The Habitually Sinning Christian

Recently, my father-in-law asked me a rather unusual question last weekend while we were picking blueberries.

"Is there such a thing as the 'spiritual prosperity gospel', and if so, what does it   look like?"

"Spiritual prosperity gospel"?  It did catch me off guard.  At first, I had thought he was just asking about the prosperity gospel.  I started explaining how people will claim that if you sow a seed then God will bless you with money or physically... but he eventually stopped me and informed me that is not what he was asking about.

After some clarification, though I am not sure I even fully understand what he was/is asking, I think I have a slightly better understanding as to what he was inquiring about. 

Is there freedom from the power of sin, in this life, through prayer, worship, Bible-reading, or other spiritual disciplines as such?  AND Why do Christians still sin?

Having never been actually asked this before, I admit I was still a bit confused.  

Describing what he meant, he offered an illustration of a man who claims to be a Christian but is an alcoholic.  He tries and tries, but he cannot put down the bottle.  I offered that we should make our calling and election sure (2Peter 1:10) and to examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith (2 Corinthians 13).  A constant addiction of giving into a specific sin time and time again could be cause for concern.  After all, positionally, Christians are no longer enslaved to sin (Romans 6); sin no longer reigns as it once did.  Therefore, it should definitely be a reason for someone to, at the very least, pause and examine whether one is really looking to the cross of Christ for the forgiveness of sins and whether he is regenerate or not.  

I was informed that this hypothetical alcoholic in the hypothetical scenario had done that and had concluded that he truly does believe the biblical gospel and trust in Christ for the forgiveness of sins.  Alright then.  Not being able to read the hypothetical mind of this hypothetical person (It can be easy to see how this is getting a bit dangerous in discussing such conditions and "what ifs", I think!), I would see that person as still struggling with an addiction and easily falls to the temptation to sin... but I would, if he has TRULY repented and believed, recognize him as a fellow Christian, justified in the sight of God (Romans 5:1-5).

After some back and forth, the question was posed this way:  Jesus says that if you love me, you will keep my commandments, right?  (John 14:15, 21-24, etc.)  So, if he (or ANYONE) sins, it shows they do not really love God, right???

Sorta.  Not really, but sorta kinda.

Any sin we commit shows, at that moment, that we are breaking the first commandment.  We are worshiping a substitute for YHWH - the truine God of the Bible.  We are not obeying him as we ought.  We are not bowing to him; we bow instead to our desires.  Whether that sin be lust, pride, or anger.  Sin is, at its root, an idol problem.  We do not worship Him as we ought.  We do not love Him as we ought.  So yes, we are being idolaters and are not loving God as we should in our breaking of his commandments.  

Lame sermon illustration time.

If I speak harshly to my wife... am I being loving?  If I am rude to her or respond in an unkind fashion, am I being loving?  No.  In that moment, am I loving her?  Nope.  So is it fair to say, then, that I don't love my wife AT ALL?  No.  The presence of sin/disobedience in any capacity does not mean that I have no affection for God.  My sin does not absolutely ultimately separate me from the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).  

The Christian life is one of struggle against sin.  A constant struggle.  The battle begins upon regeneration (John 3; Ephesians 6) (Note: the nonChristian does not struggle with sin; he willingly submits to its rule over his life.) and ends with death/glorification (Romans 8:30).  We are meant to fight and kill the deeds of the body (John 8:13).  Our constant fight against sin neither earns salvation nor keeps it effectual.  Instead, our battle to kill sin is the sign of and working-out of sanctification, in which we are being conformed to the image and likeness of Christ.  We strive to obey not to be saved, but because we are saved.  We desire to serve and please our Creator and Savior: Jesus Christ.

