Sin No More

When reading through the Gospels we read of many miracles and healings which Jesus performed. I never noticed this until recently but in many cases Jesus gave the command to go and sin no more.  

Why did Jesus say that? Did He give the people a command which was impossible to keep? Or is it really possible to live in victory over sin. I believe that Jesus meant what He said and that it is possible to live without sin.  

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:21 KJV)  

The angel of the Lord said Jesus would save us from sin. Speaking in human terms, if we rescue someone from a house which is on fire, that person will not be engulfed by the flames, he or she may have been burned but is now free and on the way to recovery, never to be burned in that same fire again.  

In the same way Jesus came to save us from sin. We may have been trapped once, but when Jesus saves us, we are free from that sin, and never have to commit that particular sin ever again if we believe.  

The tempter will not stop until the day we go home to meet our maker. Jesus was tempted multiple times when He hung on the cross, but He remained true to His Father and we must do the same.  

"But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13, KJV)  

This verse promises that we will not be tempted with a temptation which we cannot resist and overcome.  

"Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:16)  

If we are in tune with God we have access to this grace which keeps us from sinning when we are tempted, but we have to ask for it in order to receive it. Perhaps that is why so many people fail and fall into the same sin over and over again because they do not come to this throne of grace to receive grace so that they may overcome sin.  

In 1 John 1:8 John says to other believers, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." We could almost say that this is a stark contradiction, and that we will always sin. But when we understand the world in which we live, it lines up in perfect harmony with the rest of the Bible.   

Most people and myself included do not come under the protection of the Holy Spirit until later in life for different reasons. By this time we have been engaged in many sins which we are fully aware of and many more sins which we are unaware of as being sin.   

We would be confused and overwhelmed if at the moment we are born again the Holy Spirit would reveal to us all our sins. Instead He shows us one or two sins at a time, which we need to overcome before He reveals the next sin. This is how we grow in the Lord, by overcoming one sin at a time and move on to perfection.   

I believe because we are so wrapped up with sin in our lives from the day we are born that overcoming sin will be a constant battle for us until the day we die. Therefore if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.   

But the reality is that once God reveals a certain sin to us, we must repent and overcome that sin. When we obey we do not have to commit that particular sin no more. But if we disobey God will not reveal any more sins until we repent and overcome the sins we know about.   

Perhaps the biggest reason John wrote these words in 1 John 1:8, was to keep us humble, lest we fall.