IT IS A DECEPTION TO THINK THAT ALL CHRISTIANS COMMIT SIN
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO COMMIT SIN?
When a person breaks the law of God (the Ten Commandments) he has sinned. However, the Scriptures distinguish between sins of ignorance and sins of presumption.
When a person breaks the law unknowingly the Bible calls it a sin of ignorance. (This person does not "COMMIT" sin).
When a person breaks the law deliberately it is called a presumptuous sin. (This person does "COMMIT" sin).
The word COMMIT means: "to do; perpetrate, as a crime". In the Greek it is poieo which means: to make. To commit sin means to make sin; it is a deliberate act such as God making the universe. Therefore, one who sins in ignorance never commits sin. On the other hand, one who sins presumptuously always commits sin. It is vital to understand what it means to commit sin because the apostle John said:
"HE THAT COMMITTETH SIN IS OF THE DEVIL;
WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD DOTH NOT COMMIT SIN." 1 JOHN 3:8-9
One of the greatest deceptions being taught today is that the phrase "to commit sin" really means "to practice sin" or "to sin habitually".
Those who teach that perversion say that if one deliberately breaks God's law only "occasionally" he is not really committing (practicing) sin. Recently a minister told me that if he were to commit adultery a few years down the road he would not be practicing sin. I asked him how often could he do it and not be "practicing sin"? He said "...about every eight years or so".
According to that theory, every person becomes his own judge of how many sins must be committed before he is guilty of practicing sin.
Human nature being what it is, a person would always find a way to convince himself that he is sinning just below the point of "practicing" sin. For example, one person thinks he is guilty if he commits adultery every eight years or so, another every five years, and for another perhaps once a year, etc. Those who teach that abominable theory say that because a person does not have a "lifestyle" of sin or does not sin habitually (whatever that means) he is not really "committing" sin.
To say that to commit sin means "to practice sin or to sin habitually" is simply the devil's device to keep the guilty sinner from feeling condemned. The reality is that if a person knowingly breaks God's law even once, he is committing sin. How many sins did Adam commit before he was guilty?
The Greek word used for "to commit" is in itself absolute proof that commit does not mean practice. In the Greek NT there are two words that are commonly used to express the idea of doing something.
The first is "poieo", the second is "prasso". Please listen to what Strong's Greek Dictionary Of The New Testament has to say about those two words.
4160 poieo, poy-eh'o; appar. a prol. form of an obsol. prim.; to make or do (in a very wide application)
4238 prasso, pru'-so; a prim. verb; to "practice", i.e. perform repeatedly or habitually (thus differing from 4160 [poieo] which properly refers to a single act).
When John said "Whosoever is born of God doth not COMMIT sin he used the word "poieo", (to make or do sin with the idea of a single act).
If he had meant to say "practice" sin he would have used "prasso".
This device of the devil about practicing sin is not something new; it is the same old trick he has used for hundreds of years. Please take a moment to read what John Wesley (leader of the greatest revival known in modern times) had to say about "habitual sin":
"But some men will say, 'True: whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin habitually.' Habitually! Whence is that? I read it not. It is not written in the Book. God plainly saith, 'He doth not commit sin'; and thou addest, habitually! Who art thou that mendest the oracles of God?-that 'addest to the words of this book'? Beware I beseech thee, lest God "add to thee all the plagues that are written therein'! John Wesley's Fifty Three Sermons "The Marks of the New Birth" April 3, 1741
I ask you how many deliberate sins must a person commit before he is committing sin. How many murders must one commit before he is a murderer? How often must one commit adultery before he is an adulterer?
At this point, we must be careful to distinguish between sins of ignorance and sins committed presumptuously because the sins done in ignorance can be forgiven but presumptuous sin will not be forgiven.
For example, in the book of Numbers, we find those two types of sin compared:
SINS OF IGNORANCE (These were forgiven)
Numbers 15:27 And if any soul sin through IGNORANCE, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering.
15:28 An the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that SINNETH IGNORANTLY, when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him.
SINS OF PRESUMPTION (Not forgiven)
Numbers 15:30 BUT the soul that doeth aught PRESUMPTUOUSLY, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth [blasphemeth] the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
15:31 Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him."
Those Israelites who deliberately broke God's commandments were not forgiven! Today, many people think that things are different since the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. They say that their WILLFUL sins are "under the blood of Christ" and therefore forgiven. Are they correct? - The apostle John said sins were cleansed only "IF" we walk in the light:
1 John 1:7 "But IF we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Are we cleansed from both sins of ignorance and presumptuous sin? The answer is obvious: we are cleansed only from sins of ignorance. The condition for cleansing is that we must "walk in the light". If a believer is deliberately doing what he knows to be sin, he is not walking in the light. Therefore, the blood of Christ does not cleanse from willful sin.