It should go without saying that Christianity is NOT a religion of antinomianism.  It is not anti-law.  The born-again bondservant of Christ does not have a desire to (ab)use grace so as to willfully persist in sin, saying "it's okay - Jesus paid this tab I'm racking up on the cross."  Romans 6 is extremely clear:  we do not purposefully sin that God's grace may abound all the more (Romans 6:1).  Just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too were raised, as in baptism, to walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4).  We are called to recognize that sin no longer reigns in us; when we sin, we forget this truth.  That truth does not become a lie, that is, we do not move from a position of not being under the reign of sin to one of being under sin.  The truth that we who have had our sins atoned for are no longer under sin's dominion does not become untrue when we sin.  Rather, it is briefly forgotten.  Positionally, however, we are are still in Christ, justified by grace through faith, and have peace with God (Ephesians 2, Romans 5, Romans 6:6, 22-23).  

Is this struggle with sin hypothetical?  Or does it actually happen?  Let us not consider this to be only an individual "perpetual" sin, but any sin.  The idea of "perpetual sin" is rather arbitrary.  How many times must one commit sin x before sin x is "perpetual"? Twice?  Thrice?  Is 5 times not perpetual, but then on the sixth time it turns from a venial sin to a mortal sin?  Where is the habitual sin threshold?  When asked the question "What if a Christian sins perpetually?", a pastor interviewed for the June 22, 2008 episode of The White Horse Inn responded: "What if it is perpetual sin?  Well, I sin perpetually."  The Christian life is one that will have sin present, yet that sin is being perpetually repented of by the renewing of one's mind.

Look at what the apostle Paul wrote, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to the church of Rome:  

Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

(Romans 7:13-25 ESV)

Here we have Paul describing the very real state of Christians as being one that is a constant struggle against the sinful nature. "I do the very thing I hate."  The redeemed person hates sin... yet will, at points, fall into temptation to sin.  If this were not so, Jesus would not have taught us to pray: "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sinned against us.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." (Matthew 6:12-13)  We are to fight against our sinful nature, so that we may live as a Christian is to live, obeying Christ's commands.  Paul's experience in Romans 7 and even John's writings in 1 John make it clear that Christians can and do sin.  This "can" is not one of permission; it is a "can" as in possibility.

Actually, come to think of it, it is far worse than a "possibility."  How so?  In a recent discussion with my friend Jason Vaughn on this very topic, he pointed out that our concept of sin itself is often too narrow.  We often limit our consideration of sin to only the active sins to the exclusion of passive sins.  "I think it is even easier to understand if we look at passive sins rather than active. Take thankfulness.  How many people do you know that give thanks to God in all things all the time?"  This is very true.  Sins include far more than drunkenness, lying, theft, fornication, lust, and coveting.  Those sins take purposeful actions to perform.  Passive sins are lazier sins, taking less effort to commit, and are often forgotten - resulting in them being a different kind of dangerous.  The proud person may say "I have not lied today; I am doing good!"  ... but has that person done EVERYTHING he should have done in every situation today?  Has he thanked God for every moment he has been gifted?  Thanked God for every breath of air?  Doubtful.  Sin.  And how often do we do that?  "Perpetual sin."  Guilty.

Idolatry is the basic nature of sin itself.

So what would I tell the person perpetually struggling with sin x?  Same with a Christian who sins at all:  Point him to the cross.  Use the law to bring about the conviction of sin.  Then, point him to the cross of Christ, where Christ took upon the wrath that person deserved for that sin.  Christ stood in my place with the Father poured his wrath that had been stored up for me.  Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me!  Taking on my sinfulness, and clothing me in Christ's perfect righteousness, so that God sees Christ's merits when he looks at me, as though they were my own!  Such glorious news, such an amazing gospel, does not drive one redeemed back to sin.  It stirs up a humble sorrow over sin, a deep repentance from sin, and a deep erust in Christ's work to save, as well as humble submission and service.  The Christian's rebellion against God does happen when we turn away from the cross and trust in an idol masquerading as Christ.  Yet Christ is still there, interceding on our behalf.  And it is his intercession that guarantees our salvation will be completed in the end.  

