Do Christians Sin? | Addressing the “I Never Sin” Lie
Have you ever met a Christian that insists NO CHRISTIAN Sins?
They pound their chest and expect us to believe they no longer commit a single sin.
The idea is if we disagree with them, we must be condoning a life of endless sin.
So, let’s examine some verses they use to make their case, and explain the real context, and then let’s look at a couple of verses that completely debunk this cult-like teaching.
1 John 3:9 No one born of God sins.
That’s what they claim the Bible teaches us. But first I want to point out that that’s not really what the verse says. Let’s take a look at the actual language:
The actual langue reads –
[1 John 3:9] No one who has been born of God PRACTICES sin, because His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin CONTINUALLY, because he has been born of God.
So this verse is actually saying that Christians do not stumble. It’s teaching us that we don’t keep on keeping on SINNING. Christians all sin, but we do not practice sin. We practice righteousness.
-Sometimes I play basketball with my son. But I do not practice basketball. LeBron James practices basketball. It’s what he does. It’s who he is.
-All Christians stumble in many ways, and while sometimes we may sin more frequently than others, in terms of our lifestyle we do not do it continually. There’s something different about us. We may be deceived temporarily and think we might find some type of satisfaction in sin, but in the end, it always leaves us empty. And as believers, we will get up, wipe ourselves off, and continue walking in the Spirit.
-So again this verse is about our identity. The old unsaved person would be looking to break world records for sin. The new Christian is only fulfilled when we are walking in the Spirit. So while we all sin, we no longer practice sin. We practice righteousness.
But let’s say you’re still not convinced and you believe John is indeed saying that no Christian sins. Well, let’s rewind a little bit in his letter and see something else he had to write.
[1 John 2:1] My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. BUT if anybody DOES SIN, we have an ADVOCATE with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One
So, we can all agree that the heart of God is that we would NOT sin. We are NOT teaching otherwise. But apparently, John seems to think we are in fact still capable of making choices, which sometimes are good, and at other times may be bad. Because if that were not true then this verse makes absolutely no sense. There would be no ‘BUT’. There would also be no need for an advocate. But it appears John wants us to know that sometimes we are going to make bad decisions, and he wants to give us confidence that if you do something that you should not do that Jesus is not going to turn his back on you. He is going to be your advocate to God.
[Matthew 7:18] A Good tree cannot bear bad fruit.
-So when false teachers read this, this cult wants us to think that what was being taught here is that the good tree is the Christians, and the bad fruit is the sin. Therefore they are translating this as “a Christian cannot sin”. But is that the real context in Matthew’s letter? I don’t think so. .. Let’s look a little closer at the context. We need to first rewind a few verses.
[Matthew 7:13-14] “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
-So let’s make sure we interpret this instead of letting a cult tell us what’s going on. It’s important to remember that Matthew was writing to Jewish people. Now most of these Jewish people were all about human performance for righteousness. They are law lovers. Matthew doesn’t need to address their outward performance because they’re faking it all the way through. They love the message of human effort-based righteousness. But what do they think about Jesus? As a whole, are they going to embrace him as the way to God? NOPE. They’re going to crucify him on a cross and reject him.
-So when Matthew starts writing about this wide gate that leads to destruction, he’s writing to Jewish people who are choosing the gate of human performance. The law. We know that the law kills. No one will be found right through the law. Your parcel, Paul called the law a ministry of death and condemnation. The law is the wide gate that leads to destruction.
-Again remember that he is writing Jewish people that will mostly deny his deity. The narrow gate is Jesus. Few Jewish people are going to choose Jesus. But it’s Jesus that leads to life. That is the context that’s going on here. And Matthew wants to make sure that people watch out for people that are teaching a different message. Let’s call them false prophets. Now let’s continue with Matthew’s letter.
[Matthew 7:15] Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
The context is this – there’s a wide gate that sends people to hell. And that’s the message pushing human performance-based righteousness. There’s a narrow gate that leads to life. And that’s the message that teaches Jesus is the way the truth and no one comes to God except through him. The false prophets are those liars that are leading people through the wide gate. They’re talking about performance. They might even be the ones telling you that they do not sin. These would be the people that think they perfectly keep the law.
[Matthew 7:17] So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
When a believer shares the truth about Jesus Christ they cannot bear bad fruit. Note, that does not mean that everyone who hears the truth will receive it. Some will certainly reject it. But that person was already bad fruit. You would not be the one bearing that fruit. I would also add that when God looks at the fruits of the spirit, he’s not inspecting the works of the Christian as an individual. He’s inspecting the fruits of the Spirit working in and through us. Meaning I could go and just give someone $100, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that was the fruit from Jesus. Sometimes we do outward works just so we can think we’re impressing God. Some good works come from Jesus in us, and others come from selfish motives.
[Matthew 7:16] You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?
