The following is a re-post and continuation of post #409. I'm just posting all of it here so as to make it easier to not not follow the line of thinking but also to make it easier to respond too.....
This is just an absolutely terrific question! It really goes straight to the heart of the real practical difference between A9D and basically every other doctrinal system.
Some people really make a huge issue out of the word "sin" and develop detailed doctrinal constructs around the meaning of that one word. I'm reminded of a guy who used to post here on TOL whose user name was Sozo. He's a really smart guy and wrote some of the most terrific posts about grace but holy crap was he caught up on the word "sin". He just flatly insisted that it was not possible for a Christian to sin and based STRICTLY on his very tight definition of the word, he was right. The problem he had though is that he was nearly the only person in the world that used the word 'sin' in such way.
I make no effort to do such things. In fact, if anything, I attempt to use terms in the most common understanding possible so as to avoid the sort of confusion that Sozo was constantly fighting while he was here.
So, having said that, let me answer your question this way. If by 'sin' you mean committing an act that you know you shouldn't then the answer is an unqualified, "Yes, of course!". Christians do thing that hurt themselves and those around them, things that God does not like and does not want them to do.
BUT! He does not hold those sins against us because He has already held it against His Son who died in our place, receiving the just punishment for our sin.
Romans 4:5 But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, 6 just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:
7 “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
And whose sins are covered;
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin.”
15 because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression.
Put another way, the wages of sin are death (note that this was so WAY before the Law of Moses - it goes all the way back to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil - it is no mere coincidence by the way that both that Tree and the Law have a ministry of death.) and we are identified in Christ's death. What hold then does sin have over us? This is precisely the theme of the whole of Romans 6 and 7.
So, do Christians do things they shouldn't (a.k.a. sin)? Sure they do. Christians aren't perfect, they're forgiven, as they say. But there is a perspective from which this is not so. That is to say, it is not inaccurate to say that we are perfect -
IN HIM! This was a major point Zozo would make all the time and it is a point that is quite correct. It is only in our flesh that sin exists and we are to reckon ourselves to have been crucified with Christ. This reckoning is the key to the Christian life.
One of the most critical things that a Christian must learn is that he cannot live the Christian life. It is Christ who lives His life through us
by faith. It cannot be done through the flesh. And this is really critical - The law,
any law, has to do with the flesh. It is a rule that tells the flesh, "NO!". Just as circumcision is a cutting off of the physical flesh, the law, which circumcision symbolizes, is a cutting off of that part of ourselves that we refer to as "the flesh". And it makes no difference if you are talking about the Law of Moses itself or the list of rules your pastor has in place for what sort of clothes you're allowed to wear at church or whether your wife can wear her hair down or whether you must give 10% of your income to the church or whether is okay to smoke cigarettes or eat at Burger King. All such rules doom the Christian to failure! Why?
Because every one of them presuppose that the flesh lives! They all presuppose that you are better than you are and that you are capable of doing righteousness. You're not! Stop trying! Contradiction cannot exist! You can either reckon your flesh to have been crucified (i.e. that its dead) or you can set up rules in attempt to cut off its desires. You cannot do both!
The only righteousness you have is that which has been imputed to you by God. It is a righteousness that does not belong to you and that you did not earn and that you cannot screw up! It is the righteousness of Christ that has been credited to your account. The key question is, do you believe it? Those that believe it understand that the Christian life is not about working but about resting. The more real the biblical facts concerning your position in Christ becomes in your mind, the more you will relax and simply rest in His completed work. When it stops being about doing and becomes about being then the doing of it will stop being of your flesh and will be of Christ.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”
This is Paul's Gospel (Romans 2:16 & 16:25; II Timothy 2:18). It does not exist outside of Paul's epistles and if Paul's epistles did not exist we would all be Messianic Jews or the equivalent. It is precisely those who do not distinguish between Paul's ministry and that of the twelve (II Timothy 2:15) who are doomed to be permanently engaged in a constant battle with their flesh. Their flesh is the undead, unrelenting, moaning zombie that they cannot kill because THEY keep resurrecting it! They keep trying to become that which God has already declared them to be. They keep aspiring to that which is already theirs! They cannot reach God because they refuse to believe that they are already IN HIM. Their life then becomes one failure after another, one constant battle between wanting love but feeling guilt. You are not guilty! You were guilty before you came to Christ but once you received Christ, your guilt was transferred to Him and His death paid the price for it. Any further guilt on your part is UNJUST! It is you telling God that Christ's suffering wasn't enough - I must also suffer! It isn't so! There is no place for guilt in the life of a Christian for you are not under law but in Christ. You can no more be guilty of sin than can Christ be.
Colossians 2:20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— 21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” 22 which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? 23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Resting in Him,
Clete
