Our Greatest Need As Christians (Part Four)

From the desk of Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Th.D. Our passage is 1 John 1:6-9. John says, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). John teaches that those who claim to be without sin do not have the truth in them. This lack of truth as a controlling, motivating influence applies to the believer who claims to have been freed from all sin in their present life. A believer should recognize his or her sinfulness and need of forgiveness through Jesus. Even the most devoted Christian still contends with sin, in some way, shape, or fashion. For us to deny indwelling sin is self-delusion. There are Christians, and very devout Christians, for the most part, who have come to believe that the root of sin (the sinful nature) with which they were born has been somehow uprooted and removed. That by the activity of the Holy Spirit in the outworking of their salvation, it has been completely torn out, lifted out, and they are freed from the sinful nature (root of sin). They wrongly interpret sanctification as a digging out and eradicating of the sinful nature. Our holiness is the goal, but John acknowledges that we still sin! Later, he would say, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). God’s desire for us is that we not sin, and one day our sanctification will be complete (1 John 3:2). We will have glorified, perfect bodies. But, until that time, we still inhabit fallen, sinful bodies while living in a fallen, sinful world, and we struggle with the sinful nature and sometimes lose the battle. As you read the pages of the New Testament, you discover that no Christian ever makes a claim to sinless perfection. The only person who could say, and did say, that He was without sin was Jesus (John 8:46)! But the war is never lost because of God’s provision in the next verse! Be encouraged!