On Sin in Believers

1This is a listening version of John Wesley's sermon, On Sin in Believers. It is the sermon as printed in John Wesley's 1771 Works. The printing gives no preach date. Rendered in modern English.

If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). 2 Corinthians 5:17.

2Is there, then, sin in the person who is in Christ? Does sin remain in someone who believes in him? Is there any sin in those who are born of God, or are they wholly delivered from it? Let no one imagine that this is a question of mere curiosity, or that it matters little which way it is decided. It is a point of the utmost importance to every serious Christian. The answer concerns both his present happiness and his eternal happiness very nearly.

3And yet I do not know that it was ever disputed in the primitive church. There was no room for dispute, because all Christians were agreed. So far as I have observed, the whole body of ancient Christians who left us anything in writing declare, with one voice, that even believers in Christ, until they are strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, need to wrestle with flesh and blood, with an evil nature, as well as with principalities and powers.

4And here our own church, as indeed in most points, copies the primitive church exactly. In the ninth article she declares: Original sin is the corruption of the nature of every person, by which a person is, in his own nature, inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusts against the Spirit. And this infection of nature remains, yes, even in those who are regenerated. By it the lust of the flesh, called in Greek the mind of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. And although there is no condemnation for those who believe, yet this lust has in itself the nature of sin.

5The same testimony is given by all other churches. Not only by the Greek and Romish church, but by every reformed church in Europe, of whatever name. Indeed some of these seem to carry the matter too far. They describe the corruption of heart in a believer so as scarcely to allow that he has dominion over it. They say, rather, that he is in bondage to it. By this they leave hardly any distinction between a believer and an unbeliever.

6To avoid that extreme, many well-meaning men, particularly those under the direction of the late Count Zinzendorf, ran into another. They affirmed that all true believers are saved not only from the dominion of sin but from the being of inward as well as outward sin, so that it no longer remains in them. And from them, about 20 years ago, many of our countrymen took in the same opinion, that even the corruption of nature is no more in those who believe in Christ.

7It is true that when the Germans were pressed on this point, they soon allowed, many of them at least, that sin did still remain in the flesh, but not in the heart of a believer. And after a time, when the absurdity of this was shown, they fairly gave up the point. They allowed that sin did still remain, though it did not reign, in the one who is born of God.

8But the English who had received it from them, some directly, some at second or third hand, were not so easily persuaded to part with a favorite opinion. Even when most of them were convinced that it was utterly indefensible, a few could not be persuaded to give it up, but maintain it to this day.

9For the sake of those who really fear God, and who desire to know the truth as it is in Jesus, it may be useful to consider the point with calmness and impartiality. In doing this, I use the words regenerate, justified, and believers for the same people. They do not have precisely the same meaning. The first means an inward, actual change. The second means a relative change. The third is the means by which both the one and the other are worked. Yet they come to one and the same thing, because everyone who believes is both justified and born of God.

10By sin, I here mean inward sin. Any sinful temper, passion, or affection. Such as pride, self-will, and love of the world, in any kind or degree. Such as lust, anger, and peevishness. Any disposition contrary to the mind that was in Christ.

11The question is not about outward sin. Outward sin is a different question. It is not whether a child of God commits sin or not. We all agree, and earnestly maintain, "He that commits sin is of the devil" (1 John 3:8). We agree, "whoever is born of God does not commit sin" (1 John 3:9). Neither do we now ask whether inward sin will always remain in the children of God, or whether sin will continue in the soul as long as it continues in the body. Nor do we ask whether a justified person may relapse into either inward or outward sin. The question is simply this. Is a justified or regenerate person freed from all sin as soon as he is justified? Is there then no sin in his heart? And none ever after, unless he falls from grace?

12We allow that the state of a justified person is inexpressibly great and glorious. He is born again, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. He is a child of God, a member of Christ, and an heir of the kingdom of heaven. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keeps his heart and mind in Christ Jesus. His very body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, and a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. He is created anew in Christ Jesus. He is washed. He is sanctified. His heart is purified by faith. He is cleansed from the corruption that is in the world. The love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost which is given to him. And so long as he walks in love, which he may always do, he worships God in Spirit and in truth. He keeps the commandments of God, and does the things that are pleasing in his sight. So he exercises himself to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward man. And he has power both over outward sin and over inward sin, even from the moment he is justified.

