“Go and sin no more” are words from the mouth of Jesus. They were spoken once after healing an invalid by the pool of Bethesda (John 5: 1-15), and another time after forgiving a guilty, adulterous woman (John 8: 3-11). In both cases, Jesus indicated that their sinful lifestyle choices had led to their unfortunate circumstances.

I see Jesus’ words to them as instructions to repent from making those particular lifestyle choices.  I also see His words in a wider scope, aiming at the goal of sinless perfection for all of us.

To “go and sin no more” – ever – should be the purpose of every Christian. That is the target that God has set before us. It is the crossing line of the race that we run. To “Go and sin no more” equates to the Lord saying “Be holy as I am holy.” That’s a command and expectation pertaining to every facet of our lives.

God wants us to move toward His righteousness, purity, and holy living. And as mentioned in other blog postings, when God tells us to do something, He also provides the means to do it via the enabling power of His grace.

That means we do have the godly ability to achieve sinless perfection. It’s there within us, within reach. However, I do realize that as long as we are in the flesh, its corruption will dictate that there is a struggle. Not being perfect, stumbling can and does happen from time to time. That realization comes not only from personal experience, but from scriptural truth.

Romans 3: 23 tells us that we all fall short of God’s glory (His holy character). The nature of our flesh is naturally sinful. Even if a sinful act isn’t physically committed, our thoughts and lustful desires can cause us to sin in our hearts. It doesn’t pay to deny that these things happen, for 1 John 1: 8 declares the active presence of our sinful nature. It’s a nature that sometimes wins.

The good news, though, is that God understands this and is sympathetic towards us. As is seen in the examples of the invalid and the adulterous woman, God favors mercy over condemnation (James 2: 13). This is also clearly spelled out in Romans 8: 1, in which we’re told that there isn’t any condemnation for sinners in Christ Jesus.

So if one does sin, but the heart is sincere (God can’t be fooled) and there is confession of sin; forgiveness and cleansing by the Lord will be in order (1 John 1: 9). That, in addition to being an enabling force for righteousness, is also how God’s grace works. His grace applies to both lifestyle sins and stumbling sins.

So that I’m not misunderstood, I am not attempting to make excuses for sinning. I’m in agreement with the apostle Paul who said, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6: 1–2).

Indeed! This is written to dissuade living in sin. God doesn’t want us to sin, and He’s let us know that we don’t have to sin because of He who is within us.

This is about turning our backs to sin and desiring to live under the power of God’s grace. This is about understanding God’s encouragement and the motivation He’s given us to inspire us. What God has done is to set before us the highest of noble ambitions.

He has placed above the finish line the banner that says, “Go and sin no more.” Striving to reach it, with all sincerity, will help us overcome and win the race, even if we stumble along the way.