Is a Sin-Free Life Possible?
With one exception that I'll get to later, I've never known anyone who has led a sin-free life. I know for sure that I haven't. I recall hearing one pastor claim that they "haven't sinned in 30 years!", and I immediately had the thought: "You just did."
Believe it or not, a Christian's goal is not to live sin-free. Now, I realize that this statement may shock people and seems a little counterintuitive especially since many religions promote the idea of reaching perfection. There are many Christian circles that promote this same ideal, but at the heart of Christianity, there is a different goal. I'm not saying that anyone who desires to live sin-free is a "bad Christian" or an untrustworthy person. I've been that person. I'm just saying that the goal of a Christian should not be to live sin-free. Instead, it's a by-product of reaching our goal.
Why would you want to be without sin?
So let's be honest: why do you want to be without sin? If you say "to please God", then that is a good answer, but is that really the driving reason? I could fool myself and say that I'm only trying to make God happy, or perhaps I'm trying to model it for others. I could even say it's the right thing to do, but the deeply buried truth that I might not even realize consciously is that seeking to live sin-free is driven by pride and selfishness. I want to live without sin for my sake, and even if I never mention it to anyone else, I would take great pride in my accomplishment. I can't speak for everyone, but I realize this sad truth about me: my underlying desire to live without sin is in itself sinful.
Likewise, every religious authority that emphasizes this self-made path to perfection is leading people astray. It's just another variation of the original sin, i.e. - becoming our own god and doing what seems right in our own eyes. So that means that every Christian, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist that is striving to live a perfect life is on the wrong path. And every stumble that comes - and it will come - gives the Accuser of Men, Satan, a opportunity to discourage us so that in shame, we hide from God.
What is sin?
It would probably be good to pause for a moment and define sin. What is sin? The dictionary defines sin as:
1
- an offense against religious or moral law
- an action that is or is felt to be highly reprehensible
- an often serious shortcoming : fault
2
- transgression of the law of God
- a vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God
If we consider this old testament definition of sin, it should be clear that we will always fall short of perfection. There can be only one perfect Being. In philosophy, this is called the Ontological argument for the existence of God. The rest of creation will be less than this perfect Being, Who is fully good, fully real, all-knowing, and all-powerful. So if this fully good and all-knowing God created us, would He have created us to feel guilty as we always fall short of perfection?
Why did God create us?
Despite our imperfections, we were created in God's Image; male and female, we were created to bear His image, to reflect His light. Like the moon, we have no light of our own, but when we bask in His Presence, we show others His beauty. Why did God create us? He made us for love. Jesus told us that the greatest commandment was to love God, and in a close second is the commandment to love others. Every religious and moral law flows from this love. The apostle John emphasized the importance of love, pointing out that we can only love because God loves us first. When we read the Bible through the lens of God's love for us and His desire for us to reflect His love, it changes us. We were created for love: to love and to be loved.
But as the Bible points out: everyone sins and the wages of sin is death. No one can approach the perfect God without the price being paid for our sin. So God sent His Son to live a sinless life (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22, and 1 John 3:5) and to pay the price for us so that we could be in relationship with Him. Man has historically lived in rebellion to God's laws, in effect waging war against God, but the angels announcing Christ's birth declared God's peace and goodwill to mankind.
God showed His love for us by paying the price for our sins, so what do you think is the loving response to God's gift? According to John 14:21, "Whoever knows and obeys my commandments is the person who loves me. Those who love me will have my Father’s love, and I, too, will love them and show myself to them.” Does this mean that we now need to obey His law or fall out of His favor? Do the rules change once God saves us so that after accepting His offer of peace we're now required to live a sin-free, perfect life?
No, the problem is that even being "saved", we can't do it on our own. The first step in the original Alcoholic Anonymous 12 step program points this truth out: we are powerless to overcome our addiction on our own, and the reality is that we are all addicted to our selfish nature. Paul wrote in Romans 7:21-25 how his body and spirit are at war, and that it is through Jesus that we find victory. We can't obey in our own power, but like the alcoholic, we need to hand the struggle over to God, who works in us to desire and act in a right way. It is God Who empowers us to stand before Him without fault, and it only in spending time with Him that we are changed into being who He made us to be.
So what is the goal of a Christian?
As Christians, we are free to sin and yet called to not live in sin. Even after accepting Him as both Savior and Lord of our life, we don't have the power to act in obedience without Him first empowering us, which happens naturally as we spend time with Him. Therefore, living without sin is a by-product of our relationship with God and not the path toward a relationship. The more time we spend in His presence, the more we are changed. So at this point, it should be clear that obeying God's commandments is only achieved by an active relationship with Him. If and when we find it difficult to obey, it's an indication of our need to be with Him.
Jesus demonstrated how we should live and find strength in God the Father, and He showed this most clearly on His way to the cross. (Luke 22:42, Matthew 26:39) It's my opinion that God created us to be dependent upon Him, to come to Him like little children, and I believe He created us this way to show both His love for us as well as His desire to be in relationship with us. We don't need to bring Him anything other than honest humility, dependent and trusting in Who He is for us, not pretending to be something that we are not, but understanding that our best self is found only by spending time with Him.
Our goal as Christians is therefore a relationship with the Perfect One, Who loves us in all our imperfections and Who grows us into the people that truly bear His image. In Him, we are made new every minute of every day.
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