13But was he not then freed from all sin, so that there is no sin in his heart? I cannot say this. I cannot believe it, because Saint Paul says the contrary. He is speaking to believers, and describing the state of believers in general, when he says that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and that these are contrary to one another. Galatians 5:17. Nothing can be more express. The apostle here directly affirms that the flesh, the evil nature, opposes the Spirit, even in believers. Even in the regenerate there are two principles, contrary to one another.

14Again, when he writes to the believers at Corinth, to those who were sanctified in Christ Jesus, 1 Corinthians 1:2, he says: Brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual people, but as to carnal people, as to babes in Christ. You are still carnal. For while there is envying and strife among you, are you not carnal? 1 Corinthians 3:1, 3. Here the apostle speaks to people who were unquestionably believers. In the same breath he calls them his brothers in Christ, even while they were still, in some measure, carnal. He affirms that there was envying, an evil temper, causing strife among them, and yet he does not give the least hint that they had lost their faith. No. He plainly declares that they had not, for then they would not have been babes in Christ. And, what is most remarkable of all, he speaks of being carnal, and of being babes in Christ, as one and the same thing. He plainly shows that every believer is, in some degree, carnal, while he is only a babe in Christ.

15Indeed, this great point runs through all the epistles of Saint Paul, yes, through all the holy scriptures. There are two contrary principles in believers, nature and grace, the flesh and the Spirit. Almost all the directions and exhortations in scripture rest on this supposition. They point at wrong tempers or practices in people whom the inspired writers nevertheless acknowledge to be believers. And those believers are continually urged to fight with these things, and to conquer them, by the power of the faith which was in them.

16And who can doubt that there was faith in the angel of the church of Ephesus, when our Lord said to him: I know your works, and your labor, and your patience. You have patience, and for my name's sake you have labored, and have not fainted. Revelation 2:2-4. But was there, in the meantime, no sin in his heart? Yes, there was, or Christ would not have added: Nevertheless, I have something against you, because you have left your first love. This was a real sin which God saw in his heart, and for which he is accordingly urged to repent. And yet we have no authority to say that even then he had no faith.

17The angel of the church at Pergamos also is urged to repent, which implies sin, though our Lord expressly says, You have not denied my faith. Revelation 2:13, 16. And to the angel of the church in Sardis he says: Strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. The good which remained was ready to die, but it was not actually dead. Revelation 3:2. So there was still a spark of faith even in him, and he is accordingly commanded to hold that faith fast. Revelation 3:3.

18Once more. When the apostle urges believers to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 2 Corinthians 7:1, he plainly teaches that those believers were not yet cleansed from it. Will you answer, The person who abstains from all appearance of evil does, by that very fact, cleanse himself from all filthiness? Not in any way. For instance, a man reviles me. I feel resentment, which is filthiness of spirit. Yet I do not say a word. Here I abstain from all appearance of evil. But this does not cleanse me from that filthiness of spirit, as I know to my sorrow.

19And so this position, "There is no sin in a believer, no carnal mind, no bent to backsliding," is contrary to the word of God, and it is contrary to the experience of his children. These children of God continually feel a heart bent to backsliding, a natural tendency to evil, a proneness to depart from God and to cling to the things of earth. They are daily aware of sin remaining in their heart, pride, self-will, and unbelief, and of sin clinging to all they speak and do, even their best actions and their holiest duties. Yet at the same time they know that they are of God. They cannot doubt it for a moment. They feel his Spirit clearly witnessing with their spirit that they are the children of God. They rejoice in God through Christ Jesus, by whom they have now received the atonement. So they are equally assured that sin is in them, and that Christ is in them the hope of glory.

20But can Christ be in the same heart where sin is? Undoubtedly he can. Otherwise it could never be saved from sin. Where the sickness is, there is the physician.

Carrying on his work within, striving till he casts out sin.

Christ cannot reign where sin reigns, and he will not dwell where any sin is allowed. But he does dwell where sin remains but does not reign. He is, and he dwells, in the heart of every believer who is fighting against all sin, although that heart is not yet purified according to the purification of the sanctuary.

21It has been observed already that the opposite doctrine, that there is no sin in believers, is quite new in the church of Christ. It was never heard of for 1,700 years, never until it was discovered by Count Zinzendorf. I do not remember seeing the least hint of it, either in any ancient writer or in any modern one, unless perhaps in some of the wild, ranting Antinomians. And these likewise say and unsay. They acknowledge that there is sin in their flesh, although no sin in their heart. But whatever doctrine is new must be wrong, for the old religion is the only true one. And no doctrine can be right unless it is the very same which was from the beginning.

