Sin vs. Mistake

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Is a sin a mistake or a mistake a sin?

God’s Grace only requires your acceptance, not what you are doing to feel clean so no guilt remains before you feel worthy of acceptance. God has already forgiven you for all past, present, and future sins.

When you accept Jesus, you do not first say “I repent…,” no, you say with Romans 10:9 “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ”  There is no repent first, you repent after you have accepted Jesus, and let me tell you this, you only repent for a particular sine once, not over and over again. Why? Because He forgives and does not remember it any longer and you should ponder that. The problem with continually repenting for the same sin over and over again, is that you have not forgiven yourself and are in a state of rebellion. Some people argue with themselves about not being able to end a particular sin and in most cases it’s not sin but just a mistake. Too many do not know the difference between a mistake and a sin and the established church’s do not offer any sort of instruction on this matter.

Listen, we are children, we are going to make mistakes and it is important that we are able to tell the difference between a mistake and a sin. Keep in mind that a sin is a deliberate and willful act that we know is disobedience to God and not to some sort of self-made understanding of what sin is. A mistake is a spur of the moment act. It is not premeditated, or cultivated like boiling water. Everyone who is born again needs to accept that God does not keep a book of your wrongs or your rights. Your flesh is not taken into account, it’s your spiritual life that God looks at because that is the you that is saved, made righteous and sanctified.

Here’s a test for you: If you claim to believe in Christ Jesus, and continue with your former lifestyle you my friend are deceived. You see, once you have heartily spoken the words on Romans chapter nine and received the Holy Spirit you have become a new creation, a new person, that old person has died. There is no longer a desire within you to do what you previously were doing. I can tell you from personal experience that his is true because when I accepted Christ Jesus and believed fully in my heart and confessed with my mouth that He is Lord everything I did prior to that point simply vanished and I never again entertained living the lifestyle I formerly embraced.

So what is sin in the context of the New Testament (Covenant)? Here is a brief on what is termed sin in the NT:  “The principal NT term is hamartia (and cognates), which is equivalent to ḥṭ’. In classical Gk. it is used for missing a target or taking a wrong road. It is the general NT term for sin as concrete wrongdoing, the violation of God’s law (Jn. 8:46; Jas. 1:15; 1 Jn. 1:8).”

Every Sunday some congregations have a time of prayer, renewal of faith, and of confession of sin. This practice tries to get the congregation to repent of things they have done wrong and it my belief that the majority of the people who practice this, confess mistakes rather than sin, i.e., (missing the mark, taking the wrong road, violating God’s law). Understand that mistakes are not necessarily a sin, it’s simply a mistake you made on the spur of the moment. Now, let me add, that an affair, cheating, sexual promiscuity, stealing, and such are not mistakes, they are sins because they are an act of rebellion toward God. These types of behaviors requires repentance, and that means going in a different direction, not returning to the sin.  In Acts 3:19 the people are told: “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

Another area where mistake and sin are confused is with negativity. Negativity and the negative mind is where some people believe negativity reflects reality while in reality negativity erases all hope. Hope is replaced with despair and much worry, which is sin. Negativity is a darkness of the heart and mind. Negativity after all is the expression of criticism (that arises from the heart) or pessimism about something (life, imagined world view) , or ineptitude, where the person’s ability to see any light along their life’s journey has been extinguished. This type of attitude is not a mistake, it is a mortal sin where God’s view of life is replaced with that of the individual or the oppression the individual is under.

I’ll end this discussion for now. I have much to consider on this topic and putting everything into this post would be a real challenge. There are several hyperlinks to explain more on negativity and worry. What I would like to leave you with is that a mistake is not always sinful and that you research the differences between the two.

I’ll leave you with definitions of sin and mistake from Dictionary.com.

SIN

noun

    1. transgression of divine law: the sin of Adam.
    2. any act regarded as such a transgression, especially a willful or deliberate violation of some religious or moral principle.
    3. any reprehensible or regrettable action, behavior, lapse, etc.; great fault or offense: It’s a sin to waste time.

verb (used without object), sinned, sin·ning.

    1. to commit a sinful
    2. to offend against a principle, standard, etc.

verb (used with object), sinned, sin·ning.

    1. to commit or perform sinfully: He sinned his crimes without compunction.
    2. to bring, drive, etc., by sinning: He sinned his soul to perdition.

MISTAKE

noun

    1. an error in action, calculation, opinion, or judgment caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, insufficient knowledge, etc.
    2. a misunderstanding or misconception.

verb (used with object), mis·took  [mi-stook], mis·tak·en  [mi-stey-kuhn], mis·tak·ing.

    1. to regard or identify wrongly as something or someone else: I mistook him for the mayor.
    2. to understand, interpret, or evaluate wrongly; misunderstand; misinterpret.

verb (used without object), mis·took  [mi-stook], mis·tak·en  [mi-stey-kuhn], mis·tak·ing.

    1. to be in error.

 

God Bless all whom God has called!

Mike
29 January 2022
The Christian Underground Journal

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