SIN, SINS, SINNER (Part 3)

QUESTION: Greetings pastor is there are differences between sin, sinning and sinner? If there is, is that difference in our interpretation and experience or one we can deduce from scriptures as well. Are we still sinners ever under Christ? Thanks,

Becky

RESPONSE: In the previous instalment of this answer, we looked at the Old Testament (OT) theological perspective, Hebraic doctrine of sin, and Hebrew terminology for sin. We will now turn to the New Testament to do so (NT). However, I’ll begin with your second question in this episode: are Christians (believers in Christ) still sinners?

Are we Sinners?

Scripture warns us that if we claim to be without sin, we are lying and the truth is not in us (1John 1:8-10; 2:1). So, to address your question about whether we are still sinners under Jesus Christ, the short answer is yes. However, I’m sure you’ve read or heard somewhere that Christians are saints, not sinners, and that they can’t sin. You’ve surely heard the verse, “No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.” Because His seed abides in him, no one born of God commits sin; and he cannot sin because he is born of God” (1John 3:6,9).

These preachers, I’m sure, have gone on to say that when Christ was crucified, you were also crucified, when he died, you died, and you were also buried with Him (Romans 6:5-6; Romans 6:4-5; Colossians 2:12), therefore your sinful nature was also crucified with Him. These teachers will go on to quote verses like (Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12; 3:1) to show you that you have been brought to life with God and raised with Jesus and that you are no longer a sinner but a saint because you have been brought to life with God and raised with Jesus.

These teachers will also tell you that you are not a sinner because you have been pronounced righteous in a proof-texting manner (Romans 5:1). You are not a sinner because that was your previous life (1 Timothy 1:13; Romans 5:8), and you are not a sinner because Jesus Christ’s blood has washed away your sins (Hebrews 9:13-14, Romans 6:5-7). You are a sinner as a Christian (by thought and practice = Matthew 5:28; Genesis 6:5), yet unlike those who have not believed in Christ and those who lack Christ’s righteousness, Christian sinners are not condemned (Romans 8:1; John 3:17-19).

Paul referred to himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), implying that he was a sinner in Christ whose condemnation rested on Jesus Christ rather than on Paul. Those who claim that believers in Christ are no longer sinners and do not sin are incorrect if they mean that believers are no longer sinners by nature or identity (Psalms 51:5; 58:3; Romans 3:9-10, 23; 7:14,18,20; Galatians 5:17; Ecclesiastes 7:20).

The sainthood of those in Christ does not imply that we Christians in Christ do not sin and are thus not sinners, but rather that sinners in Christ are not held accountable for their sinning and sins, but rather that the Jesus in whom they are is (2Corithians 5:21), and they are no longer children of wrath as they once were (Ephesians 2:3). Jesus Christ bears the guilt and, as a result, the punishment of eternal damnation for the sins of believers in Christ. That is the message of the Gospel of Grace through Faith in Righteousness.

The concept that those who are born again are new creatures (John 3:1-3; 2Corinthians 5:17) does not imply that Jesus Christ is a factory that manufactures us as new products. Our Newness is Jesus Christ, and his righteousness is a new wrapper for our old selves. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” Paul says, “and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (2 Corinthians 2:10; Galatians 2:20). Only in Christ can we be new; we are new as long as we are in Christ; once we are no longer in Christ, we are as old as we have always been.

In this world, there are two types of sinners: those who are in Christ and those who are not (Luke 18:10-14). The common denominator is sinners, and the division is geography. Are you a follower of Christ?

We are Justified Sinners

The problem with those who preach that Christians are sinless is twofold. First, they have a faulty view of sin, sins, and sinners. As a result, they don’t grasp what we’re saved from, and they don’t see how God’s righteousness operates in our redemption.

The first is the belief that we are redeemed from immorality and that salvation (regeneration/born again) occurs when the immoral becomes moral. Another school of thought says that believers should be continually sanctified in order to achieve perfection (glorification).

The second misunderstanding is that God’s righteousness is regarded as a moral imputation to Christians. When Christians read that we are given God’s righteousness, they presume that we become God’s righteousness in identity and practice, but the fact is that we are covered by God’s righteousness rather than becoming God’s righteousness.

WE ARE SECURE WITHIN GOD’S RIGHTEOUSNESS. The good we do isn’t always a result of our being covered by God’s righteousness, for even those who aren’t saved do good (Romans 2:14). The sins of justified sinners (covered/dressed by God’s righteousness) have no bearing on God’s righteousness. It does not add to this righteousness when we do right, observe all the law, be religious, and behave throughout our lives (Isaiah 64:6; Luke 18:11-12), and our failures in Christ have no bearing on this righteousness by which we are saved. As a result of God’s righteousness, we are both righteous and sinners in Christ, because this is who we are and who God justified. Our righteous standing before God is based exclusively on our relationship with Christ; what makes us sinless is God’s righteousness, not ours.

Martin Luther coined the phrase “simul Justus et peccator” to characterise the sainthood and sinfulness of believers in Christ in his reformation theology. The Latin phrase indicates that a Christian is “simultaneously righteous and sinner,” or that we are both just in God’s eyes and impeccable in our deeds in front of Him at the same time. When we believe in Jesus Christ, he does not make us righteous, but rather accommodates us—believers (sinful as we are) in his righteousness; this does not make us sinless, but rather sinners covered by God’s righteousness… We are, after all, sinners in Christ. What are SINNERS saved from, then? Is it SIN (sinning) or SINS (sin)?

Next, we turn to the NT view of Sin, Sins and Sinner.

God bless you I invoke TRUTH, REASON and FAITH (2Tim 2:7) 

Priest Isaiah White (+256-775 822833 for further inquiries)

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