The Doctrine of Sin revised
Revised December 2025
A sinner I am not! This is a bold statement by me but it is one that I have professed since I understood its significance to my Christian walk. The scripture teaches us to “…abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.” (1 John 2: 28) It annoys me when I hear of well-meaning preachers who through ignorant teaching strip away a believer’s faith-inspired confidence by placing unwarranted burdens of guilt, shame and condemnation upon their shoulders.
2 Peter 1: 5-9 “…giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from old sins.”
The scriptures declare “all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God”. (Romans 3: 23) In the eyes of divine perfection mankind because of its sinfulness is corrupted and ineligible for residency in heaven. This is the reason why the psalmist David writes: “I have set the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices: my flesh also will rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.” (Psalms 16: 8-10) Despite several moral lapses David trusted fully in the mercy of God to keep his soul from experiencing damnation. In the process of time God sent “… His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh…” (Romans 8: 3) In the Apostle Peter’s address to Cornelius, the first gentile convert, he said “and He (Jesus) has commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained by God to be Judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets’ witness that through His name, whoever believes in Him receive remission of sins.” (Acts 10: 42-43)
The Greek word for righteousness is dikalosune.
Definition: righteousness: equity (of character or act), justification and derived from the root word dikalos meaning innocent, holy, just, meet and righteous.
The Greek word for flesh is sarx.
Definition: flesh: human nature with its frailties (physical or moral) and passions or more specific a human being, carnal, fleshly.
Romans 8: 1-2 “there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”
God is a Spirit, His kingdom is a spiritual one, His word is spiritual and He lives in us by His Spirit, but…..we are human, our ways are human and our thinking is human. This is why the scripture says; “the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it taught you, you will abide in Him.” (1 John 2: 27) If we are taught Christian truths by the Spirit and put them into practice we are no longer of a fleshly mindset but of a spiritual one. Then it can be said; “change the thinking, change the man.”as the scripture confirms in Romans 12: 2 “ and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”
Romans 6: 10 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
God aware of our human weakness sent “His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8: 3-4) Jesus understands our humanness “for we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.(Hebrews 4:15-16) Finally “let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4: 16) For those who still harbor the notion of sin in their Christian ideology, the bible offers some comfort; “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is our atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2: 1-2)
Hebrews 10: 1-4 For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,can never with these same sacrifice, which they offer year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
The Apostle Paul, being a former Pharisee, understood the commandment of animal sacrifice. In his letter to the Hebrews, Paul contrasts this annual observance with the eternal effectiveness of Christ's one time sacrifice for the purging of sins. In today's culture many congregations have their congregate confess their sin before taking Communion rather than honouring the finished work of Christ. The scripture reveals; “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin because he has been born of God.” (1 John 3: 9)
As for me, a sinner I am not!
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God , who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2: 20)
