Is it Possible to be Free From Sin?
One of the things that Satan's ministers labor to achieve (many unknowingly), is to keep
the saints of God from living completely obedient to the one who baptized them into the
body of Christ. Satan may not be able to keep one from receiving the baptism of the
holy Ghost (with the evidence of speaking in other tongues), but if he can keep the child
of God from being saved, the result is nearly the same.
Is it possible to be free from sin? Let's ask this questions in several other ways. Is it
possible to do what Peter said, "to be perfect as he is perfect" (Mat.5:18)? Is it
possible to believe what Paul said, "in Christ we are new creatures, the old has
passed away, behold all things are become new"(IICor. 5:17).? Or to do what John said,
"and I write these things that ye sin not"? (IJohn 2:1)
Of course we can live with out sin. Jesus will not be saving any who live another way.
Then why are God's people living with, and tolerating sin? There is a way out, if you
want a way out: "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset
us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus...."
(Hebrews 12:1-2)
In the life of every individual, there seems to be a "besetting" sin that can tower like a
mountain between the individual and God. This is "the sin which doth so easily beset
us", and it differs according to the person. What is a besetting sin to one person may
not trouble another at all. Sometimes this sin, or persistently assailing evil, is quite
obvious to others, while in other cases it is hidden in the heart and known only to the
individual and God. In either case, it is perplexing and harassing, and, if allowed to
linger and grow, it may end in tragic moral failure. Practically every believer wrestles
with an habitually assaulting sin, even those whose service to Christ is of outstanding
quality. It does not have to remain this way - in fact, God has a way to free you!
Examples of this are Moses, with his explosive temper, and David, with his weakness
for women. These devoted men of God walked humbly and persistently in the will of
God, but when they grew weak in faith and weary in their warfare against evil, their
besetting sin reared up its ugly head to challenge them. Fortunately, they both knew that
the only way to run from God is to run to Him, and when they fell, they cried out for
His help. We might say that our besetting sin can either drive us closer to God, if we go
to Him for help when we need it, or drive us away from God, if we yield to its desires.
There is a way which, if carefully followed, will bring us complete victory over the
besetting, soul-trying sin. The first step in overcoming this evil must be the desire to live
a perfect and holy life before God. It may sound strange, but there are those who pray
to God for help to overcome the impurity which hotly pursues them, and, at the same
time, deep in their hearts they cherish and do not desire to give it up. There is a relief
which the conscience can feel, and a pious feeling may come, when one prays for
deliverance from sin, even if he does not wholeheartedly desire to be set free. This
insincere praying can continue for years. I know a number of people who stay under
some evil practice; yet, they offer continually their insincere prayers for deliverance. The
trouble is, their real prayer is not the one from their lips, but the one coming from the
deepest desire of their heart. They comfort themselves by praying for deliverance, when,
in truth, deliverance is not their real desire at all. The prayer they should offer is that
God might help them to surrender completely their hearts and take away their secret
desire for evil. Reader, if you are in this number of undelivered saints, please believe
me when I tell you that you will never be delivered until this step is taken.
One's smaller sins are spoken of as "weights". These are little things which do not
appear to be dangerous to one's soul; yet, they hinder one's progress in God. One's
besetting sin is fed by these smaller errors. If we rid ourselves of them, God will rescue
us from the other. The sinner who is convicted of sin is first stripped of his weights, and
then is purged by the holy Ghost from the frightful "sin which doth so easily beset".
Just as the sinner enters the kingdom of God by first laying aside weights, or smaller
sins, and then is cleansed from his besetting sin, so the backsliding saint returns to his
"vomit." First he grows slack in faith and begins to partake again of these seeming little
"no-harms". These smaller sins then produce sustenance for the besetting sin to
reappear. The believer may resist and control the "weights" for a while, but once the
besetting sin reappears, the believer finds himself in a struggle for his soul again.
Once the backslider returns so far into sin as to partake again of his besetting sin, he
is in dangerous territory; that is, he is in the blasphemer's neighborhood. Now, whether
he blasphemes or not depends largely upon the circumstances which led him into this
foul territory. In each case, final judgment can only belong to God. But this is a
perilous predicament in which to be, regardless as to how one arrives there, for only a
small percentage of those who have backslidden so far as to wallow again in the mire of
their besetting sin ever come back to Christ. Many in this situation have tried, and
found that they "cannot cease from sin". Jude, in his letter,
described such backslidden brothers as "trees whose fruit withereth, without
fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the
roots"(v.12). The Apostle Peter described such persons thus: "These
are wells without
water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved
forever.... For if after they have escaped the pollutions of this world through the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and
overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better
for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than after they have known it, to
turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them
according to the true proverb, The dog is returned to his own vomit again; and the sow
is returned to her wallowing in the mire" (2Pet.2:17, 20-22).
There are few, if any, among the saints of God who have not returned to at least a
few of their former, smaller sins, or weights of hindrances. This article may be read by
one who has never erred so much as to partake of his besetting sin, but who,
nevertheless, "has sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:28), so far
as are concerned the "weights" which quietly steal our joy and peace and "choke the
word" out of our hearts. How sad it is, however, when one permits the old ways of
ungodliness to grow until he is turned over by God to "the sin that so easily besets". We
have this sobering
counsel from John: "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto
death, he shall
ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto
death. I do not say that he shall pray for it. All unrighteousness is sin; and there is a sin
not unto death" (1Jn.5:16-17). My friend, the desire to repent from any error
is a gift
from God. One who feels no conviction for sin, small or great, is abiding already in
God's disfavor. David told the truth when he said the man whom God chastens is
blessed (Ps.94:12).
There is a place in God for all who have His Spirit to live where
sin is not practiced at all. This state of holiness is known as consecration, or entire
sanctification. Such believers as these are designated by Jesus as "wise
virgins", and by
Paul as "without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing", and by John as
"the bride of the Lamb". No, the bride of Christ will not include the entire congregation of God's elect, but only that part of the elect which keeps itself pure. "The same", said Jesus,
"shall be clothed with white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the
book of life, but I will confess his
name before my Father, and before his angels" (Rev.3:5).
May God help each one of us to overcome with joy the "weights" of
little errors
and "the sin which doth so easily beset us" (Heb. 12:1)... "For so an entrance shall be
ministered unto
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ" (II Pet.1:11).
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