So what are the fruits being described from false prophets that are teaching a message that leads people through the wide gate which takes them to their destruction? The fruits are conversions. There will be no souls saved that buy into the message from these false prophets. That message is not coming from Jesus. That message is a lie from the evil one.
When the truth about Jesus is preached there will be saved souls. Those being saved are the fruit of the message of truth that is preached.
And then we ultimately fast forward to Matthew 7:18.
Matthew 7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit.
Remember, the context through all of this was the gospel message that we are sharing. There’s a lie that says we get saved by performing well. And there’s the truth that says we get saved by trusting in Jesus. And hopefully, now that we have a better foundation of the true context, we can also debunk this terrible teaching that follows in verses 21 through 23. They start talking about “not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom”. Keeping in mind the context of the previous verses, let’s put some legs on the closing verses.
[Matthew 7:21-23] “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; leave Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
What is this will of God? Is that we will keep 613 laws for salvation? No.
[John 6:40] ‘For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” So the will is about trusting Jesus.
Now, I want you to notice who these people are trusting. If you fully put your faith in Jesus you would not stand before God bragging about yourself. That would be like saying, “Jesus did I not trust in you. I did not have faith in you”.
But these guys are pounding their chests and bragging about what they were doing for God instead of what God did for them. Did I not prophesy? Did I not cast out demons? Did I not perform miracles? Do you see what these guys are looking at for salvation? They’re looking at themselves.
Now pay close attention to how Jesus responds to them. He doesn’t say there was a time when I knew you and you guys were doing good, but then you started committing a bunch of outward sins. In fact, these guys think they’re pretty awesome in terms of their performance. Jesus had one thing to say. He said I NEVER knew you. There was never a time at any point that Jesus knew them. In other words, they did not believe in him. So what was this lawlessness they practiced? Apparently, they did not do the will of the father. They did not believe in the Son. The lawlessness is not outward sin. It is inward sin. So you can run around saying the name Jesus, casting out demons, performing miracles, but if you don’t know Jesus you are guilty of unbelief. And with all the respect that is exactly how I see these guys that are claiming they are without sin. They are liars and the truth, who is Jesus, is not in them. These guys were bad trees, and while they may have had a lot of outward performance, they had no good fruit at all.
Let’s look at another verse these cults would teach him to suggest Christians are not capable of sinning.
[Hebrews 10:26] For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
So, the claim from to cult here would be is that if someone actually sins they must not be saved. And that again is a lie from the evil one. In fact, this verse is not even addressing believers. It is addressing people who reject Jesus.
There’s a lot going on in the letter to the Hebrews, so I’m just going to try to summarize it in a way that makes sense.
The most important thing anyone can do when reading this letter is read the first 10 chapters and see if you can find even ONE reference to OUTWARD sin. Because you’re not going to find it. In all of the first 10 chapters, the only reference to sin is INWARD. The only kind of sin ever mentioned is the sin of unbelief.
Remember Hebrews is obviously written to Jewish people. They love the law. They are all about pounding their chests and bragging about how they avoid sin. There would be no reason to try to push the law on these people.
And the writer is trying to rescue them from their sin of unbelief. These Jewish people have all tasted the gospel. They’ve heard the good news. Heck, many of them had first-hand accounts of the work of Jesus. The Prophets told them about Jesus. But it appears the majority of these Jewish people are going to reject him as the son of God. Instead, they are going to run back to the temple. Hedging their bets that the way to God is through animal blood. Through the Mosaic law. They don’t want any part of this Jesus message.
And that’s where we get the context of Hebrews 10:26. Simply put he’s telling the Jewish people the following:
For if we go on rejecting Jesus willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth about how we get saved (by calling on Jesus to save us), there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
What he saying is Jesus is the only acceptable sacrifice for sin. And if you reject Jesus, you have rejected the holy lamb. You have rejected the ONLY sacrifice that would save you. So this is a threat to unbelieving Jewish people. There is no other way to God, and these guys need a wake-up call.
So again, this has nothing to do with Christians not being able to sin. That is cult teaching.
We could go on all day long debunking the idea the Bible says Christians do not sin. But let’s flip this the other way around and review verses that actually confirm we are still very capable of making bad choices and sinning. Please let me reiterate, I absolutely am saying that sin is a bad choice. I would never say differently.
In James 3:2, we read
[James 3:2] James tells us we all stumble in many ways.
So James is clearly acknowledging that we sin.
[Romans 7:15-16] For I do not understand what I am doing; for I am not practicing what I want to do, but I do the very thing I hate. However, if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, that the Law is good.