22One argument more against this new, unscriptural doctrine may be drawn from its dreadful consequences. One person says, I felt anger today. Must I reply, Then you have no faith? Another says, I know that what you advise is good, but my will is quite set against it. Must I tell him, Then you are an unbeliever, under the wrath and the curse of God? What will follow from that? If he believes what I say, his soul will not only be grieved and wounded, but perhaps utterly destroyed, because he will cast away that confidence which has a great reward. And having cast away his shield, how shall he quench the fiery darts of the wicked one? How shall he overcome the world? For this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. He stands disarmed in the midst of his enemies, open to all their assaults. What wonder, then, if he is utterly overthrown, if they take him captive at their will? Yes, if he falls from one wickedness to another, and never sees good any more?

I cannot, therefore, by any means receive this assertion, that there is no sin in a believer from the moment he is justified. First, because it is contrary to the whole tenor of scripture. Second, because it is contrary to the experience of the children of God. Third, because it is absolutely new, never heard of in the world until yesterday. And last, because it naturally brings the most fatal consequences. It not only grieves those whom God has not grieved, but may drag them into everlasting perdition.

23However, let us give a fair hearing to the chief arguments of those who try to support that doctrine. First, they try to prove from scripture that there is no sin in a believer. They argue in this way. Scripture says that every believer is born of God, is clean, is holy, is sanctified, is pure in heart, has a new heart, and is a temple of the Holy Ghost. Now, as that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and is altogether evil, so that which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and is altogether good. Again, a person cannot be clean, sanctified, and holy, and at the same time unclean, unsanctified, and unholy. He cannot be pure and impure, or have a new heart and an old heart together. Neither can his soul be unholy while it is a temple of the Holy Ghost.

24I have put this objection as strongly as possible, so that its full weight may appear. Let us now examine it, part by part.

First. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit, and is altogether good. I allow the text, but not the comment. The text affirms this, and no more, that every person who is born of the Spirit is a spiritual person. He is so. But he may be so, and yet not be altogether spiritual. The Christians at Corinth were spiritual people, or they would have been no Christians at all. And yet they were not altogether spiritual. They were still, in part, carnal. But, someone says, they had fallen from grace. Saint Paul says no. They were even then babes in Christ.

Second. But a person cannot be clean, sanctified, and holy, and at the same time unclean, unsanctified, and unholy. Indeed he may. So the Corinthians were. You are washed, says the apostle. You are sanctified. That is, cleansed from fornication, idolatry, drunkenness, and all other outward sin. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. And yet, at the same time, in another sense of the word, they were unsanctified. They were not washed. They were not inwardly cleansed from envy, evil suspicion, and partiality.

But surely, someone says, they did not have a new heart and an old heart together. It is most sure that they did. For at that very time their hearts were truly renewed, yet not entirely renewed. Their carnal mind was nailed to the cross. Yet it was not wholly destroyed.

But could they be unholy while they were temples of the Holy Ghost? Yes. That they were temples of the Holy Ghost is certain. 1 Corinthians 6:19. And it is equally certain that they were, in some degree, carnal, that is, unholy.

25However, there is one scripture more, which will put the matter beyond question, they say. If any man is a believer in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17. Now, certainly, a person cannot be a new creature and an old creature at once.

Yes, he may. He may be partly renewed, which was the very case of those at Corinth. They were doubtless renewed in the spirit of their mind, or they could not have been so much as babes in Christ. Yet they did not have the whole mind which was in Christ, for they envied one another.

But it is said expressly that old things have passed away, and that all things have become new. We must not interpret the apostle's words so as to make him contradict himself. If we keep him consistent with himself, the plain meaning is this. His old judgment has now passed away. That old judgment concerned justification, holiness, and happiness, indeed the things of God in general. So have his old desires, designs, affections, tempers, and manner of life. All these have undeniably become new, greatly changed from what they were. And yet, though they are new, they are not wholly new. Still he feels, to his sorrow and his shame, remains of the old man, plain stains of his former tempers and affections. But those remains cannot gain any advantage over him, so long as he watches and prays.

