Prone to Wander?

Prone to Wander?

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.

He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins — and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

1 John. 2:1-2 NLT

Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s lifeis in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.                 1 John. 3:9 NLT

Christian theologians have struggled to work through Biblical statements like those above and to square them with life experience. Is it possible for a believer to come to a place, through the grace of God, where they do not commit intentional sin? That seems to be what these passages and others like them say. Furthermore, they seem to say that in order for this to be the case, there is a radical change in the disposition to sin (“the old man,” “the flesh,” etc.), so that, indeed, we are no longer disposed to sin. But if that is the case, what gives rise to the occasional sin that the Bible admits is possible?

This issue accounted for a major split among the proponents of the holy life in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Was the “sin nature” (the disposition to sin) “eradicated” (American holiness movement) or was it “suppressed” (British Keswick movement)? The Americans accused the British of not offering enough, whereas the British accused the Americans of offering more than they could supply.

I would like to offer another way of thinking about the problem. Imagine that the disposition, or inclination, to sin is a bend in a piece of spring steel. No matter how many times you try to straighten the metal, the bend remains. But now, let us put a powerful magnet against the metal. Will it be straight? Yes, indeed, the bend will be gone! But suppose we remove the magnet. Now what? The bend will be there again. What am I saying? I am saying that we are never “straight” in ourselves. Apart from an intimate relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit we will be inclined to sin. But with that relationship intact there will be no such inclination! All our inclination will be to serve and please him. Praise his name!