, there is no change. But you will not understand this issue of sin until you understand that Christ is intended to be the Life of the human being.

Many have been taught that we have a “good” nature and a “sin” nature in us, and the “us” is always making a decision between the two natures. But the human being can have only one nature operating at a time, and since his new birth, the believer’s only operating nature is the God-nature through Christ living in him (II Peter 1:4).

The old sin nature is put out by Christ’s death, and what we fight is not the sin nature, but the REMEMBRANCE of the sin nature left over in our brain cells, in our mind, our soul.

We come into the world possessing the sin nature of Mr. Sin, Satan. We are born or created in sin (John 8:44). That is why we must be rebirthed; we must be born again by another Father to get another nature.

To fully understand this, let’s go into the Epistle of I John now. Starting with I John 3:9: “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God.” That is a very powerful scripture that says several things about Christ in us which we need to look into.

“Whoever is born of God” - the first line introduces us to our new birth in Christ. “..does not commit sin” - that is radical! - we have a difficult time understanding that because we do not understand the issue of sin. “. . . for his seed remains in him” - for Christ’s seed, Christ’s life, is in the believer. The believer cannot sin because Christ cannot sin! Hold on! Don’t lose me; you will see what I mean.

To understand, we need to go back to the eighth verse, because that gives us better insight into the issue of sin. I John 3:8 says, “He that commits sin is OF the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.” It is on Calvary that the works of the devil were destroyed. Notice what this eighth verse says, that whoever commits sin is of the devil. The reason that we do not understand verse nine is that we do not understand verse eight. We do not understand that everyone who is unconverted (not birthed of God) is of the devil or has a “Satan nature”. We do not use that language, even casually, because it makes unbelievers and sinners feel uneasy.

Now follow me closely. It does not say that the unconverted human being sins. It says that the unconverted sinned because Satan’s nature was in him, and that the real sinner from the beginning was Satan. Why was that? The human being is nothing but a living container meant to contain GOD. But through the Fall, human beings are born containing the nature of Satan.

In order for salvation by grace to come about, there had to be a radical change. The only way God could bring about this change was to make the exchange Himself. The exchange is Satan’s nature out and Christ in - not a change in the container, but an exchange of the contents. God saw nothing but sin in you when Satan was your nature, and nothing but righteousness now that Christ is your nature.

Back to I John 3:9. It did not say we will not sin or would not sin; it says “does not commit sin,” and “he cannot sin because he is born of God.”

I grew up in circles where it was maintained that “we are all NOW sinners saved by grace.” But this is NOT the case. If we are rebirthed by God, we are no longer sinners, but children of God - SAINTS of God! Do you see the difference? The only life I now have is Christ. It is eternal life, it is God-life, and it stands before God sinless.

The fifth chapter of I John is more definitive on this subject. I John 5:17 says, “All unrighteousness is sin. And there is a sin not unto death” Mark this because now we are going to talk about another sin. There is a SIN NOT UNTO DEATH. The scripture says, “... The soul that sins, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). The Old Testament is full of statements that whoever sins is going to die and receive punishment. But now John says that there is a sin that is not unto death!

The sin that was unto death was borne by Christ on the cross, and that is the sin you cannot commit anymore. It is simply that believers cannot commit a sin that separates them from God.

Look at the next verse 18: “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he that is begotten of God keeps himself, and that wicked one does not touch him.” That is interesting - THE WICKED ONE DOES NOT TOUCH HIM. John is referring to the fact that the original sinner in the human always was Satan. He did not say that the Christian would cease from sinning. He said that he would not sin because the wicked one would not touch him. So, Satan was always the sinner in us using us, misusing us, lying to us, and telling us “You are bad, you are no good,” when it was he all the time that was no good, just as it is Christ in us now that is our righteousness. This is what Christ coming to dwell in us means.

