No Longer Sinners

“For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” – 2 Corinthians 5:21

​

If you are a Christian, may it be known, you are the righteousness of God and you have no sin in you. “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The term “sinner” is no longer our identity as Christ has cleansed us from ALL sin. “You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin” (1 John 3:5). If we abide in Jesus (John 15:4), we have no sin, for there is no sin in Jesus. By faith we may rest assured God has sprinkled our hearts clean and rid us from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22). If we claim to be sinners while receiving God’s free gift of righteousness, we contradict the very work of Christ and thereby receive no gift at all. Rather, may we hold fast to what He’s given with our confidence in Him; believing He’s done what He said He has done.

​

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, He is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When baptized into Christ, we enter His death, putting to the death our old selves. When risen above the water, we enter into the life of Jesus; the newness of life (Romans 6). This is what it means to be born again. If we are born again, then we are no longer slaves to sin (Romans 6:6). “For he who has died is freed from sin” (Romans 6:7). If we’ve been freed from sin, we are no longer sinners! “For sin shall no longer have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). “How shall we who died to sin still live in it” (Romans 6:2)? But believe you are a sinner and a sinner is what you will be.

For a long time, many have ignorantly perverted the scriptures of Romans 7:14-24 when Paul expresses the power of sin under the Law. It’s commonly misused to validate the doctrine of believing we are still bound to sin. However, what Paul intended to convey was the exact opposite. “Or do you not know, brothers—For I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives” (Romans 7:1). After describing our freedom from sin and our slavery to righteousness, Paul speaks of the Law in contrast to the freedom we have in Jesus. “Now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit” (Romans 7:6). Paul’s main point expresses our freedom from sin as we’ve received the Spirit of life. “Wretched man that I am! who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24, 25). It is Jesus That delivers us from the body of death along with it’s passions of sin.

​

Yet many look to 1 John 1:8 for reason to believe we still possess sin – “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” Disregarding the pervious verse and the one proceeding, many feel it necessary to hold on to a guilty conscience. But let the truth be known, if one is without Jesus, they are filled with sin. But within Jesus, He cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness (1 John 1:7,9).

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). Being set free from sin, there is no room for shame or guilt. We are in Christ Jesus and cannot be condemned. This is why the gospel is good news. Jesus fulfilled the Law for the Law to be fulfilled in us as we walk by the Spirit (Romans 8:4,5). If then Christ has fulfilled the law in us, are we still sinners? No, we are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, if we walk by the Spirit, rest assured, you have no sin and will never sin (Galatians 5:16).

​

Are we then capable of sinning? Of course. We live in a body that is passing away and has desires that may not be good. But this does not mean we are bound to sin. “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The verse says “if” we sin, not “when” we sin. Therefore, the expectation of sinning is obsolete and irrelevant. “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). To say we are always going to sin would disclaim ourselves as being born of God. But as we are indeed born of God, Holy Spirit is the One that keeps us from sinning. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

It is no longer us who live but Christ who lives in us (Galatians 2:20). No longer being bound to a sinful nature, we now take part in a divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Having been delivered from the domain of darkness, He has transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians1:13). May the bride of Christ hold fast to the righteousness He’s given and thereby reward our Lord for His suffering.

​

Taber Cheo