by Jacob Ninan
Jesus came to save us from sin, not only to forgive us and save us from the guilt of our sin, but also to deliver us from the power of sin over our lives so that sin should not be able to rule over us (Rom.6:14). The key verse in this connection is 1Jn.2:1 where it says that we ought not to sin. Or, in other words, we should now stop sinning. But God knows that we still have our old nature with us and that sometimes we might fall because of our weaknesses or the deceptive temptations from Satan. So, in the same verse, He promises us forgiveness if we fall. If we confess our sins, He will forgive us.
But that does not mean that we can go on sinning and confess our sins, excusing ourselves saying that our failure was due to our weakness or because Satan tricked us. The apostle Paul expresses his shock at people who claim they have been born again and who still think they can go on sinning (Rom.6:1,2). He says that those who are born again have become 'dead to sin'. They were 'dead in sin' earlier, separated from God, but now that God has forgiven them and given them a new heart, they are now dead towards sin, in that they do not want to sin any more (1Jn.3:9). They may fall, but they will not go on sinning.
This is an essential test of those who are born again. If such a change has not taken place in our life, we must go back to God, humble ourselves, acknowledge ourselves as sinners in His sight, and ask for forgiveness knowing that Jesus has already taken our punishment on our behalf.
Sad to say, many preachers are giving a watered-down message to people instead of the Gospel. Naturally, this will attract more people to them. They omit talking about sin and the need for repentance, but ask everyone to just accept the love of God. Jude warned against such preachers saying that they, in effect, provided people with a licence to sin (Jude.4). People got the impression that now that God has loved them, they could go on doing whatever they wished, and God would just keep forgiving them. Either the hearers never get born again, or they backslide after that.
Let us look at some common excuses people give for their sinful lives.
There is a heresy that is very popular among people that says, "Once saved, always saved." This gives a blanket promise of salvation, no matter how we live! This is totally false. Just as we have the ability to choose to believe in Jesus as our Saviour, we have the ability to reject Him even after we have been born again. We do see many examples of this around us. But those who teach us this point to verses in the Bible about God's plan for our lives and His ability to protect and keep us. At the same time, they ignore all the verses that point to our responsibility towards abiding in Christ, doing what He says and watching out against the schemes of the devil! Those who believe in this false doctrine become careless with sin in their lives, and stand the risk of even losing their salvation (Rev.3:5). If we are not being increasingly saved from sinning in our life, what is salvation doing for us?
Some people tell themselves that since God has promised to forgive them whenever they confess their sins, even if they sin again, they can always go for forgiveness. Paul says that we ought to become sober-minded and stop sinning (1Cor.15:34). We can't fool God by merely confessing our sins without repenting from them. We cannot take forgiveness for granted if we don't actually repent. Also, even when we receive forgiveness, the consequences of our sins will be there and we cannot escape from them (Gal.6:7,8). The more we sin, the more we add suffering to our lives because of the corruption we bring upon ourselves.
Some try to excuse their sins by saying that if we have to live in this world, we will have to make some 'adjustments' to our principles. According to them, life would not be possible here otherwise. But Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego took the position before King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon that even if they were going to die, they would still not disobey God by bowing down to his statue (Dan.3:17,18). Many years ago, I was looking for a house to buy. I found one I liked, but the problem was that the owner did not want me to declare the whole value to the government but he wanted me to give him a part of it as 'black money'. When I replied that I could not do this because one day I would have to give an account to God, he told me that in that case I would never be able to buy a house in that city! My response was that in that case it was fine for me to live in a rented house. (I am not trying to imply that I have never made a mistake or done anything wrong. But this is an example of situations where we are tempted to find excuses for doing wrong.) Jesus warned us that if we tried to save our own life we would lose it (Matt.16:25).
An excuse for certain types of sin that people give is that because our life is tough, we need some 'fun'. It is true that our life is tough, and also that we all need some relaxation and entertainment. But that does not give us a licence to indulge in sinful types of entertainment. For example, we can all enjoy a comedy show. But have you noticed that most such shows end up becoming vulgar? Can we join along, and ultimately become those who crack such vulgar jokes? The warning that Jesus gives us is that we should cut off from our lives anything that causes us to sin (Matt.5:29).
Do you imagine that generally you are doing much good, and therefore God will overlook some slip-ups here and there? If you think so, isn't that finding an excuse for sins? Many people follow this wrong philosophy that says God has a balance to weigh our good deeds against our bad deeds, and if our good deeds outweigh the bad, we will be ok. No, every wrong thing we do is a sin, even if we have done many other good things. James points out that if we have broken any one of the commandments, the fact is that we have broken the Law (Jas.2:10,11). Of course, there are serious sins that affect people very badly, such as murder, as we observe from the gradation of punishment for different crimes in the Old Testament, while a 'small lie' we speak may not have such repercussions. But lies are also sins in God's eyes.
One very common excuse that people use is to say, "Everyone does it." But that is not an excuse for the sin we ourselves do. The whole world is going downhill with respect to moral values with respect to relationships, sexuality, fashions, etc. That does not mean that we can follow the trend saying everyone does it. Each of us has to individually give an account of our life to God (Rom.14:12). For God, a sin is a sin. His moral values are absolute. He does not grade us on a relative basis, depending on the average morality in the world, as they do in some academic institutions.
Some imagine that because they have certain needs, it is their right to meet those needs. When some couples come to me for counselling, when one of them has had an extramarital affair, they try to justify themselves saying that their spouse did not meet their needs. A husband says that his wife did not show him any respect and that was why he became friends with another woman who did. A wife says that her husband did not give her much time or show affection, and so she was happy when this other man showed great interest in her. When other people do wrong to us, that does not give us a licence to sin. If we are 'suffering' from the sins of others, that does not entitle us to seek for comfort in sinful ways. We will suffer the consequences if we do.
Can we say in certain circumstances that we were forced to sin? Could Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego have bowed down to the statue and said afterwards that they were forced to do it because otherwise they would have been killed? What if persecution comes and we are 'forced' to do things which God has forbidden? Having said this, I would also like to look at another situation. Imagine a woman who was forced to carry out an abortion by her parents or parents-in-law. Is it possible for outsiders like us to assess how much ability she had to resist the pressure or how much she had joined with them to go ahead with the abortion? If it has already happened, she can now ask God for forgiveness and determine not to repeat the same action.
There are many these days who say that all this talking about sin is so negative and that we should talk more about following our dreams, preparing a bucket list, etc. But we are warning about sin because every sin has its consequence, both in this world and in the eternity to come. So, what we are trying to do is to warn people not to do things now that will cause them to suffer later or hurt them. Is it negative to warn people like this?
I repeat. If someone likes to find excuses for sin, please see if you are truly born again. But if you are born again, let us seek to live in such a way that we will show more and more fruit in our life that will bring honour and glory to God (Jn.15:8).