What is Sin? How Can I be Saved? Can I be saved and practice sinning?

What is sin?

A message of hope:

God reveals to us in His word (the Bible), that He made the world and everything in it (Genesis 1-2). He made the first man, Adam, the first woman Eve, and through their disobedience of the law given to them in the garden of Eden, sin entered the world (Genesis 2:16-17; Genesis 3:6-7, 11). As a result all mankind became broken in relationship with a perfect God, but God in His grace and love provided a way to restore mankind to right standing again with Him (Genesis 3:15).

The message of hope is this, Jesus came to die for the sins of the world (John 3:16). Without Him none of us would have a right relationship with a perfect God. And because God is holy and JUST, sin, anything that displeases Him will be done away with one day completely. God will purify the world of sin, and law breakers (Matthew 13:41). 

The hope in this is that He gives us a way to be saved from the judgment against our sins. There is a way to be completely pure in His sight, and this can only be obtained through Jesus. By believing in Jesus, God GIFTS to us salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9). It can’t be earned, in other words there is nothing that we can “do” in our own strength to be right in God’s sight. Because of the perfect, sinless life of Christ, His death on the cross served as the complete judgment of the sins of the world TO ALL WHO BELIEVE (2 Corinthians 5:21). 

No matter what I have done, and God clearly has revealed to us what sins are in His word, there is no one that is void of sin, WE ALL HAVE SINNED (Galatians 5:19-21) (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) (Romans 3:23); No matter what I will do, God in his grace to mankind gave His Son to die for all the sin I have committed, commit, and will commit. They were placed on Him. My sin, and the sins of the world were placed on Jesus, the very Man that committed no sin, who took on the sins of the world so that God could rightly judge them. Because of who He was.

He was the perfect spotless sacrifice (no sin in Him), and took on our sins because of who He was, the message of hope is what happens after God judged our sin. Because of the complete power of our Savior Jesus, He didn’t stay dead. This same Jesus, was raised from the dead, resurrected. He died, was buried, and resurrected and lives today in heaven with God. And because He lives, we can live with the Father, if we believe in Jesus and what He did.

The reality is we MUST confess our sin, we know what sin is because God has clearly told us in His word.  We must believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior, and God forgives us for the sins we have committed and we are saved (1 John 1:8-9). And in that day, when the world ends, and sins will be judged, and the world will be purged of all sin, believers will live with God forever (Revelation 20:12, 14-15) (Revelation 21:1, 3-4) (Revelation 22:5).

In this world, we as Christians, empowered through God’s Holy Spirit live according to the Spirit. At the point of believing in Jesus, God tells us in His Word that we are given His Spirit to live within us (1 John 5:13-15) (Ephesians 1:13). This is important, because we are made to live in the way God intends for us to live, pleasing to Him, right in His sight (Galatians 5:16-17). God purifies the believer completely from an eternal perspective, but as we live this life, His perfecting work is evident in our lives by living according to what pleases Him “according to His law, his word”. (Hebrews 10:14)

Therefore, because of God’s Spirit for the Christian a life of continuous deliberate sin is not possible. God’s word reveals that it is in fact evidence of no conversion  and the Bible tells us that with the knowledge of the truth, to go on sinning all to be expected is a fearful expectation of judgment(Hebrews 10:26-27) (1 John 3:7-9).

The message of hope is Jesus, praise God for eternally giving us acceptance in His sight through faith in His Son Jesus, and praise God for giving us His Spirit to purify us and purge us of the things that displease Him, while living in this world.

My prayer for all who aren’t saved is to call out to Jesus, ask for His forgiveness and believe in Him today.

God can, and will give you a new life, a life that is truly free of regret, discord and lies. He sets us free, May you be free today in Jesus name, Amen.

Scripture references:

Genesis 2:16-17 ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat^[a] of it you shall surely die.”

Genesis 3:6-7 ⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,^[a] she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.

Genesis 3:11 ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Genesis 3:15 ¹⁵ I will put enmity between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring^[a] and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
    and you shall bruise his heel.”

John 3:16 ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world,^[a] that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should notperish but have eternal life.

Matthew 13:41 ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin andall law-breakers,

Ephesians 2:8-9 ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

2 Corinthians 5:21 ²¹ For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Galatians 5:19-21 ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy,^[a] drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous^[a] will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,^[b]10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Romans 3:23 ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

1 John 1:8-9 ⁸ If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Revelation 20:12  ¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

Revelation 20:14-15 ¹⁴ Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.¹⁵ And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 

Revelation 21:3-4 ³ And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place^[a] of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,^[b] and God himself will be with them as their God.^[c] 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Revelation 22:5 ⁵ And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

1 John 4:13-15 ¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

Ephesians 1:13 ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

Galatians 5:16-17 ¹⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Hebrews 10:14 ¹⁴ For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Hebrews 10:26-27 ²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

1 John 3:7-9 ⁷ Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸ Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's^[a] seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.