Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
“When did you stop sinning?” That question was posed to Dr. John MacArthur Jr. at a Ligonier conference in 1997. Perhaps the person who wrote the question thought that anyone who spends 30 hours a week studying Scripture, has a Christian radio program, has written dozens of books, and is the pastor of a large church certainly must be sinless. Surely Christian leaders don’t fight the same battles between the flesh and the spirit as ordinary believers?
John informed the audience that, over his many years as a Christian, he had been honed by God’s Word and did, in fact, sin less, but he assured them that he was not sinless. He added that, as he grew in his knowledge of the holiness of God, he felt worse about the sin he did commit.
Non-Christians and new Christians are often confused by such explanations.
The ammunition of the non-Christian is, “I thought she was a Christian” or “They’re nothing but hypocrites.” The wounds of the new Christian are, “Why do I still have evil thoughts?” “How could I have done that?” or “I’m ashamed to go to church today.”
The confusion centers on our failure to understand salvation, sanctification, and glorification. While we cannot expect the non-believer to grapple with these distinctions, the Christian must do so or be overtaken by grief.
We are justified by faith in the atoning work of Christ. He has taken on our sin and we have been credited with His righteousness. That is the Good News—by the grace of God, we sinners are made right before God.
A new Christian experiences forgiveness that he has never known. In his zeal, he often sincerely pledges never to sin again. But these pledges are spurious and bring grief when broken. The believer’s joy disappears, he questions his commitment, and doubts he is a Christian.
This tension over sin is part of walking in the Spirit. Even the apostle Paul experienced it. He wrote: “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (Rom. 7:15).
Sanctification is the process of being made holy. We are growing in sanctification. The command is not to sin less but to be holy. But, as Martin Luther wrote, we are at the same time just and sinful.
We have the hope and promise that Christ is the “author and finisher” of our faith (Heb. 12:2). But it will be only when we cross the threshold into heaven that we finally will be finished with our sinful hearts and enter into glorification. Until then we fight.
We are justified by faith alone, not by a faith that is alone. Flee evil “and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim. 6:11–12a).