Contradiction: Does Everybody Sin?
“If they sin against You, for there is no one who does not sin, and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near” (1 Kings 8:46).
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9).
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10-12)
In a passage in Romans, Paul states that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). A few verses earlier, the apostleApostle (Greek) means "sent one." Today, we are "messengers" for Christ when we pass on the gospel (2 Cor. 5:20). But the highest-ranking messenger is Jesus Christ himself (Heb 3:1;... More quotes from the Old Testament with similar content: “As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10-12). This makes the statement of Holy Scripture clear: every human being sins, as Solomon also formulated in his prayer to God: “There is no one who does not sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More ...” (1 Kings 8:46). But how then is the statement in 1 John 3:9 to be understood?
Without question, a Christian should strive to overcome sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More in every form—but unfortunately, no Christian, no matter how faithful, can be absolutely sinless. John writes this very clearly in his letter: “If we say that we have no sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More, 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” (1 John 1:8, 9). He goes even further when he writes one verse later: “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:10). John calls such an assertion, making God a liar! God clearly describes our sinful nature in many places in His word. 1 John 1:8, therefore, rightly calls the claim to be sinless self-deception. And we know from our own experience that we simply cannot manage not to sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More. But how then can John write a few chapters later: “... he cannot sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9)?
The believer that John describes here has the distinctive characteristic that he is “born of God.” The GreekUnlike Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews; Acts 6:1; 9:29), Greeks, in the narrow sense of the word, come from Greece and have at least one Greek parent (Acts 16:3 in connection with... More preposition ek is used for “from.” It indicates the origin, in our case God. The verb “is born” is in the perfect tense, meaning that the action began in the past, and the result is still visible unchanged in the present. In summary, this means that the believer is born of God, has become a child of God, and remains so. At the same time, the believer has received a new nature through the power of the Spirit of God. And the hallmark of this new nature is that it cannot sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More. For “the one who is born of God,” sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More is something abnormal or unnatural. From this perspective, the one born of God does not sinThe Bible carefully differentiates between sin and sins. • Sin: the evil power at work in man that causes him to engage in sinful activities (Rom 7:17, 18). God pronounced... More.
But: the new nature has no power in itself. The letter to the Romans shows this. The new nature strives for things that are for the glory of God. But in order to have the power to carry them out, practical submission to ChristA title of the Lord Jesus, which is also used as an epithet; Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) mean "anointed one". The title refers to the fact that Jesus is... More and His Spirit is necessary. This walk in the Spirit is essentially the result of a real, heartfelt agreement with God's judgment on the old nature at the cross of ChristA title of the Lord Jesus, which is also used as an epithet; Messiah (Hebrew) and Christ (Greek) mean "anointed one". The title refers to the fact that Jesus is... More. The believer still has the old nature, and if he does not consider himself dead to sin—which unfortunately happens all too often—then he sins.
Thus, the above biblical passages do not contradict each other at all. They describe, on the one hand, man by nature, who is a sinner, and, on the other hand, the new nature (the new life) of the believer, who is incapable of sinning.
