What if we sin after we are saved?

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 with the sins we commit 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 in His blood; but what troubles me is the sins I commit now; and what am I to do with them?" The divine 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 in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 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;" and it is only those who are born again who can truly call God their Father. In one sense every believer has the forgiveness of all his sins; as in 1 John 2:12, "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." It is very important to distinguish between our sins being once and for all put away by the "one sacrifice" on the cross, and the Father forgiving a child when he has sinned. There are two things we need in order to be happy in God's presence - the forgiveness of sins, and a new life and nature. You find these two in 1 John 4:9-10. In verse 9, "God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (eternal life); and in verse 10, "To be the propitiation for our sins" (forgiveness of sins).

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.

But if the believer should sin, what is he to do? Go to the blood for cleansing? No; the cleansing which the blood gives abides. But as God, by His Spirit and Word, brings home to him the sin he has been guilty of, he is led to confess it to God with sorrow and shame. And this results not in the restoration of his salvation, but of the joy of it. The link of life is not forged afresh, for that has never been broken, but communion is renewed, so that the sunshine of a Father’s smile is again enjoyed. For this read 1 John 1:1-10 and 2:1-2.

Question: Can a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ lose eternal life and be lost? I will give you the Lord's own words in reply, in John 10 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." If you believe that one who has been redeemed by Christ's blood, and sealed by the Spirit can be lost, you must believe that Satan is stronger than God, Father, Son, and Spirit; for all three Persons are engaged in the salvation of each lost soul. But you say cannot I do anything wrong? Yes indeed. There is nothing bad we might not do, if we had not a great high Priest to minister grace to help us in time of need, and an advocate with the Father to pray for us and restore us if we sin. "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." It never loses its value, and the advocacy of Jesus Christ the righteous never ceases. He is able to save to the uttermost those that come to God by Him, seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. Scripture exhorts us not to sin, and we have no excuse for sinning, because there is a throne of grace for us where grace is being continually ministered and the Spirit is power with us, and in us if ungrieved. Nevertheless, provision is made for sin. "If any man sin," it does not say, as some people seem to think it says, he will become a child of the devil, and fall into hell; "but, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sins." He is our righteousness and never changes, and He it is who, as our advocate, maintains us in a state suited to the standing we have in Him, and restores our souls if we sin and get out of communion. May the Lord abundantly bless what has been before us, and grant that we may be found "waiting for the Son from heaven, even Jesus, our deliverer from coming wrath."

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.

In John's first epistle we read that we are not to sin: "My little 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" (1 John 2:1). In the seventh verse of the first chapter, it says, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin." That is the continuously abiding character of the blood, that has made you clean, and keeps you clean. It is the blood that keeps you clean before God, in divine righteousness; it is the water that keeps you clean as to your conscience, and fits you for communion. "If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." If I say I have no sins, it is true, because Christ bore them and put them away; but if I say I have no sin, the truth is not in me, for that is my nature as a child of Adam, and the flesh is still in me. If it acts I at once have sins, of which God and the conscience are cognisant. How then do we as believers get rid of these daily sins? "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). That supposes the possibility of a Christian sinning, which necessarily interrupts his communion. What is the way for him to get rid of his sin? How can he get back? If he endeavours to go back to God, saying, as of old, "I am a lost sinner," he will never get restoration that way. Why? Because he is not a lost sinner, he is a defiled child, a naughty child. That soul never gets right till it comes back in the acknowledgement of its true relationship, which, thank God, its sinful ways have not destroyed, and says, Father, I have been a naughty child. The man that is right before God confesses his sin, and then he learns what forgiveness is.

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.

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.

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).