Author: Fred Pruitt
The Word of God says that sin is the transgression of the law. (I John 3:4). A person who has no knowledge of God’s law, such as a child, would be innocent of any transgression. James says, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” James 4:17.
In Isaiah 59:2, we find these words written by the Holy Spirit through the prophet, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”
The only thing that separates men and women from God is their own sin and iniquity. And when a person goes to God with a penitent heart, asking for mercy and forgiveness, believing on the blood of Christ as an atonement for sin, God is faithful to forgive and to cleanse that individual from all sin or unrighteousness. When a person is really saved through Christ, he is no longer a sinner, but a saint-a saved person who does not commit sin. (I John 3:9).
One prominent doctrine in the world today teaches that a person who is “born again” sins more or less all the time and can be termed, “a sinner saved by grace.” However, that which God does not impute to man as sin is not sin. Faults and mistakes are not sin. It is possible that such things could become sin. For instance, when knowledge comes that one has done someone a wrong through a mistake or fault and is not willing to fix it up as much as possible, then it becomes a sin and brings condemnation to the soul. But to say that someone washed in the blood of Jesus is a “sinner saved by grace,” would be wrong and misleading, for a saved person is no longer a sinner.
I tried to reason with a preacher once and show him that a man who is saved is no longer a sinner and should not be classed as such. The preacher claimed that the soul could be saved but the flesh or body remain sinful. As proof, he referred to the seventh chapter of Romans and claimed that Paul was describing his experience as a Christian. He said that Paul, in the same chapter, declared himself to be a “wretched man.” When I asked the preacher if he was a wretched man, he declared very emphatically that he was indeed.
I feel sorry for people who profess to follow Christ and yet are wretched, for when God saved my soul, He made me happy. Even in the worst trials of life, I am never wretched, for the “Hope of glory” fills my soul and brings freedom, joy and contentment.
In order to make plain this truth, I wish to offer some Scriptures on the subject. “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Matt.1:21.
“The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.” Luke 1:73-75.
“Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed [Word of God, Luke 8:11] remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil. . . .” I John 3:6, 8-10.
Those holding the doctrine that Christians sin more or less everyday, try to kill the weight of these Scriptures by claiming that this flesh, the body, sins, but the soul is holy and righteous.
Let us look into the Scriptures to see whether or not God teaches that the body of a saved man sins while his soul is preserved holy and righteous.
“Knowing this, that our old man [the carnal, fleshly nature that causes men to sin] is crucified with him, that the body of sin [the evil powers within a sinner] might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.” “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” Rom. 6:6-7, 12.
“For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God’s.” I Cor. 6:20.
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body [put them to death], ye shall live.” Rom. 8:12-13.
In I Corinthians 9:27, Paul testified, “But I keep under my body [or keep my body under], and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” A castaway, according to the dictionary, is a worthless thing, a thing that is refused.
Paul tells us in I Thessalonians 5:22-24 to “Abstain from all appearance of evil. And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
If your whole spirit, soul, and body are preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord ‹and God says He will do that very thing-how much of you is left to commit sin? Brethren, we had better believe the plain statements of God’s Word and look to Him for right interpretation of seemingly contradictory Scriptures that would hold people under sin and bondage and bring awful regret in the end.
We read in Galatians 6:7-8, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”
Peter instructs us to “Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” (I Peter 2:11). The spirit and life of Christ living in the soul will give us power to abstain from all fleshly lusts and enable us to sow unto the Spirit and have life everlasting. But those who sow to the flesh in “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like,” are sowing to the flesh and will reap eternal destruction.
In Ephesians 2:2-3, Paul tells more about our condition when we were in sin: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past [This includes his own condition of which he spoke in the 7th chapter of Romans.] in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature [the sin that dwelt in him] the children of wrath, even as others.”
Brethren, there are just two spiritual powers in the world today. One is the Spirit of God and the other is the spirit of Satan. The Spirit of God will cause us to put to death the deeds of the body and yield to God’s will, but the spirit of Satan will cause us to yield to sin by transgressing the laws and commands of God.
Turn your attention again to the 7th chapter of Romans. As you read this chapter with prayer and carefulness, can you see that Paul is telling of his condition while under the law in sin? Although he was a saved man when he wrote it, yet he was trying to make plain the condition of a man in sin under the law without Christ, and he used himself to illustrate it, making plain the condition that existed with him when in sin.
He begins when he was a child and says in the 9th verse, “For I was alive without the law once [when I was a child and did not know any commandments]: but when the commandment came [when I was old enough to know what God commanded], sin revived, and I died.”
He began to realize that he was sinning and was carnal. He describes the power of the indwelling sin that caused him to do wrong, and finally says, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” The power, or body of sin within him had been working death to his soul by causing him to sin through the lusts of the flesh. No wonder he had been a wretched man, knowing what he ought to do, but finding no power to do it, and at the same time, the power of indwelling sin was bringing his soul to destruction and damnation. This is certainly the description of an unsaved man and never of one fully saved in Christ.
In the eighth chapter, after being set free from that wretched condition of indwelling sin he says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” In Christ, he was no longer a wretched man, but had life without condemnation. He was FREE! In the seventh chapter, Paul describes the condition that existed with him when he unsaved, and in the eighth chapter he tells the condition of a saved man.
In I John 3:7, just before he began to make it plain about living free from sin, John said, “Little children, let no man deceive you: [He knew that many would misconstrue the Scriptures and deceive souls.] he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” This makes it plain that a Christian is like Christ in righteousness, and no longer a sinner.
The apostle Peter tells us in II Peter 3:16, that Paul writes some things that are hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned (have not been taught by the Spirit) and are unstable (not settled in real truth) wrest (twist), as they do also other Scriptures unto their own destruction.
It is pitiful to note the great number of preachers in the world today who are twisting the Scriptures and are causing many to believe false doctrine to their own destruction.
We get from God what we believe for. If preachers teach people that they cannot live free from sin, they will never have faith to accept that they can, but will continue under bondage to the enemy of their souls and be lost forever. Just being sincere about a thing will not save the soul; but there must be an active, living faith of believing and receiving.
