I just encountered someone for the first time in my life, I think, who believes that after you are born of the Spirit of God that you can never sin again. When I brought up 1 John 2 where John said he wrote these things that the children of God would not sin, but if they did, we have an advocate with the Father, Jeaus Chriist, this person said John was writing to people who still believe they are in sin. This person charges that if we do sin, we have fallen away from our profession of faith. Now, I know differently, so I am not writing this because this person is putting doubts in my mind about what scripture teaches, but I was wondering if any of you have come across this doctrine before, and if you have any thoughts on an appropriate Biblical response.
Your use of (1 John 1:8-10) tells me you have very little understanding of what John was saying. It also is calling John a liar.
When Jesus told the apostles that they were clean, do you believe that they would have been liars if they then said they were sin free?
“If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar.”
Can’t you see John was telling people everyone has sinned, and one would be a liar if he said they had not?
John was not telling people who no longer sinned that they were liars by admitting they no longer sinned.
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have
not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.”
If one is forgiven of all unrighteousness are they not then sinless? Could they then be liars if they say they are sinless?
John later says:
New American Bible
(1 John 3-10) “Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure. Everyone who commits sin commits lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
No one who remains in him sins; no one who sins has seen him or known him. Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother.”
By not believing that John is telling us we are to live without sinning is calling John a liar. John tells us one who sins has never known God.
(1 John 3:8) “
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work”
John told us those who did not know God sinned and asked forgiveness and were forgiven, but once a person comes to know God he or she will not sin.
Scripture goes on to say that if a person who does know God uses their free will to sin there is no repentance for that person.
(Hebrews 10:26-31) “If, after we have been given knowledge of the truth, we should deliberately commit any sins, then there is no longer any sacrifice for them. There is left only the dreadful prospect of judgment and of the fiery wrath that is to devour your enemies. Anyone who disregards the Law of Moses is ruthlessly put to death on the word of two witnesses or three; and you may be sure that anyone who tramples on the Son of God, and who treats the blood of the covenant which sanctified him as if it were not holy, and who insults the Spirit of grace, will be condemned to a far severer punishment. We are all aware who it was that said: Vengeance is mine; I will vindicate his people. It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”