So there is a sin that WE commit that is not committed by Christ in us, and it is the sin that is not unto death. The story of this sin starts at I John 1:7: “If WE walk in the light, as He is in the light, WE have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses US from all sin. If WE say that WE have no sin, WE deceive ourselves, and the truth is not is US. If WE confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive US our sins, and to cleanse US from all unrighteousness. If WE say that WE have not sinned, WE make Him a liar, and His word is not in US. My little children, these things I write to YOU that YOU sin not. And if any man sin, WE’ have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”

More believers stumble over this problem of sin in John’s epistle than anything else, because he says on one hand that whoever is born of God cannot commit sin, and now he says that if we say we have no sin we lie and the truth is not in us. So, we have to separate sins. See all the “We” and “You” and “Us” capitalized above. Here is the place where sin comes into the believer’s life. It comes because the believer, in a temporary state of reversion to his old ways of THINKING, separates himself from trust in Christ that is in him and does his own thing. We are all guilty of this.

At conversion, Satan is out, and can no longer sin AS us, bringing death and punishment. BUT WE OURSELVES CAN COMMIT SINS BY REVERTING TO INDEPENDENT THINKING AND ITS RESULTING ACTIONS. It is described by John as a “sin not unto death”, not a sin to destroy the union. It is going to hinder the union, but it is not going to destroy the union with Christ. It is just that the believer is going to do his own thing for a while, and maybe by that he will learn something and get straightened out. The sins that are committed by a Christian at this point are easily forgiven and forgotten - not as the behavior of a Satan-controlled sinner, but of a child of God who slipped up and needs correction toward what is expected of the Family.

Notice it says that “He is faithful and just to forgive us OUR sins. . .“. The emphasis is in “our sins” and not on Satan’s sin.

So you see that there is another side of sin. There is a sin that I CANNOT COMMIT! The real ME exists as a living union with Christ; and that union cannot produce sin. And when I take on the illusion of separation and independence from Him, THE SIN COMMITTED IS NOT A SIN UNTO DEATH. The external influence of the world, the flesh and Satan can draw a Christian’s mind back into the illusion of independence. Our pre-conversion AND even our post-conversion mind has been fed with much worldly garbage. The mind, the emotions and the will are functions of the SOUL. When the mind stays in the awareness of union with Christ, the emotions, the will and the body follow. This is what God visualized as the proper functioning of human beings.

But when the Christian mind slips into independent thinking and actions temporarily, this is sin. It is not going to destroy my relationship with Christ, but it is going to hinder my union temporarily. At this point, all I need to do is to confess and come back into favor with Him. And in fact, seeing my weakness, the slip-up will probably draw me back into a DEEPER awareness and TRUST in Christ‘s control.

Anytime you take the mind away from Christ who is in you to do your own thing, you are participating in a work of the “flesh”. What is “flesh”? A fleshly action is any action your soul and body take out of the control of your spirit. A work of flesh is where mind and body have joined together for a no-good event. It is not Christ. You see, as long as Christ has your mind, He will operate through your body with an expression that is true to Him and you. Flesh is subject to Him when He has the mind.

A sin that is not unto death is what we Christians are always judging in each other. When you are headstrong and take the mind away from Christ, you are going to have trouble. You never take the mind away from Christ to do God’s will. You always take the mind away from Christ to do your own thing, to do what fits you best at the time.

How then do you get free from such sin? You are freed by simply telling the Father you are truly sorry, and He forgives and forgets all about it. He just chalks it up as a growth step in His child. He is the perfect parent who does not disown His child but does all that He can to keep him on the right family path. The blood of Jesus Christ “cleanses” us - present tense. The life of Christ in you is ever keeping you cleansed, and ever keeping you where you ought to be with God.

Let me show you how this works. See First John 5:1 - “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him (birthed of Him).” Do you see something here? What is it that keeps us from sins of the flesh? Love. What do we automatically have working as birthed children of God? Love. Law cannot do it. Law will not keep believers from sins, but love will. You cannot force a husband to love a wife. If you try, you are wasting your time. Somewhere along the way they have to grow into love with their wives, and believers have to grow into love with Christ who is in them.

Now 5:4 - “For whoever is born of God overcomes the world.” That is automatic; that is spontaneous. Sins of the flesh are there and believers are going to commit them, BUT whoever is born of God is going to overcome the world. That is our faith promise. I have to stand on that often.

One more clinching truth - 5:18 again, "...he that is begotten of God KEEPS HIMSELF.“ Who is responsible for keeping myself in my position? What is my position? To TRUST in my head, only Christ. Every Christian is going to keep himself. That does not mean keep himself either spiritually or eternally. It means he is going to keep himself from the “old way” of doing things, away from the external sin-nature way of doing things. He is not going to take a mind unto himself to do what is of Satan, or what Satan formerly did through him. He is going to keep that mind as the mind of Christ.

