What happens if you sin after being born again?

The question often arises in the minds of the Lord's people, especially of those who are young in the faith, "What is to be done if we commit sins after we have been saved?" Many a child of God has said, "I know that I have believed in Christ, and see that my sins were put away by His blood; but what troubles me is the sins I commit now, and what am I to do with them?" The direct answer to this question is found in 1 John 2:1-2, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins." This is clearly written to believers, for the apostle addresses them as "my children;" that is, those who have been born of God. And again, "We have an advocate with the Father," as it is only those who are born again who can call God their Father.

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.

God hates sin; He can neither have fellowship with it, nor make a believer happy when he goes on with it. How could God walk with him in such a path? Further, as a Father who loves His child, God is obliged to discipline and correct him for his own good when he is disobedient; and such chastening is not joyous, but grievous. Afterwards however, it yields peaceable fruit to those who learn by it to hate and forsake sin. (See Hebrews 12:4-11.)

When a believer sins and fails to confess and judge himself before God, he loses the joy of fellowship with his Father and exposes himself to His chastening. He is still a child of God. He has not lost his salvation, which is eternal, but he has lost the joy of communion with his Father. He cannot get that back until he confesses his sin to his Father with a firm purpose of heart to forsake it.

Chapter 2:1-2. For the first time John uses the endearing term "my little children", meaning the born ones of God, who are born into the family of God by having believed on the Son of God. One might conclude, inasmuch as belief in the eradication of the old nature and sinless perfection is a delusion, that the child of God must sin. But, while sin is within, and a sinless perfection is beyond our reach, it does not mean that the believer should continue in sin. He had written these things that they might not sin. But if any man sin a gracious provision has been made. Let it be noticed that the application, as it is often done, to the sinner who is outside, who knows not Christ at all, is totally wrong. It means the little children, the members of the family of God. If any true child of God sins we have an advocate with the Father (not God, it is the matter of the family), Jesus Christ the righteous. The advocacy of Christ restores the sinning believer to the communion with the Father and the Son which sin interrupted. He does not wait till we come repenting and confessing, but in the very moment we have sinned He exercises His blessed office as our Advocate with the Father and His intercession produces in us repentance, confession, and self-judgment. Thus we are maintained by Himself in the fellowship into which the grace of God has called and brought us.

When the believer sins it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. Many a child of God has been harassed through ignorance, and imagined that he committed the unpardonable sin. The sin of a believer does not make him unsaved or lost, but it makes fellowship with the Father and the Son impossible till the sin is judged and confessed. This is accomplished by His advocacy.

Why these very verses answer with the utmost clearness each of these questions. And mark, these truths are not given that we may sin; and God forbid that I should write one line that we may be careless in our walk: "My children, these things write I to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." Even in this extreme case there is no thought of a fresh application of the blood. If the believer sins, does he lose the value of the blood? Oh no, He who died for our sins is our advocate, patron, solicitor — the One who undertakes the whole case of our restoration; as we see in that beautiful figure, when He took the basin and poured water, and washed His disciples' feet. But it does not say Advocate with God, but with the FATHER. Oh, what this speaks! The relationship is still there. Not a sinner before God, to be saved again; but a fallen child, to be restored to the Father; and by Jesus Christ the righteous? Yes, He is still thy subsisting righteousness with the Father, and He is — not He must die again to be — He is the propitiation for our sins. This for ever decides the question of a fresh application of the blood. He is the propitiation. With the Jew the blood of the goat was needed once a year to be repeated on the propitiatory mercy-seat. Not so the blood of His Son; once shed, it is for ever before God. Have you sinned? Come boldly to that propitiatory, that throne of grace. Oh, the claims of that blood for us before God! Fearful is the error of admitting for a moment the thought that there needs a fresh application of blood. What! was that sin, which breaks your heart in sorrow and contrition, transferred to Christ on the cross? Is that precious blood on the mercy-seat before the eye of God? Is that blood also on you as we saw in the cleansing of the leper? Need you more? Need you a fresh application of blood? Does God need more than the death of His Son? Will He deny the claims of that precious blood? "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Sins after conversion do, however, greatly upset the Christian's happiness, and dispel the joy both of forgiveness and relationship with God, until in self-judgment such sins are confessed, and through the advocacy of Christ we get the Father's forgiveness (see 1 John 1:9; 2:1). Painful lessons in this way we all have to learn, but there is profit in them. We discover thus the true nature of the flesh within us, and that the only way to keep from gratifying its desire is to "walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:16).

