How bad can a Christian sin?

It may be asked, "Is it possible that a true child of God could ever be found in such a low moral condition?" Alas! alas! reader, it is indeed possible. There is no depth of sin and folly into which a Christian is not capable of plunging, if not kept by the grace of God. Even the blessed apostle himself, when he came down from the third heaven, needed "a thorn in the flesh" to keep him from being "exalted above measure." We might suppose that a man who had been up in that bright and blessed region could never again feel the stirrings of pride. But the plain fact is that even the third heavens cannot cure the flesh. It is utterly incorrigible, and must be judged and kept under, day by day, hour by hour, moment by moment, else it will cut out plenty of sorrowful work for us.

This is peculiarly solemn. It is full of instruction for us all. We are all so ignorant of our own hearts that we deem ourselves incapable of falling into certain gross sins. But we should, every one of us, bear in mind that if not kept each moment by the grace of God, we are capable of anything. We have materials in us for any amount or character of evil; and whenever we hear any one saying, "Well, I certainly am a poor, failing, stumbling creature, but I am not capable of doing the like of that," we may feel assured he does not know his own heart; and not only so, but he is in imminent danger of falling into some grievous sin. It is well to walk humbly before our God, distrusting self, and leaning on Him. This is the true secret of moral safety at all times. Had Peter realized this, it would have saved him his terrible downfall.

The unspeakable badness of corrupted nature is nowhere so strikingly exemplified as in the case of an erring saint. For the dark colours of human iniquity are most clearly discerned, and most perfectly appreciated, in the light of Divine truth. The end and idol of nature is self. As a natural consequence, the ways of a man who walks after the flesh tend constantly away from God, who is the only centre of holiness, and may lead into any and every kind of sinful result. This is a truth as applicable to a devoted servant of God, as it is to the most abandoned sinner. For it is only while watchfully abiding in Christ that we are kept in practical security from the power of the wicked one (John 5:18). If a Christian is not walking in the Spirit, he is walking in the flesh, and will certainly fulfil its lusts. It then becomes purely a question of degree as to the distance to which he may wander or be driven from the ways of holiness and peace. In such circumstances, an act of glaring wickedness has sometimes become the term and limit to a long course of careless evil; during which the heart has been too drowsy, or too much absorbed in its own selfish pursuits, to perceive the increasing variance of its path from the secret of God's presence. David, alas! is no solitary instance, in the confessed experience of God's saints, of human weakness and depravity, — of nature fulfilling its darkest evil in the very midst of Divine favour and blessing. Nor, blessed be God, is he alone in his testimony to the still abounding riches of exhaustless mercy, whereby, through the once-shed blood of Jesus Christ His Son, all iniquity may be forgiven by the righteous God, the Saviour.

What then is the position of the saint, who sins after conversion? If he is really founded in the truth of the gospel he knows that sin has been eternally cleansed away by the precious blood of Christ, that on the Cross our Lord bare our sins in His own body on the tree. And it is the knowledge of this that is the most potent element in his repentance. The believer has sinned. He does not lose his salvation, righteousness imputed to him is still true of him, justification is his, eternal life his possession, but he loses the JOY of his salvation. Even David, who sinned grievously in the case of Bath-sheba, did not cry, “Restore unto me Thy salvation,” but Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation (Ps. 51:12). Communion is broken. Misery fills the heart.

"Will a believer be saved, no matter into what course of sin he may fall, and die in?" A true believer will, infallibly, be saved; but we consider that salvation includes, not only full deliverance from the future consequences of sin, but from the present power and practice thereof. And, hence, if we find a person living in sin, and yet talking about his assurance of salvation, we look upon him as an antinomian and not a saved person at all. "If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth." The believer may fall, but he will be lifted up; he may be overtaken, but he will be restored; he may wander, but he will be brought back because Christ is able to save to the uttermost, and not one of His little ones shall perish.

“All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.” The perfection and beauty of our eternal relationship with God and with His children has been declared to us fully. Unrighteousness is simply inconsistency with relationship. The least thing inconsistent then with this holy relationship is sin, however it may be glossed over as an error, a slip, or whatever else. God intends no trifling or excusing of sin. Yet on the other hand, “there is a sin not unto death”: the degree of seriousness differs: and we are called upon to be exercised to discern things which differ; for there is no list of things put in either category: this will require communion of soul with God.

1 John 5:17. Every act of unrighteousness is sin: it is inconsistent with the nature and character of Him Who has called us by grace to be for His glory in this world. But not every sin is so heinous in God's sight as to require the removal of the sinner by death. The case mentioned in James 5:14-15 is of a sin not unto death; indeed there the discipline may or may not be because of sin. Many have lied since the days of Ananias, and many have behaved disorderly in the assembly since the early days at Corinth, and have not been removed in consequence; it is not any special sin that determines whether it is or is not a sin unto death, but rather the circumstances in which the sin is committed, and perhaps the motive and state of the one who commits the sin.

But much worse than this are "presumptuous sins" (v. 13), for they involve the deliberate willful indulging in what we know is wrong, and when once we launch out in such a course, it is not long before such sins take control of us. May the Lord indeed preserve us from this dreadful danger. It is not usually sins of ignorance that cause us the greatest trouble, but sins we know are sins, yet we give way to them. The Lord knew we needed His preserving mercy for this, when He gave His disciples the prayer of Matthew 6:3, "And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

"There is sin unto death": rather than "a sin." "Every unrighteousness is sin." Every act of inconsistency with our new relationship is sinful. We are now left here to do the will of God. But it is only when aggravated by special circumstances of affront to God in private or public that such an evil act becomes sin unto death. Ordinarily it is not so.

This is no particular sin, but sin of such a nature, having in view the person who commits it, and the circumstances leading up to it. We have instances of it in Scripture. For instance, Moses by uttering a few hasty words sinned to death. Many of the Israelites uttered hasty words and it did not constitute a sin to death in their case, but the peculiar position of Moses and the circumstances in which he uttered these hasty words, led his action to be treated as “a sin to death,” and debarred him from entering the promised land. Samson’s letting out the secret of his strength to Delilah, the prophet turning aside to eat bread and water, when expressly told not to do so; Ananias and Sapphira telling a lie to the Holy Ghost; the unrepented-of intemperance of some of the Corinthian saints at the Lord’s supper, constituted “a sin to death.”