Christians!! Help me figure this out!!!?

Question

I figured I'd ask this again since there is a big Christian crowd on today. I asked a question about why we have to ask forgiveness for sinning if we have no choice but to sin because the bible says we all will. I was told that we have free will to sin or not. The problem is that the bible specifically says that no matter what we do, we can't live a life without sin. We all have to sin at some point. Free will would give us the choice to either sin or not sin, so in what sense do we have free will if we have no choice but to sin?? Can you enlighten me please??

For all of you that are still trying to tell me it is our free will that causes us to sin. What if I was to make the claim that I have never sinned once in my life? How many religious people would believe me. (I have posted that twice on Y!A and they all told me the bible says its impossible.) So back to my question. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO NOT SIN, THE BIBLE SAYS SO, HOW IS IT FREE WILL!?!?!?!?!?

Answer 1

I personally believe we should not be so literal with the word "sin." Think of sin as a broader term. Instead of doing this sin or that sin, I prefer to think of it as doing a good or bad thing. And because of sin, good or bad may result from what you saw as a good or bad thing. Sin is what keeps us from being perfect. That is the point. Sin will make us do bad things, or cause bad things to happen even if we do a good thing.

We have free will to act in the way we choose. If we try to choose to do good things as much as possible, this is good. But we all have sinful thoughts, etc. because of sin. Sometimes we do bad things. We have a free will to do a good thing instead of a bad thing, but we can't escape our sinful mind. We have a sinful mind, so in a way you're right, we don't have a free will to just escape it. But we have a free will to attempt to do good things.

Answer 2

In my opinion free will means its your choice if you are going to sin or not and it could be anything. However the bible says that you cant live a life without sinning and its true even though you have the free will one day you could sin about 5 times the next day you wont sin at all some people sin maybe once a month they still sin and there is not one person that can live there life without sinning. The reason you have to ask for forgivness i believe its to let GOD know that you knew you were sinning, and to help realize your mistakes. Hope this Helps

Answer 3

Well we sin at times because we are not perfect like God. We do have the choice to sin or not even though the BIble says we will sin. The sin the Bible say we will do are those things that we know are wrong but somehow backslide or cannot control it and do it. For example, young Christians sometimes backslide and have pre-marital sex which they know its wrong but at that point they couldn't control it. Following and doing what is right is not easy. We have a choice to sin of course. But do you think that is what God wants us to do? Sin because we have the free will to do so. Of course not! God wants us to lead a pure life as possible. To lead a life in the likeness of Jesus as He live here on earth. Of course every human being is not perfect and we won't live lives that are sinless. No one else in the Bible lead a sinless live except Jesus. But the way you are putting it like it's a must to sin, that is just not right. We do not have to sin just because the Bible says we will sin because we will somehow make all kinds of mistakes and sin by nature. But in the end, we Christians have to live a life as pure as possible and sin less as possible.

Answer 4

Hi, the answer to this dilemma is this ,yes we are sinners for this is due to the fall of our first parents and we have inherited original sin, now this is so grave that even though original sin is washed away at our baptism the effect of this sin is constantly within us, almost like spiritual defect.
therefore we will always be prone to sinning,it is inherited weakness, but we certainly do have a choice not to sin,but usually we give in to the temptation.
there is no offence given to God when we are tempted as temptation in itself is not a sin,so the daily actions of our lives are a constant battle against the temptation of sin, for example if you see a sum of money in a place that you are visiting and you are tempted to steal it this in itself is not sinful,however if you give in to the temptation willingly and take the money then you have sinned,with you`re free will in this case, you chose to steal rather than choose not to steal.
we should always pray not to fall into daily temptation and for the strength to overcome it, so sin can be a spare of the moment affair and we need to be on our guard, also there is the matter of addicted personal sin i.e, sexual sins for example or some other sin that we commit maybe several times a day, every day and this is the real heart of the matter,this type offends God most as we become used to it and no longer think of it as sin and we really need to turn away(convert) from this habitual sin as it weakens the soul and keeps us from truly being free.

Answer 5

Its not that you dont have the choice, its that sin is too easy to NOT do.

Consider, lets just say, obeying your folks. You dont do that from a very early age. My 3 years olds (twins) disobey, and they dont even know its a sin yet!!

The choice is there, and once you know what it is to sin, yes, you can CHOOSE not to. You could live an entire adult life without sin, it would be hard, but you could. But you sin before you even know what it means, your a sinner from the start in other words.

