Walking Without Sin

And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

Luke 1:6

Blameless – No one likes to read these words, and most won’t acknowledge what they clearly state. Zacharias and Elisabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, were walking without sin during this time in their lives. How is this possible? Aren’t we taught that we sin everyday? This description of John’s parents reveals a path we know is ideal, but many of us have accepted an ‘outside’ theology that it’s impossible.

Surely we sin everyday, right? Maybe you do, but it’s your choice, not your fate. With Yeshua as our example and the Holy Spirit as our guide, we can stop sinning – at least for lengths of time like Zacharias and Elisabeth. We know that we are all sinners, we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. It only took one sin to put us into this state – a state of imperfection before our Creator. And we know there has only ever been one man who lived and died without any sin – Yeshua, the Son of God. But Zacharias and Elisabeth were found walking without sin before YHWH, and they aren’t the only ones. The Bible is filled with examples of people who were blameless, perfect, and righteous. Yes, there was sin in their lives somewhere, but there were also times when sin didn’t exist in their lives. These periods were years, possibly decades.

The word blameless in Greek is amemptos which literally means “without blame”. According to the verse from the Book of Luke, both Zacharias and Elisabeth were righteous and kept ALL the commandments without any possibility to be accused otherwise. They did it! At this time in their lives they were not breaking any commandments. In other words, they kept the entire law perfectly. They were not sinning. Now who was it that told you this was impossible? Who says you can’t keep the entire law? Who says you can’t stop sinning? It isn’t God, it’s not Yeshua who tells you this, and it’s not even Apostle Paul. But this theology came from somewhere and has ingrained itself into our basic understanding of sin and sinful nature (a phrase never used in the Bible, but inaccurately translated as such).

Are you a defeatist? Even though you believe in Yeshua, do you think it’s too difficult for Him to help you resist sin? Are you convinced that you were “created” this way – that you were made a sinner? This is much easier to believe isn’t it? If sin is just my nature, and I’m convinced that I’m going to continue in sin, then why bother stopping? If I slip and fall into sin, I’ll repent, but most likely I’ll slip again. But that isn’t what the entire Bible calls us to do. The Bible calls us to stop sinning and repent. Start walking without sin, you can do it! I’ve just given you Biblical proof. Is that enough for you?

I know this sinful nature theology came from many of the church fathers. Greek philosophy and Hellenism worked its way into church doctrine early on. But do you follow the church fathers, or the Father of the Church?