Is there any sin you must stop committing, to be saved in the first place, or initially when you become a follower of Jesus Christ? That sounds like a reasonable question. Most evangelical pastors say emphatically, “No sin must be stopped to become a follower of Christ”. Many of these blind guides will likely follow up with this statement or something similar. “Only unbelief, not sin, will exclude you from the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, believe in the LORD Jesus Christ and you are saved irrespective of the sin question”. Charles Stanley said that unbelief is a state, not a sin. He wants us to believe that it is not our wicked sins, such as murder, adultery, homosexuality, and so on, that keep us out of heaven, but only our unbelief. According to Stanley and many others, the state of unbelief (not sins) will cause you to miss out on heaven. But isn’t unbelief a sin and a state both? Of course it is.
Basically, what is being taught today as salvation is that you get saved as a poor helpless sinner, filled with the Holy Spirit and then God will magically empower you to ‘begin’ overcoming your wicked habits over a long period of time but never to the extent that sin is the exception in your life and not the rule. Consequently, you get ‘saved in your sins’ and then you repent of some sin, little by little, over your entire life, but never expect to put all sin out of your life until you die. Then God will complete the work and purify you. Bottom line is that you and I get saved “in” our sins and from some sin, little by little (or maybe none at all) at the same time. That’s how the process is supposed to work. Does that make sense to you? In other words, evangelical Christianity is telling us that sin never stops in this life, even for the Christian.
This method of salvation has some serious flaws. First of all, sin never stops in the life of a Christian. Sin stops when we die and go to heaven. The so-called ‘saved’ Christian continues to struggle with all the same sins they allegedly repented of (but actually did not repent of) at the start of their Christian walk. They are still ‘waiting’ on God to change their desires and take away their wicked habits. The Pastors today keep telling them, they are saved and filled with the Spirit, and that God will soon ‘empower’ them to overcome some sins, gradually over time. In the meantime, no worries, because they are eternally secure even if they make little or no progress in actually stopping sin in their life. The sinful nature they inherited from Adam will prevent their entire sanctification during this life. It is not their fault, so they should relax. In many cases, the sinful bondage keeps getting worse and not better. What kind of theology is that, befitting the god of this world, but completely contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Many new converts are told, from the pulpit and in Bible study classes, that they are born with a sinful nature. They are born a wretched sinner, as Paul talked about in Romans 7. They are born guilty of Adam’s sin and with an ‘inbred’ sinful nature. At best, all the new converts can expect to be in this world is the Chief of Sinners, like Paul, they say, fully wretched to the core. Although the power of God is hypothetically working to deliver them from sin, the sinning actually never stops. Soon, they will begin to blame God and maybe even thank God for their constant sins and their lack of success in overcoming sin. Since they have also been told that continuously admitting they are poor, wretched sinners will keep them humble before God. And isn’t God delighted in humility? Unfortunately, they have no clue that they are growing more and more callous in their rebellion against God. They do not seem to realize that their apostasy may overtake them, see comments about Hebrews 6 in the last section.
This typical pastoral message regarding sin in the life of a believer is very confusing and contradictory. On one hand, the pastors are saying that a saved person can’t or shouldn’t be living in continual sin. But on the other hand, many of them assure you that ‘some’ deeply engrained sins (the sin that so easily besets or entangles us) are difficult to root out and don’t expect to ever be perfect. Although you certainly remained saved in the meantime, even if such a sin is as evil as rape or child molestation. The logical conclusion is this: the commission of sin (any sin) is between the person and God, while the ceasing of sin is on God’s timetable. After all, if God wanted you to stop all sinning, then God would make you stop, right? The final outcome of salvation is eternally secure in Christ, so the person must continue to trust that God is faithful no matter what happens in our unfaithful flesh. Our standing in heaven is perfection, while our actual state on earth is sinful. Standing and state, position and practice, are a couple of ways this is often discussed. We can be considered or imputed to be holy in heaven, while at the same time we are actually living an evil life on earth.