What then is my responsibility? LOVING THE LORD MY GOD WHO IS WITHIN MY SPIRIT, WITH ALL MY SOUL AND BODY. That is my one love commandment. God IS love. And the love of God which flows out from the indwelling Christ to my soul must circle back FROM my soul in full power.

When I slip up and forget that love, what do I do? I put into motion my family relationship. I have been an erring child of my Father. I have attempted to do my own thing and I see that it does not work. I DO NOT HAVE TO GO TO CALVARY AGAIN. I go to my Father and He says, “I am glad you came; I knew you would. I forgive you. Now get up and go on.” Do we not have to pay the price? No. The price has already been paid by Christ and the Father has already accepted it.

Obviously, the way this picture is painted by John, and the way I have interpreted it, makes it look as if the believer’s sin is of little matter. But I say that if John’s concept of Christian sin was understood better, fewer Christians would CONTINUE in sin. There is a psychological device in human beings whereby we want to punish ourselves when we do wrong, and we do this by CONTINUING in sin. God fixed a thing in us of condemnation and guilt in order to draw us to salvation in Christ. But we carry the remnants of this over after conversion, and when we do wrong, we often punish ourselves. We punish ourselves by continuing to do what is wrong. We know it is wrong - we know we ought not to do it. We say, “I just can’t help it.” But we are really punishing ourselves because of our guilt. This is a hopeless cycle. This is how an alcoholic became an alcoholic. He knew he should not drink, but nevertheless he continued doing it out of guilt to punish himself. He was tricked by Satan into thinking he was doing something good by punishing himself, even though it made him feel miserable. You’ve never seen a drunk who did not appear miserable and sorry at times. That is a part of the guilt.

Enlightened Christians do not want to punish themselves - they want to move on into God’s provision for their lives. If they grow into love, if they know they are already overcomers, they will not have to punish themselves.

What stops Christian sinning? Look again at the fifth chapter of I John.

If we love Him, THAT STOPS IT;
if we know whoever is born of God cannot
commit a sin unto death, THAT STOPS IT.

Yes, Satan is put outside of the Christian. Therefore, the Christian cannot, because of his new nature, commit another sin of death against God. It is coming to know Christ within you that makes the difference in sin, and this is what helps your soul to avoid sin. The greatest hindrance to your growth is always going to be how you are performing before God, and most of all it will have to do with the sin issue.

The Holy Spirit revealing the Son in you should bring you to a point where you will not be upset by every little thing that happens. Surely you are going to sin in the flesh. Surely you are going to have temporary mind separations from God. That is why John wrote as he did. Christ is our life. As long as you think you have a life of your own, you are going to have sins of the flesh.

My sin situation has changed at conversion. I cannot sin a sin that permanently separates me from God, or that is unto death. But I can sin a sin that is not unto death which is a sin of the flesh. The victory, joy and peace of most believers is stolen by their erring temporary mind separation from the Jesus who is in them.

Too often, people think this message gives believers license to continue in sin. We must not forget the powerful message in Hebrews 12:6. “For whom the Lord loves, He chastens…” Those who persist in sins of the flesh will be corrected or chastened by a loving Father. Things won’t fit together in life. Christians will be hurt, be deprived, and even become dysfunctional. Even though they are sons (offspring and children of God), they will suffer to learn obedience (Hebrews 5:8; I Peter 5:10).

Nothing saddens me more than to live in a world where you find Christians who do not know what really happened to them when they took Christ as their Savior. It saddens me that our churches today are filled with people who missed these cardinal factors about sin that show the transition between the old and the new. We all need to know that. We all need to practice that. We need to put these truths in our minds and realize and accept that we are that new creation race of people, a whole new people raised up to live these truths about sin.

We are not converted Old Testament believers. Israel is still living under the law of sin and death and still has not found Christ. WE HAVE CHRIST! We know Life!

AND HAVING CHRIST,
WE HAVE A NEW KIND OF SIN TO CONSIDER -
A SIN REQUIRING CORRECTION,
AND NOT REQUIRING PUNISHMENT!

“A SIN NOT UNTO DEATH”

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