Paul Wasn’t a Sinner

It really baffles me as to how many people who are in Christ, meaning they have been baptized with the holy Ghost with the accompanying sign of speaking in tongues; think that the apostle Paul was a sinner. It’s obvious WHY so many of God’s people swallow that lie, hook, line, and sinker. It’s because they are trying to find a way to justify their OWN sins that they are not purging from their hearts, as the scriptures command (Rom. 6:6; Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5,6; I Jn. 3:3; etc.). And like all erroneous schools of thought about the Bible, this falsehood was concocted by a gross misusing of one or two scriptures that have been completely ripped out of context. Here is where this nonsensical point of view comes from: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do… Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me” (Rom. 7:18,20). Sure, if we leave these verses by themselves, we can make Paul a sinner. But we could do a little more to “study to show [ourselves] approved unto God,” if we really want to see the truth of things (II Tim. 2:15). We could read the previous chapter and see where he said the following: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? GOD FORBID. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? … 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… What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? GOD FORBID (Rom. 6:1,2,6,15). Or we could look at chapter 7, and start several verses before the ones that have been pulled out of context, and see this: “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment [the law] came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment [the law], deceived me, and by it slew me” (Rom. 7:9-11).

It’s evident from these things that the apostle was talking about his spiritual condition WHEN he was under the law, which was BEFORE he was in Christ. In fact he had stated just previous to that quote that he was not PRESENTLY under the law, but quite to the contrary: “But NOW we are delivered FROM the law… that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter [the law]” (Rom. 7:6). We could also take a look at the same apostle’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2, where he said this: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are FOUND SINNERS, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid… I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Gal. 2:17,20). Now I can assure you my friend, that this holy man of God did NOT say what he did in verse 17, just to come back in verse 20 and make a complete mockery of what he had just said. If it was no longer he that lived, but rather Christ that lived in him; then according to the foolish thinking that Paul was a sinner, that has to mean that Jesus Christ is a sinner also. And again, that would have to mean that this apostle was fully contradicting himself within the span of three verses, which probably were about a minute apart in writing. I don’t know about you, but I’m not going to accuse the man of that kind of confusion and contradictory insanity. If Romans 7 is not abused enough, what I was told by a young man just a few nights ago just takes the cake. He was making this argument that Paul was a sinner, but he had more ammunition to back up the claim than just the traditional Romans 7. He pulled out the rocket launcher with I Timothy 1:15, which says, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” Once again if we leave that scripture alone we can make a sinner out of this great apostle.

I think we can do a little better than pulling one scripture out of our bag of tricks and turning it into a rabbit of spiritual idiocy. How about we look at a scripture that’s a couple of verses before that one: “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; Who WAS BEFORE a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: BUT I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (I Tim. 1:13). Once again the man was speaking of where he was at BEFORE he was in Christ. If not, then he was one major hypocrite, because he gave Timothy this instruction in the same letter: “Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men’s sins: keep thyself pure” (I Tim. 5:22). So how did he expect Timothy to keep HIMSELF pure, and to stay free from other men’s sins, if HE [Paul] was a sinner? And if Paul was a sinner, either he was planning on being lost, or once again he was a hypocrite of major proportions, because he clearly proclaimed in Hebrews 12:14: “Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which no man shall see the Lord.” Yeah, it gets really confusing, I have to admit. Every erroneous mindset gets real confusing when you start looking at it in light of what the scriptures consistently set forth. I’m sorry friend, but if you are looking for a way to justify holding onto sin, you will have to look somewhere else other than the apostle Paul. The truth is, the man’s saying of it no longer being him that lived, but rather Christ that lived in him; can be understood and identified with by few people. I believe I would get somewhere beyond where Paul was at spiritually before I start judging the spiritual condition of someone like that. And somewhere beyond that doesn’t exist, so I would just leave it alone and see to the business of purifying my own heart from sin and foolish assertions. Amen.