But then, what about the sins which are committed after conversion? Is there simply no notice taken of them? That, we are sure, is impossible: both Scripture and our own experience would refute the unholy thought. That the people of God have often to suffer greatly because of their sins is known to all; and Scripture is full of examples of this, and asserts it doctrinally in the clearest way. Thus, "if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work," says the apostle Peter, "pass the time of your sojourning here with fear: forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as with silver and gold … but with the precious blood of Christ" (1 Peter 1:17-19). And again he says: "For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? and if the righteous scarcely" — or rather, "with difficulty" — "be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" (1 Peter 4:17-18.)

In 1 John 1 we have the difference between confession and forgiveness. Coming to God merely to seek forgiveness may or may not be accompanied with full confession. In making confession to Him, forgiveness is not the first thought of the one who thus draws near to Him. If it is merely forgiveness that is sought, circumstances and feebleness will be pleaded as excuses, in order that a ground for forgiving may be presented other than what there is in Himself. But in true confession there is no question of the force of circumstances, nor of one's own feebleness. And with the Christian this goes still further; for there is consciousness that grace has been left on one side, and that there has been lack of dependence upon it, and that self‑will and pride have led away from Him and His grace into the commission of that which is being confessed. There is thus no question of circumstances, nor of one's own weakness; no question of the temptations or trials surrounding one. It is a question solely of "Thy grace" and my self‑will. His grace would have kept me; I refused it, thought nothing of it, and did not count upon it as needful for me. His power would have kept me, but I looked to another power, and left the place of dependence. Thus I placed myself in the temptation, and fell. I allowed it, and why? If I look upon the circumstances, and shelter myself behind them, I am taking refuge behind lies; and the one that has to do with God says ever, "Away with all refuge of lies; let the be real with God; it is with Himself alone I have to do."

But He is also the Advocate “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). The high Priest has to do with our infirmities, succouring, sustaining sympathizing. The Advocate has to do with the believer when he sins. There can be no sympathizing with sin. But if the believer sins, how touching it is that we are not given up by the Lord. On the contrary He is active for our recovery. Surely it is the ministry of our Lord so dealing with the sinning saint that repentance takes place, and confession is made, and full restoration to communion with the Father is effected. It is not a question of the sinner and God, but of a saint and the Father, not for the obtaining of salvation, but for the restoration of communion. The principle is seen in Psalm 51:1—“Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation”—not restore to me Thy salvation, but “the joy of Thy salvation.” It may be discipline may come in to this end.

This is no case of a weak believer giving way to sinful conduct, for in such a case there is a restoring remedy. Compare James 5:19, 20; Galatians 6:1; 1 John 2:1. But here there is no remedy. The greatness of the Person of Christ and the perfection of His sacrifices have been here discussed in wonderful fulness. The willful sin of verse 26 is therefore the cold, deliberate rejection of this marvelous revelation of God, in the very face of having been intellectually enlightened. Notice, it is after receiving the knowledge of the truth, - not receiving the truth itself, or "the love of the truth." as is expressed in 2 Thessalonians 2. Some Jews who had professed Christianity were already revolting against it. In acknowledging it, they were admitting the necessity for a sacrifice to take away sins. Now in refusing it, they were choosing a position where there was no sacrifice for sins whatever. How dreadfully hopeless! Positive, certain judgment was the only alternative, fiery indignation, which should devour the adversaries. For in such a stand they became the callous adversaries of the God of Israel.