So, even Paul is willing to acknowledge that sometimes he does the things that he knows he shouldn’t, and other times he does not do the things that he knows he should. Paul goes on the write: [Romans 7:19] For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
Paul is describing a struggle between two identities. His old self, and his new self in Christ. Like the apostle Paul, we all have old thoughts that we need to train ourselves to think differently as we renew our minds. Paul goes on to say something very interesting. He realizes that while he is allowing these things to happen, he is not the source which this originates from. There is a real power called sin, and it is from an external source. Paul writes the following:
[Romans 7:20] But if I do the very thing I do not want, I am NO LONGER the one doing it, but sin that dwells in me.
Paul is not denying his sin. He’s acknowledging the actual source of sin. But the people who say they do NOT sin are doing just the opposite. They are lying and denying that they sin.
[Col 3:1-4]Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
In Colossians 3, Paul starts off by telling them that “they have been raised with Christ” (vs 1), and to set their minds on things above (vs2). He says they died with Christ. He said their life is hidden with Christ. He says Christ is their life. And he says they will be revealed with God in glory. So We KNOW they are Christians.
Next, Paul writes:
[Col 3:5] Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
Why would the apostle Paul need to write that if it were not even possible for these believers to commit such acts? He tells him that because we all have choices to make. God has not stolen our free will. And again if the cult teaching or true believers could not send, there will be absolutely no purpose for writing this verse.
We could literally talk about these kinds of verses all day long. But for the sake of time, I’m just going to give one final piece of proof that debunks cult teaching that Christians do not sin. Most of us are familiar with the letter written to the Corinthians. I don’t know if there was ever a group of believers that committed as many sins as they did. This was like Vegas on steroids. They were having orgies. They were drunkards. They were abusing the Lord’s supper.
There’s even one guy that was doing something that even the Gentiles did not do. Apparently, he was sleeping with his dad’s wife. Luckily for him, it appears that while he was kicked out of the church, for being so repulsive and arrogant about his sin, his soul remains saved.
Now perhaps somebody might argue that these were not Christians. Let’s see if that’s true. Let’s look at how Paul addresses them when he starts writing them in 1 Corinthians 1.
1 Cor 1:2 ‘to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus’
That sounds like a believer to me.
1 Cor 1:2 ‘saints by calling’
That sounds like a believer to me.
1 Cor 1:4 f’or the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father’
That sounds like a believer to me. And how about these verses.
Vs 5 ‘you were enriched in Him’
Vs 6 ‘the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you’
Vs 7 ‘you eagerly await the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ’
Vs 8 who will also confirm you to the end, blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ’
Vs 9 ‘you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord’
So, these were believers.
Now wrapping this up I want to confirm that we are indeed called to avoid sin. In fact, if anyone says differently you should run for the hills. So why am I writing this? I’m writing this for the believers, not for the cult people who have heard the gospel and choose to push the teaching that Christians don’t sin.
When we hear that message it can very easily sound close to the real thing. It certainly sounds spiritual and ominous. That’s a lie directly from the evil one. My worry is that sometimes born-again believers might hear that message and perhaps for a period of time consider it to be true. But then the moment they realize they are still stumbling in many ways, they will immediately doubt salvation. They will take their eyes off of Jesus. They will obsess over their performance when they really need to be obsessing over Jesus’s performance.
Conclusion:
Yes, avoid sin. We’re not made for sin. But don’t be a sin denier.
Instead, use that occasional shortcoming as a reminder to thank Jesus. It reminds us of our need to be rescued. Sinning doesn’t make you an unbeliever. But denying sin does.
God bless you all. If you like this please be sure to comment, like, and share below. Thanks!
Author: Mike Cynar
Mike Cynar was raised in a church setting where he frequently noticed that many attendees would eventually drift away. The church labeled these individuals as ‘back sliders’ or ‘fake Christians’ just looking for ‘fire insurance’. However, Mike realized the issue was rarely with these individuals but instead with the church’s message itself. The teachings heavily emphasized behavior improvement and one’s flaws, with only a fleeting mention of one’s identity in Christ. It felt as though every sermon was tailored to the church of Corinth, who as we know or committing sins that even unbelievers don’t partake in. This trend was noticeable not just in one denomination, but across Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, and many other churches. Upon understanding the true essence of the gospel – that our righteousness comes from Jesus’ actions, not our own – Mike was inspired to liberate believers from lifeless sermons and reconnect them with the genuine teachings of Jesus. He believes that one can nurture a vibrant and growing bond with Jesus, unhindered by rigid religious practices. And thus, “Jesus Without Religion” was born.
It turns out that it is grace that leads to repentance. And if our heart is to get others to walk in the Spirit and live a godly life, then the best approach is not a beat down sermon, but rather to remind other that it is only when we understand our true identity in Christ that we will live it out. Yes, it’s true, if you’re convinced that God thinks you’re a dirty sinner, you will ultimately continue a lifestyle that mirrors that view, but if you truly believe that even on your worst day, you are called holy, sanctified, justified, and will be presented blameless in the end, well, it turns out this is the secret to living out on the outside what has been worked in to the inside.
