CAN MAN BE FREE FROM SIN?
“How can I be free from sin?” is the question that in one form or another is troubling the heart of many a true child of God. But before we ask “How?” the other query rises, “Can I be free from sin?” and if not completely in this life, “How far may I be free?”
As is to be expected, the teaching of the Word of God on the sin question is simple, direct and unequivocal. But there are a number of misconceptions that have served to confuse the minds of many earnest seekers after the truth.
One of the best tests of the truth of our view of sin is the results in experience. It is, however, a blessed fact that one may have an experience that is infinitely better than the theory he holds regarding sin.
That sinning is inevitable for the Christian,—
That sinning is an accident, not the choice of a free moral agent,—
That sinning is an incident, not a preventable tragedy,—
That Christians may reach in this life a state in which they cannot sin, or where they are not subject to temptation,—
These are some of the contradictions of God’s revealed truth which result in keeping Christians from having complete liberty in Christ and freedom from sinning.
Back of the question, how far may we be free from sin is the further problem, “What is sin?” and it is in answering this question that we may fall into a fundamental misconception which leaves us confused when reading the plain statements of Scripture. Many a supposed difference among Christians regarding freedom from sinning rests back in a difference in their definition of “sinning.” But this is far more serious than a mere difference in the definition of a word, which might be passed over as unimportant. For, as we shall see, if our use of the word “sinning” differs from that which God means by sin, there is sure to result a confusion which will affect our experience in the matter of deliverance from sin.