You only have to apologize for the sins you committ intentionally, knowing what your doing is wrong, and doing it anyway, THATS what you need forgivness for.

Answer 6

We can chose to not make sin a habit in our lives. So in other words once we know something is a sin, it is our choice to make every effort not to commit that sin over and over (lying, stealing, murder, etc... won't be a "way of life")

We are all born with a sin nature, no one (but Jesus) is perfect.

Free will comes in to play when we realize that through receiving and following Jesus we have:
forgiveness for our sins
eternal life with God in heaven

No one will force us to receive Jesus' payment for our sins. This is a choice each one has to make on their own. And it is the only way to be reconciled to God.

Feel free to email if you have other questions.

Answer 7

Alright Mr. MC. Twisty-- Yeah you do have free will, but you also have a choice not to sin. We all have sin, we all fall short,

but GOD loves you anyway. Now listen clearly, cause I am only saying this 777 times! God wants you to freely come to him no force whatsoever. We may seek to be perfect even when that's far from our reach.

But that does not mean we should not try. Seeking to be Christ-Like is the way.

yes its true we will probably sin in the future, but that does not mean we should not try not to sin. God Bless. Love. ( this is the battle the bible speak of the spiritual battle of good and evil).

Answer 8

I think you are writing from the point of view of Palagianism
Palagianism - man is spriitually well
Semi Palagianism - man is spiritually sick
Augustinians - man is spiritually dead
The worse choice on the list would be Palagiaism... essentially the stuff of humanism

Palagianism is the view man is capable of choosing good or not good, the problem being only Adam and Eve before the fall had wills that are not tinged by sin Palagianism is a heresy reject by the church from early centiries yet lives on in liberalism, humanism and occationally some really bad sermons that place manat the center of salvation and man at the center of the gospel not God if God is there at all

another issue is that the term Free will is a loaded term... we have free will and will freely choose to sin but are limited by a fallen nature. The solution is not in ouraselves but in God to by grace change our hearts to desire HIm "No one comes to Me except the Father draw him" Jesus in John 6

So I would say the answers is different for an unsaved person and a saved one... there is one worker in salvation, God changed the heart, in a sense raising the person from the dead saving them In this view the cross is not a crutch but a stretcher lifting us up to God Faith is a free gift and we do not come to God because we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps but because of a work of God

After salvation, because the person has the Holy Spirit, and a changed heart, a person is under rennovation and can move to be more sanctified, a remake by God, cooperating with God now
being made over in His image step by step

Answer 9

Free will is exactly that. You walk into a store and see something you want, but don't have the money to pay for it. You can either steal it or walk out and go . You choose!! We are all born into sin, yet you have the option to be free of that. Yes, there are everyday temptations and (sins) that will come at you, but you can decide to accept or deny them. A daily struggle.

Answer 10

You have the choice whether or not to sin. Because we start out as people who are separated from God, we choose to sin. Even early on - if you ask a three year old if he/she ate the cookie when they weren't supposed to, they'll tell you they didn't. Even if no one ever told them how to lie.

Have you ever in your life told a lie? Have you ever said a bad word? Have you ever desired a person not married to you? Have you ever been envious when someone has something you want? In each of these occassions, you had the ability to not sin, yet you chose to do so. It is in human nature to sin - going all the way back to Adam and Eve. The Bible says we will all sin because God knows that we will all make that choice - not because He has made us sin.

Knowing something is going to happen and causing it to happen are two different things. If I see a car going down the freeway too fast, and I can see cars stopped in front of it, I know it's going to hit those stopped cars. I didn't cause the car to crash, but I knew it would.

God allows us free will so that we will freely choose Him. He wants us to love Him of our own free will. Would you rather have a spouse who loves you because they have to or one who loves you just for who you are? So, while we have the choice, we still sin.

Forgiveness from sin re-establishes a relationship with God. Jesus' died on the cross as a perfect atonement for all sin. He rose from the grave in victory over death. Belief in the free gift of God, acceptance of what Jesus did, repentence (turning away from) sin, brings you back into fellowship with God. After that, you will still sin from time to time - you're still you with all your faults and good points. But you will no longer desire to sin. You will find that you want to be in fellowship with God. Asking for forgiveness after you become a Christian is for you. It is to restore you back into fellowship with God. You won't lose salvation because you sinned, but you will be out of fellowship until you do. I hope that clears it up for you.