Can Christians Really Live Without Sinning?
Q: Are we called to (or even able to) live life as Christians without sinning? Some say that we are called to be perfect, and that Jesus said to “go and sin no more.” Is that realistic or attainable in this life, by God’s help?
A: This is a great question – but I don’t think there is a simple answer to it. There are some important aspects to look at.
- How sin is defined: do we mean conscious, chosen rebellion only, or do we include other kinds of sins also?
- The difference between the ideal and the real; or the theoretical and the actual.
It’s also important to note that we are not talking about a person not needing God’s forgiveness or salvation. The issue really has to do not so much with a person’s salvation, but their sanctification – that is, their growth in grace, their progress in holy living. The issue isn’t past sin in the believer’s life, but present and future sin in the believer’s life. Is it possible for a believer to be free from present and future sin?
The Definition of Sin
If we define sin in the broadest sense – let’s call it the Romans 3:23 sense, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God – that broad sense would include:
- Sins of commission – sins we commit, knowing and conscious, sins of rebellion.
- Sins of ignorance – sins we commit, but at the moment we don’t know it’s sin.
- Sins of weakness – sins we commit, but much of the cause is found in the weakness of our human nature, much more than outright rebellion.
- Sins of our thoughts, mind, and motive – sins not in what we do, but in what is inside us.
- Sins of omission, the sins found in what we don’t do.
- Anything in our words, thoughts, and actions that falls short of the glory of God, as in Romans 3:23.
I think that many of those who claim that Christians can, on this side of eternity, attain to sinless perfection, only have the first category in mind: Sins of commission – sins we commit, knowing and conscious, sins of rebellion. I really don’t know of anyone who claims that Christians can, on this side of eternity, be completely free of sins of ignorance and weakness; sins of thought, mind, and motive; and sins of omission. What they usually have in mind is the idea of sins of outright rebellion.
The Difference Between the Ideal and the Real
Let’s say that we are dealing only with sins of commission – those sins we do knowing and conscious, sins of rebellion – is it possible for a Christian to be completely free of those sins
Here’s where we find a tension between the real and the ideal.
In real life, we will sin. The weakness of the flesh, the pressure from the world, and the attacks from the devil will continue against us until the day we pass from this life to the next. For the believer in Jesus – the person who trusts in, relies on, and clings to Jesus Christ, to who He is and what He did to save them, especially in His sacrificial death and His glorious resurrection – that person has been freed from the penalty of sin, they are free from the power of sin, and they one day will be free from the very presence of sin. But that freedom from the presence of sin is ultimately in the world to come, when the believer is glorified and resurrected.
In the ideal, God has set the believer free from the power of sin. When we are faced with a temptation, an enticement to deliberately choose rebellion against God, we do not have to give in to that temptation.
Romans 6:6-7 – …knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:11-12 – Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Here’s a glorious truth: God has not set the believer in a system or a status where we must sin, at least in the sense of sin as a deliberately chosen rebellion against God.
Believer, you don’t have to sin in this sense (chosen rebellion against God). This is a powerful, important truth that is often neglected. Maybe it is neglected because people are afraid of teaching some form of perfectionism, but I think that we can hold these truths at the same time:
- In the ideal, the believer can choose to walk in the freedom from sin that Jesus Christ has won for them in His death and resurrection. God doesn’t “make us” sin.
- In the real, we face such consistent attack and weakness from the world, the flesh, and the devil that in some sense sin – even in the narrow sense of chosen, deliberate rebellion – sin will remain until we are glorified.
So, here’s an answer: if we narrow the definition of sin to conscious, chosen rebellion against God, then it is possible to be sinlessly perfect in the ideal, but not in the real.
But, let me leave this with two thoughts:
- Instead of thinking that you must resist every temptation for the rest of your life (that is an overwhelming thought), just remember that all you have to do is resist and deny the next If you consistently resist and deny the next temptation, you will do great!
- Every believer will sin for the last time – no matter how someone defines sin! Maybe their last sin will be right before their last breath; maybe it will be the day before, or maybe the week before.
Let’s give more attention to walking in the freedom from sin that Jesus won for us at the cross and the empty tomb!