BLOOD COVERS ERRORS ONLY
The precepts of God do not change. In the Old Testament, the blood sacrifice of animals was a type looking forward to the blood sacrifice of Christ. In the New Testament, the apostle Paul confirmed that the blood sacrifice covered only the ERRORS of the people never the presumptuous or willful sin.
Paul said this:
Hebrews 9:7 "But into the second [tabernacle] went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the ERRORS of the people."
The word "error" is from the Greek: agnoema, which means: "a sin, (strictly, that committed through ignorance or thoughtlessness)". Thayer's Greek Lexicon (Strong's # 51) Many people believe that the blood sacrifice covered all the deliberate sins of the people of Israel, but as you can see, it covered only ERRORS (i.e. the sins of ignorance). It is the same with the blood of Christ.
When we are truly "born of God" the blood of Christ covers all past sins and all future sins of ignorance. But those who deliberately transgress the law of God are committing presumptuous sin and the blood of Jesus Christ does not cover their willful disobedience.
Paul carefully warned Christians that the sacrifice of Jesus would not cover willful sin. He wrote:
Hebrews 10:26 "For if we SIN WILFULLY after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth NO MORE SACRIFICE FOR SINS.
10:27 BUT a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries."
The adversaries are those who rebel against God. They are believers who have "come to the knowledge of the truth" and have been set free from the power of sin. They have the law of God written in their hearts by the Holy Spirit and yet break it with a high hand. By their rebellion, they become the enemy of God and will be punished with Satan and his angels.
In response to this, many will point to King David and his affair with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah. They will say that David sinned presumptuously and God forgave him! That is indeed a good question which demands an answer. The simplest response is
to let the Scriptures decide why David was forgiven. The answer is that David had not yet grown to the point where God considered him to be a "righteous man" as defined by the Lord in the book of Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 18:21 "But if the WICKED turn away from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
18:24 "But 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."
The Lord says that if a WICKED man (as David proved himself to be) turned way from all his sins he would live, [verse 21] but if the RIGHTEOUS man turned back to his wicked ways he would die. [verse 24]
If, in fact, David had fully repented and turned from his wickedness before his sin with Bathsheba, he would have been a righteous man who had turned away from his righteousness and therefore condemned to death. However, since we know that
David was not condemned, we also know that he could not have been a "righteous" man when he committed sin with Bathsheba.
It is the same today, if a wicked man turns away from his wickedness he will be forgiven, but the believer who has been delivered from his sin and then turns back to it (like the dog
returning to his vomit) will be condemned to death on Judgement Day.
Christians who think they can commit willful sin and still be saved from God's wrath because their sin will be covered by the blood of Christ have been deceived by the same Great Serpent who seduced Eve into disobeying God's law by saying: "Ye shall not
surely die." Please do not listen to that liar or his modern day helpers. Listen instead to the apostle John:
"HE THAT COMMITTETH SIN IS OF THE DEVIL"
"WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD DOTH NOT COMMIT SIN" 1 JOHN 3:8-9
In order to have eternal life, the Christian must come to the point where he has ceased from willful sin completely and forever. No matter what one has been told by his church, the Bible says that anyone who finds himself still committing willful sin is not born of
God.
We are not truly born of God until we have totally committed ourselves to obey God's law and surrendered our own will completely to His will. At that stage of growth, we do not yet
understand the sin nature that is buried deep within our souls. We often break God's law without knowing it.
Since the sin is done in ignorance, the atoning death of Jesus covers it. But once we recognize that what we are doing is sin and confess it, we MUST stop doing it. If we refuse to stop, we are guilty of rebellion and will be condemned on Judgement Day because we refused to accept Jesus as our Lord.
Think about it...If we do not obey Jesus, He is not our Lord! Jesus asked:
"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord and do not the things I say?
Luke 6:46
Remember, John said: "...whosoever is born of God SINNETH NOT". (1 John 5:18) As sin is revealed by the Holy Spirit those who really are born of God quit doing it. eventually all sin is revealed and thus they quit doing all sin. On the other hand, the Christian who continues to disobey even one of God's Ten Commandments (including the Sabbath) is in rebellion. There will be no rebels in God's kingdom.
Harold and Donna Kupp