What is so perplexing about their message is that some of them do teach that repentance is a fruit of salvation. What kind of repentance is it? You get saved and then repent little by little over time. But other Christian leaders don’t even mention repentance. It’s not even a mandate or condition of salvation. Therefore, the Biblical process of godly sorrow working repentance unto salvation is null and void. They either have it in reverse or not at all. Nonetheless, most everyone teaches that it’s God’s responsibility to clean up sinning Christians, according to His schedule (not ours). Hence, the professing masses of believers are wallowing in their sin while they wait for some divine guidance to miraculously straighten them out. Although it never happens, this is God’s plan, we are told.
Is God so limited in His power that all He can do is cover our sin and pretend He can only see the perfection of His Son? The Bible says that He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. We are also told that we are partakers of His divine nature in order to escape the corruption that is in the world through lust, (2 Peter 1:3-4). Additionally, the Bible states that Christians can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). The same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work in us (Ephesians 1:19-20). If all these passages are true, why are we told to expect to sin until the day we die?
What’s the problem?
Under their false message, even Christians remain wretched sinners, forever in bondage to lust. Would God intentionally limit Himself in dealing with His children? Does God want us to stay “humble” sinners? Or is God not powerful enough to save us from a life of sinning? If it’s His job to clean us up, why doesn’t it ever seem to happen in this life? Why doesn’t the sinning ever stop? The problem is that these false teachers are actually teaching unbelief in the promises of God. Instead of believing that Jesus came to save us from our sins, they teach that Jesus saves us “in” our sins. Apparently, Jesus Christ is not able to save us from our sins. Moreover, they believe that death is our savior from sin, not Jesus Christ. Is the power and grace of God insufficient to save us from our sins? It is, if you believe them.
The truthful answer is very simple. It’s not God’s job to change our desires and behaviors from evil to good. Only a five-point Calvinist puts the entire responsibility on God. In true repentance, we cease to do evil and learn to do good, (Isaiah 1:16). In true repentance, we forsake our evil ways and unrighteous thoughts, (Isaiah 55:7). We lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word that is able to save our soul, (James 1:21). The clearing and cleansing of wrong doing is our part, it’s our responsibility. Granting forgiveness and pardon is God’s part (2 Corinthians 7:10-11). Unless we are cleansed and clear of our sin through repentance, the sin will never stop.
Think about it for a moment. Christians and non-Christians do, in fact, stop some of their sinful habits all on their own. They break free of alcohol, drugs, and various addictions. All human beings are perfectly capable of doing what is right, which is obviously a condition of moral responsibility. It may not be easy, but no one can deny that it has been accomplished and continues to be done even today. However, Christians are told that even with the grace of the Holy Ghost and the power of Almighty God, they will never fully be rid of sin in their life. What kind of good news is that?
However, you must understand that stopping your sin does not automatically restore you to favor with anyone. It only proves that you are making a sincere and diligent effort to change. I know of people who have stopped smoking for personal reasons, and God had nothing to do with it. As in the case of adultery, some never start it or stop for other reasons besides getting right with God. Abandoning the adulterous relationship will not automatically reconcile the broken marriage relationship, nor will it provide God’s forgiveness. The offended party must be motivated by the effort made to freely grant forgiveness and restore the relationship. Few, if any, spouses of an adulterer would stay married if the adultery continued. Remember that God eventually divorced Israel because of their continual adultery. To be reconciled to God, the Jews were expected to confess and forsake their evil ways.
God has granted us the grace of repentance, proven by deeds of righteousness, to forgive our sins and restore us to a right relationship, washed and purged by the Blood of Christ. We are free to choose, which makes us responsible for obeying (Joshua 24:15). We are workers together with God in the process of redemption (2 Corinthians 6:1). Pastors have fallen prey to a deadly error by insisting that we must be saved “in” our sins. Flee them. Start or join a house church that is free to search out the truth and live by it.
When does the sin stop? Sin stops on the day of genuine repentance. And that day is when a person is actually born anew of the Holy Ghost. It is the day when the old man dies and the new man begins to live. If the sin never stops and only slows down a bit, there is no saving repentance and no salvation, only a religious deception.
If a Christian sins after being born anew, they can be restored if they will repent. But habitual sin in a so-called Christian is inconsistent with the truth of God. For someone who is truly born again, sin becomes the exception rather than the rule in their life. Sin always stops with true repentance.