26This whole argument, If he is clean, he is clean, and, If he is holy, he is holy, and 20 more expressions of the same kind, which may easily be heaped together, is really no better than playing upon words. It is the fallacy of arguing from a particular case to a general one, of drawing a general conclusion from particular premises. State the sentence in full, and it runs thus. If he is holy at all, he is holy altogether. That does not follow. Every babe in Christ is holy, and yet not altogether so. He is saved from sin, yet not entirely. It remains, though it does not reign.

If you think it does not remain, in babes at least, whatever may be the case with young men or with fathers, you have certainly not considered the height, and the depth, and the length, and the breadth, of the law of God. That law is the law of love, laid down by Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. And every lawlessness, every disconformity to this law, or deviation from it, is sin. Now, is there no such disconformity in the heart or the life of a believer? What may be true of an adult Christian is another question. But what a stranger to human nature a person must be, who can imagine that this is the case with every babe in Christ.

27What follows, for some pages, answers a paper published in the Christian's Magazine. I am surprised Mr. Dodd should give that paper a place, because it is directly contrary to our ninth article.

But believers walk after the Spirit, Romans 8:1, and the Spirit of God dwells in them. Consequently, they say, believers are delivered from the guilt, the power, or, in one word, the being of sin.

These three are coupled together as if they were the same thing. But they are not the same thing. The guilt is one thing, the power another, and the being yet another. That believers are delivered from the guilt and the power of sin, we allow. That they are delivered from the being of it, we deny. Nor does this follow in any way from these texts. A person may have the Spirit of God dwelling in him, and may walk after the Spirit, though he still feels the flesh lusting against the Spirit.

28But the church is the body of Christ, Colossians 1:24. This implies, they say, that its members are washed from all filthiness. Otherwise it will follow that Christ and Belial are incorporated with each other.

No, that will not follow. From the truth that those who are the mystical body of Christ still feel the flesh lusting against the Spirit, it does not follow that Christ has any fellowship with the devil, or with that sin which he enables them to resist and overcome.

29But have not Christians come to the heavenly Jerusalem, where nothing defiled can enter? Hebrews 12:22. Yes, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the spirits of just people made perfect. That is:

Earth and heaven all agree, all his one great family.

And they are likewise holy and undefiled while they walk after the Spirit, although they know that another principle is in them, and that these two are contrary to each other.

30But Christians are reconciled to God. Now this could not be, they say, if any of the carnal mind remained, for this is enmity against God. Consequently, no reconciliation can be brought about except by its total destruction.

We are reconciled to God through the blood of the cross. And in that moment the mind of the flesh, the corruption of nature, which is enmity against God, is put under our feet. The flesh has no more dominion over us. But it still exists, and it is still in its nature enmity against God, lusting against his Spirit.

31But those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts. Galatians 5:24. They have. Yet it remains in them still, and often struggles to break loose from the cross.

No, but they have put off the old man with his deeds. Colossians 3:9. They have. And, in the sense already described, old things have passed away, and all things have become new. A hundred texts may be brought for the same point, and they all admit the same answer.

But to say it all in one word, Christ gave himself for the church, that it might be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:25, 27. And so it will be, in the end. But from the beginning until this day, it never yet was so.

32But let experience speak, they say. All who are justified do, at that time, find an absolute freedom from all sin. That I doubt. But if they do, do they find it ever after? If not, you gain nothing. If they do not, it is their own fault. That remains to be proved.

33But, in the very nature of things, can a person have pride in him and not be proud? Can he have anger, and yet not be angry?

A person may have pride in him. He may think of himself, in some particulars, more highly than he ought to think, and so be proud in that particular, and yet not be a proud man in his general character. He may have anger in him, yes, and a strong bent toward furious anger, without giving way to it. But can anger and pride be in that heart where only meekness and humility are felt? No. But some pride and anger may be in that heart where there is much humility and meekness.

34It is no use, they say, to answer that these tempers are there but do not reign. For "Sin cannot, in any kind or degree, exist where it does not reign." For guilt and power are essential properties of sin. Therefore, where one of them is, all must be.

Strange indeed! "Sin cannot, in any kind or degree, exist where it does not reign." That is absolutely contrary to all experience, to all scripture, and to all common sense. Resentment of an insult is sin. It is lawlessness, a disconformity to the law of love. This has existed in me 1,000 times. Yet it did not reign, and it does not reign.

But guilt and power are essential properties of sin, they say, and therefore where one is, all must be. No. In the instance before us, if the resentment I feel is not yielded to, even for a moment, there is no guilt at all, no condemnation from God on that account. And in this case it has no power. Though it lusts against the Spirit, it cannot prevail. Here, therefore, as in 10,000 instances, there is sin, without either guilt or power.