Having been declared righteous and justified by God, we then begin the process of God conforming us to the image of Christ. This process, known as sanctification, takes time, and is never fully complete in this life.  We are only perfectly conformed to the image of Christ in glorification, which happens at the finish in the New Heavens and the New Earth (Romans 8:30).  Until then, we are called to live in the reality of being adopted children of God, dead to sin and alive in Christ (Romans 6:1-14).  This is certainly not easy, obviously.  Part of our nature desires to throw us back in the mud and the mire, rolling around like the wretched swine we were since birth.  Yet, after a period in the muck, the Christian will, in humble repentance, turn from the mire and look to Christ's work on the cross for the forgiveness of sins.  Thus is the Christian life: one of humble repentance and constant looking to Christ, until the end.  The final verse of the classic "Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing", though rarely sung in congregations, captures this well: 

O that day when free from sinning

I shall see Thy lovely face!

Full arrayed in blood-washed linens,

How I'll sing Thy sovereign grace!

Come my Lord - no longer tarry

Take my ransomed soul away!

Send Thy angels now to carry

Me to realms of endless days!     

Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come.

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Epilogue-type-thing

While contemplating and writing this response to the posed question of why Christians sin and if a perpetually sinning Christian is really saved... I had a bit of an insight as to the nature of the question and possible presuppositions behind the question.  I don't know how much I will be able to really flesh this out... But I think the assumptions behind the question shed light in places.

I (obviously) am Reformed.  My father-in-law, who posed the question, is distinctly not Reformed.    In fact, he is in the Wesleyan tradition of the United Methodist Church.  I was told once that Calvinism was the stupidest thing he had ever heard of.  So safe to say, he is not a Calvinist.

What does this have to do with anything?  Possibly quite a bit.  See, when I am asked "What about a Christian who struggles perpetually with sin?  What do you tell him?  Is he saved?", the answer, for me, is a very easy one:  Yes.  Because salvation is a gift and a work of God the Father primarily for His own glory and the pleasure of the Son, as a bride is the pleasure of her husband.  Salvation is not a work I do.  It is totally and utterly a work of the Triune God FOR the Triune God.  Because of this, God is not going to loose a single one of his redeemed (Romans 5:1, Romans 8, John 6:35-45, John 17).  Not a single one.  

One does not move from a state of condemnation by nature of being in Adam, to a state of justification by being in Christ, then positionally moving BACK to Adam and then back to Christ again.  There is no moving from justification back to condemnation.  Having been justified, we are made right with God.  There is no more wrath of God abiding upon us.  Christ took ALL of the wrath God store up against us.  Even those of sins that are committed more than once.  Christ made satisfaction on our behalf and was raised from the dead for our justification.  We now have peace with God.  And God will not break his own peace treaty he made with the Son regarding those whom the Son died for.  

I can't help but wonder if this was at least part of a foundation from which the question was asked. The Wesleyan view holds that one may be justified before God but can actually lose their salvation.  I am unsure whether or not Methodists have a concept of "false faith."  The Wesleyan views I have encountered point to my remaining in Christ to be the result of my obedience.  If I disobey and ultimately deny Christ, I lose my justification.  

This cannot be.  We see in 1 John 2:19 that there is a reason for why individuals leave the Christian community.  They went out from us because they were not of us; had they been of us, they would have remained with us.  Or, as R.C. Sproul is fond of saying regarding salvation: "If you have it, you'll never lose it.  And if you lost it, you never had it!"

Well said, Dr. Sproul.  Well said.  

All the Father gives Christ come to him and are raised up on the last day.  The golden chain of redemption can never be broken.  Foreknown -> Predestined -> Called -> Justified -> Glorified.  (Romans 8:30).  The lamb will receive the reward for His suffering.

I suppose this is the answer to the follow-up question my father-in-law asked regarding a "Calvinistic answer to the question."  What is a uniquely Reformed perspective on this?  Probably the assurance that, if one is truly in Christ, no amount of sin is going to separate me from the love of God.  My salvation is sure in secure as surely as Christ's blood was pleasing to the Father.  Rather than leading to a desire to sin more to get more grace, this knowledge results in loving submission to the righteous King.

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