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"How Can A Child Of God
Say He Is A Sinner?" Harrell Davidson |
We have two or three questions this month that we will try to deal with. While this column is titled "What Saith The Scriptures" we often receive questions that call for matters of judgment or expediency and more. Since we are interested in all questions related to the Scriptures sometimes we receive a question like the following. "I did not understand when you said that the question was sent 'by way of UPS.' Aren't most of your questions mailed in?" This question came from an individual who sent us some questions by way of the United States mail system. In answer to his question we hurriedly say that we receive questions in a number of ways. Most come to our email address. Some questions are received by way of the telephone while some come by US mail. Other questions come by way of the The Gospel Preceptor's website. Thus, we receive questions in a number of ways. Our querist then states, "I heard an elder say a couple of weeks ago. He said that, "I am a sinner." My question is, how can he (or any child of God) say he is a sinner? He can sin, but he cannot be a sinner and a child of God." We wholeheartedly agree with the elder for a number of reasons. Paul said, "As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one" "(Romans 3:10). "As it is written" is a reference back to the sweet singer of Israel, David, who was inspired to write these words in Psalms 14:1-3 and Psalms 53:1. David was said to be a man after God's own heart, yet David was a sinner. Paul further said, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" "(Romans 3:23). The apostle John wrote, "This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us" (1 John 1:5-10). Read carefully every word quoted above and then focus on verse 10. Who is the "we" of verse 10? Peter was an apostle and he sinned, as did the others because man cannot live above sin. What the querist has in mind perhaps is found in 1 John 3:9 quoted in part here. "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin..." This simply means that he does not continue in sin. He does not major in sin, yet one will sin from time to time struggling not to sin. A major help to us is found in Romans 5:1. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Justified" means "acquitted." Man is acquitted of his sins as he confesses and repents of them, but this does not mean that he is not guilty. The President of the United States recently commuted the sentence of an individual. He stated that the judge's verdict stood, but he was commuting the man's sentence because he thought the judge and the prosecutor were too strict in this case. The individual was thus justified — guilty, but acquitted. Christians are guilty, but acquitted. Thanks for the questions. |