35But to suppose sin in a believer, they say, is full of everything frightful and discouraging. It implies a fight with a power that has possession of our strength, that maintains his usurpation of our hearts, and that there carries on the war in defiance of our Redeemer.

Not so. To suppose that sin is in us does not imply that it has possession of our strength, any more than a crucified man has possession of those who crucify him. Just as little does it imply that sin maintains its usurpation of our hearts. The usurper is dethroned. He remains, indeed, where he once reigned, but he remains in chains. So he does, in some sense, carry on the war, yet he grows weaker and weaker, while the believer goes on from strength to strength, conquering and to conquer.

36I am not satisfied yet, says the objector. The person who has sin in him is a slave to sin. Therefore you suppose a person to be justified while he is a slave to sin. Now if you allow that people may be justified while they have pride, anger, or unbelief in them, yes, if you affirm that these are, at least for a time, in all who are justified, what wonder is it that we have so many proud, angry, unbelieving believers?

I do not suppose that any justified person is a slave to sin. Yet I do suppose that sin remains, at least for a time, in all who are justified.

But if sin remains in a believer, he is a sinful man, they say. If pride, for instance, then he is proud. If self-will, then he is self-willed. If unbelief, then he is an unbeliever, and consequently no believer at all. How then does he differ from unbelievers, from people who have not been born of God?

37This is still mere playing upon words. It means no more than this. If there is sin, pride, and self-will in him, then there is sin, pride, and self-will. And nobody can deny that. In that sense, then, he is proud, or he is self-willed. But he is not proud or self-willed in the same sense that unbelievers are, that is, governed by pride or by self-will. Here is the difference between him and unregenerate people. They obey sin. He does not. Flesh is in them both. But they walk after the flesh. He walks after the Spirit.

38But how can unbelief be in a believer? That word has two meanings. It means either no faith, or little faith. Either the absence of faith, or the weakness of it. In the first sense, unbelief is not in a believer. In the second sense, it is in all babes. Their faith is commonly mixed with doubt or fear, that is, in this second sense, with unbelief. Why are you fearful, says our Lord, O you of little faith? Again, O you of little faith, why did you doubt? You see that there was unbelief in believers. Little faith, and much unbelief.

39But this doctrine, that sin remains in a believer, that a person may be in the favor of God while he has sin in his heart, certainly tends, they say, to encourage people in sin. Understand the statement rightly, and no such consequence follows. A person may be in God's favor though he feels sin, but not if he yields to it. Having sin does not forfeit the favor of God. Giving way to sin does. Though the flesh in you lusts against the Spirit, you may still be a child of God. But if you walk after the flesh, you are a child of the devil. This doctrine does not encourage anyone to obey sin. It encourages us to resist sin with all our might.

40The sum of all is this. There are in every person, even after he is justified, two contrary principles, nature and grace. Saint Paul calls them the flesh and the Spirit. Hence, although even babes in Christ are sanctified, it is only in part. In a degree, according to the measure of their faith, they are spiritual. Yet in a degree they are carnal. Accordingly, believers are continually urged to watch against the flesh, as well as against the world and the devil. And the constant experience of the children of God agrees with this. While they feel this witness in themselves, they feel a will not wholly resigned to the will of God. They know they are in him, and yet they find a heart ready to depart from him, a proneness to evil in many instances, and a backwardness to what is good. The contrary doctrine is wholly new. It was never heard of in the church of Christ, from the time of his coming into the world until the time of Count Zinzendorf. And it brings the most fatal consequences. It cuts off all watching against our evil nature, against that Delilah which we are told is gone, though she is still lying in our bosom. It tears away the shield of weak believers, takes their faith from them, and so leaves them exposed to all the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

41Let us therefore hold fast the sound doctrine once delivered to the saints, and handed down by them with the written word to all the generations after them. We are renewed, cleansed, purified, and sanctified the moment we truly believe in Christ. Yet we are not then renewed, cleansed, and purified altogether. The flesh, the evil nature, still remains, though subdued, and wars against the Spirit. So much the more, let us be diligent in fighting the good fight of faith. So much the more earnestly, let us watch and pray against the enemy within. The more carefully, let us take to ourselves, and put on, the whole armor of God. Then, although we wrestle both with flesh and blood, and with principalities and powers, and with wicked spirits in high places, we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.