Sin and Sins; there is a difference by Michael Engler

There is a vast difference between “sin” and “sins”. It is therefore imperative we understand the difference before entering any discussion on whether we are free or not. We simply must clearly understand what we are freed from and how it came about. Rom 5:12, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all man for that all have sinned.” Adam sinned when he chose Satan’s words over God’s. Sin entered into Adam by obeying those words and the result was a changed nature that affected his spirit, soul and body. From that moment on, man has passed this nature to his offspring through the flesh. Rom. 7:18, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Rom. 7:22-23, “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”




Therefore, we are born with a spirit and soul that are basically innocent but independent from God and a body in which dwells the law of sin. Sins then are different from sin in that sins arise from the sin nature in our flesh just as fruit is borne on a tree. Sins occur when we choose to obey the lust of the flesh rather that what we know to be right. This is also where the law enters the process. God’s law defines right and wrong and gives sin its power with regard to our conscience. There is no loss of innocence when my flesh covets until the law says “don’t covet” and I do it anyway. Therefore, sin abides in the flesh and shall be with us until the resurrection buts sins abide in the conscience and have consequences in this world, in my flesh, in my mind and in my spirit. To free us God had to deal with “sin” and “sins” as well as man’s relationship to the law.



So what has God done about this wretched situation? Did He destroy sin so that it no longer exists? Did He destroy the law so that it has passed away? Did He change His mind about what is right and what is wrong? Has God decided to have fellowship with sins? Does God no longer mind if His children live like demons as long as they have clear consciences? Rom. 6:2, God forbid! How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Notice sin did not die but we died to it. Rom. 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” God placed us in Christ and we were crucified together. Our flesh died with His so that the power sin held over it might be brought to nothing.



Furthermore, Jesus’ identification with us did not stop there, but we were also raised together with Him so that we share the same spiritual life and righteousness He has. God has placed the life of Jesus in our spirit so that we may bear the image of the last Adam just as we have borne the image of the first. God gave us this Life and righteousness in an earthen vessel and because that vessel, although purchased, has not yet received the fullness of the resurrection, sin remains in the flesh and must be overcome. God’s intention is that this Life would be the source of our power over sin through our walking in fellowship and relationship with Him. Rom. 6:11-18, “… reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those who are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Know ye not the to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.” This clearly indicates the believer has a choice to either yield to the promptings of sin in his flesh or to rule over it by yielding the body to the promptings of God.



Man’s problem was that he could not justify himself through the law because of the weakness of his flesh. Therefore what the law could not do, God did by sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. God has condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness that the law demands might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit (Rom. 8:3-4). Therefore, again, the law did not die for the law of God is good and righteous and true, but we have become dead to the law (Rom. 7:4) and are to no longer try to use it as a means of obtaining righteousness. Rom. 3:20, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Trying to keep the law through human effort actually stirs up sin and leaves us under the curse.



Why then must the law be removed as man’s means for salvation? Rom. 4:13-16, “For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed…” If it is by works then only the strong will make it. But the law has proven that none of us are strong enough so it is by grace so all may receive the promise.



So we died in Christ both to sin and to the law of our own works and have been also raised up in Him with His very own life in us. Now we are made righteous with His own righteousness and “…old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” Because of the gift of righteousness, we have become the temple of God and what was impossible under the law because of sin, has now become a reality for us: in that He has given us His Spirit to dwell in us. His own presence within us now empowers us to walk in the flesh without being sin’s slave.



The knowledge of God’s acceptance of Christ’s blood in the heavenly holy of holies has purged our conscience of dead works, restoring our innocence and fellowship with God. We can now walk in the nature of God instead of the nature of sin. Since we have switched fathers, we can do the good works preordained by God for us to walk in. We are no longer under the law but are under grace. However grace is not an excuse for sins but a deliverance from their power because we know and believe in the love God has for us. Confessing our sins is not a way of changing God’s mind about us, it is the means of our cleansing our conscience from the power and control of sin and death through guilt. Know this: if I can make you guilty, then I can control your life through fear. But if through faith in Christ’s blood and the love of God, you can free yourself from the power of guilt and the torment of fear, then sin cannot control you. Keeping the law cannot do this for us. Only faith has the power to change our behavior from within by our obedience to love and the working of the Holy Spirit.