Doesn't Scripture Teach that We ALL Sin?
Posted by: biblenotes <biblenotes@...>
From: Martin M Overfield
Date: Thu, 18 May 2000
Doesn't Scripture Teach that We ALL Sin?
I am sure that we will need to address this further another time,
but here is some of an answer.
"For all HAVE sinned" (Past Tense in Romans 3:23). Yes, we
ALL have sinned, but the Bible does not tell us anywhere that we
must continue to sin.
For this note, I recommend the reading of Romans chapter 3,
the context of which is a great argument for the inability of the law
to make us righteous before God and the great benefit that there is
in our trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our justification.
Paul was making the case that before and without faith in Christ the
whole world, both Jews and Gentiles are hopelessly lost. This
Scripture is NOT intended to prove that we must keep on sinning
or that a Christian presently sins.
The very last verse of Romans chapter 3 (v. 31) says, "Do we
then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish
the law." The words make void mean "to be (render) entirely idle
(useless)," (Strong's Greek Dict.) or to "make of none effect" (Vine's
Dict. of N. T.). The word establish means "to stand, to make to
stand", and "is suggestive of fidelity and stability" (Vines Dict. of N.
T.).
Certainly, by this statement, he was saying that faith in no way
defeats or undermines the applicability of God's law to our lives; rather,
it enables us to escape the former guilt and condemnation, and also fits
us for a proper observance of God's law in this life. We are not free
from the law of God through Christ, but we ARE "free from the law" or
principle "of sin and death" (see Romans 8:1, 2).
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
(Romans 8:3, 4).
A dear saint of God, the late Brother B. M. Loftin, pointed out
to us that you can substitute the word CHRISTIAN and see whether
this passage of Scripture (Romans 3) makes sense: "There is" no
Christian "that doeth good, no not one", the "feet" of the Christians
"are swift to shed blood", and etc.
Now, does this make sense? This would be a contradiction of
all the other Scriptures which say emphatically that the Christian,
he that is born of God, DOES NOT SIN, but rather DOES DO
GOOD. (See Bible Note title "Does the Christian Sin?".)
I thank God that we need not continue under awful bondage
of sin and guilt. There is a salvation that really saves! Jesus came
to "save His people FROM their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Amen.
Yours In Christ,
Martin Overfield
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