Does the Bible Say True Christians Never Sin?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - We dip into the Ask Pastor John podcast inbox today.
00:00:08.520 | Pastor John, my name is Jake from Mexico.
00:00:11.280 | What does 1 John 5.18 mean?
00:00:14.800 | That's the end of the question from Jake
00:00:16.480 | and I'll go ahead and read the text from the ESV.
00:00:19.040 | It says, "We know that everyone who has been born of God
00:00:22.360 | "does not keep on sinning,
00:00:24.300 | "but he who was born of God protects him
00:00:27.060 | "and the evil one does not touch him."
00:00:29.680 | Pastor John, what does this text, 1 John 5.18 mean?
00:00:33.580 | - I'm not sure what part of this verse
00:00:37.980 | Jake is stumbling over.
00:00:39.920 | There are three he could stumble over.
00:00:42.100 | One would be those born of God do not keep on sinning.
00:00:46.100 | Another one would be he who is born of God protects them.
00:00:50.560 | What does that mean?
00:00:51.680 | Or a third would be the evil one does not touch him.
00:00:55.080 | Whoa, really?
00:00:56.460 | What does that mean?
00:00:57.300 | I'm not sure which of those three he's stumbling over,
00:01:01.300 | so maybe I better say a word about each one.
00:01:06.300 | What I'm thinking is maybe Jake is reading
00:01:10.080 | the King James Authorized Version
00:01:13.260 | or the New American Standard Version of that first clause
00:01:15.840 | because it is even more perplexing.
00:01:18.120 | It says, "We know that whosoever is born of God
00:01:23.120 | "sinneth not."
00:01:25.920 | That's the King James or the New American Standard says,
00:01:29.060 | "We know that no one who is born of God sins."
00:01:33.900 | So I would join Jake if I read those and say,
00:01:36.920 | "Huh, really Christians don't sin?"
00:01:41.520 | Now that sounds truly problematical.
00:01:44.220 | Christians never sin.
00:01:46.160 | I met a woman one time who believed that.
00:01:49.240 | And she threw this verse in chapter three, verse nine at me.
00:01:53.800 | And I said, "Well, what do you call the bad things you do?"
00:01:58.800 | And she had invented a lot of names for her sins.
00:02:04.200 | Like she called them mistakes and flaws
00:02:07.060 | and shortcomings and imperfections, but she was adamant.
00:02:10.160 | I don't sin.
00:02:11.060 | Now, the ESV is right to translate
00:02:17.120 | "We know that everyone who has been born of God,"
00:02:22.760 | and then it translates, "does not keep on sinning,"
00:02:26.840 | which helps a little bit maybe.
00:02:30.120 | Chapter three, verse nine, same issue.
00:02:32.260 | "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning,
00:02:36.820 | "for God's seed abides in him,
00:02:38.680 | "and he cannot keep on sinning
00:02:41.460 | "because he's been born of God."
00:02:45.240 | Now, I could pull rank with Greek here, which I will,
00:02:49.760 | and then I'll back up and say,
00:02:51.080 | "Don't, that's not the key issue."
00:02:54.080 | The idea of the Greek present tense
00:02:56.080 | is that those who are born again
00:02:59.640 | and have the Spirit of God in them
00:03:02.760 | cannot ever make peace with sin, settle in with sin,
00:03:07.760 | make sin a friend, be okay with sinning,
00:03:11.960 | just go on with sinning as though
00:03:14.560 | no war needs to be made against it
00:03:16.700 | and nothing will come of it if we do.
00:03:19.680 | The present tense says, "No, you can't do that.
00:03:23.360 | "You can't make a practice of sinning like that."
00:03:27.420 | But if you don't know Greek,
00:03:30.600 | you don't have to trust me at this point
00:03:33.280 | because there are a couple of other reasons
00:03:36.540 | why non-Greek readers know
00:03:41.240 | that this text does not mean
00:03:43.440 | Christians don't ever do anything wrong.
00:03:46.560 | Verse 16, what's that, two verses earlier in chapter five?
00:03:51.560 | "If anyone sees his brother,"
00:03:55.520 | okay, what's a brother, a Christian?
00:03:57.200 | "If anyone sees his brother committing a sin,
00:04:01.120 | "not leading to death, he shall ask God
00:04:04.160 | "and God will give him life."
00:04:06.080 | So he can't mean, he cannot mean that Christians don't sin
00:04:09.900 | 'cause he just gave instructions
00:04:11.400 | for how to help Christians who do sin.
00:04:14.160 | Same thing in chapter one, verses eight and nine.
00:04:17.320 | "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
00:04:20.760 | "and the truth is not in us.
00:04:22.520 | "If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just
00:04:25.260 | "to forgive our sins and to cleanse us
00:04:27.600 | "from all unrighteousness."
00:04:28.960 | If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar
00:04:33.240 | and his word is not in us.
00:04:34.560 | So the meaning of 1 John 5:18,
00:04:37.960 | "No one who is born of God sins,"
00:04:41.680 | is that, and you get two possible things
00:04:46.080 | and both are probably the case.
00:04:47.640 | If you just go with the context where he said,
00:04:49.920 | "There is sin that is unto death
00:04:51.300 | "and there's sin that is not unto death.
00:04:52.660 | "Pray for the sin that is not unto death
00:04:54.460 | "and God will deliver and the sin that is unto death
00:04:57.120 | "is gonna lead to destruction."
00:04:58.720 | So I think here in the context,
00:05:00.880 | the first and obvious meaning would be,
00:05:03.280 | does not sin unto death.
00:05:05.380 | The one who is born of God does not sin unto death.
00:05:08.380 | That is, we don't make peace with sin.
00:05:11.640 | Settle into a pattern of sinning
00:05:14.640 | that will destroy us in the end.
00:05:16.640 | Prove that we are not truly born of God
00:05:19.040 | and are not truly Christians.
00:05:22.040 | Christians walk in the light.
00:05:25.460 | And according to chapter one, verse seven and eight,
00:05:28.840 | walking in the light is not sinlessness.
00:05:32.200 | It is walking in a way that you have eyes to see
00:05:36.520 | in the light, the ugliness of what you just did
00:05:40.040 | and you are sorry for it.
00:05:41.620 | You confess it, you keep short accounts with God
00:05:44.240 | and you move on.
00:05:46.300 | So I think does not sin means doesn't commit the sin
00:05:50.240 | unto death and doesn't settle into a pattern of sinning
00:05:53.800 | that proves you have no spiritual life in you.
00:05:58.000 | Second issue, he who is born of God protects him.
00:06:03.000 | I think that means that Christ,
00:06:06.540 | who is called the one born of God,
00:06:08.680 | the only begotten of God, the eternally virgin born spirit,
00:06:13.680 | born by the spirit son of God,
00:06:19.200 | Christ guards us from the devil.
00:06:22.680 | He intercedes for us.
00:06:24.920 | And he is with us to the end of the age, helping us.
00:06:27.720 | And his blood covers us and keeps us safe
00:06:31.480 | from Satan's accusations 'cause none of them can hold
00:06:34.680 | because Christ has died for us.
00:06:37.840 | And then lastly, the evil one does not touch him.
00:06:41.880 | Means the devil's accusations and temptations
00:06:46.880 | and harassments may indeed give us great trouble
00:06:52.240 | but they can never destroy us.
00:06:56.520 | There's no deadly touch.
00:06:58.760 | There's no poisonous touch.
00:07:02.000 | His fangs were removed at the cross
00:07:06.280 | and his lethal poison is taken away from believers.
00:07:11.280 | He cannot destroy us.
00:07:14.160 | So I take cannot touch us to mean
00:07:18.480 | can't touch us with any deadly touch.
00:07:21.600 | He can hurt us terribly.
00:07:23.560 | I don't wanna minimize Satan's reality in this world.
00:07:26.320 | He can hurt us terribly.
00:07:28.120 | He can throw us in prison and he can move others to kill us
00:07:33.120 | according to Revelation 2.10,
00:07:35.720 | but he can't hurt us ultimately.
00:07:37.640 | He can't touch us with the touch
00:07:40.200 | of destruction and damnation.
00:07:42.720 | That's been taken out of his hand by the blood of Jesus.
00:07:46.400 | Jesus did that when he died on the cross
00:07:49.280 | according to Colossians 2.15.
00:07:52.680 | He disarmed the principalities and powers
00:07:55.600 | when he died and shed his blood.
00:07:58.480 | So the only begotten of God is indeed our perfect
00:08:03.720 | and everlasting protector.
00:08:06.000 | - That is glorious truth, Pastor John, thank you.
00:08:10.800 | And if you have a concise and specific question
00:08:12.600 | for John Piper like Jake did,
00:08:14.400 | go to desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn
00:08:18.920 | and look for the button that says submit a question.
00:08:21.880 | You can also easily send us questions
00:08:23.480 | through our mobile apps as well.
00:08:25.080 | If you get familiar with the features there,
00:08:27.120 | you can one-click send us a question.
00:08:29.200 | We're back tomorrow to talk about
00:08:30.520 | why the practice of consistent spiritual discipline
00:08:33.320 | is not legalism.
00:08:35.600 | And we'll take a life lesson from the life of Daniel
00:08:38.440 | in the Old Testament.
00:08:39.680 | I'm your host Tony Reinke, I'll see you then.
00:08:41.680 | (upbeat music)
00:08:44.260 | (upbeat music)
00:08:46.840 | [BLANK_AUDIO]