Does Sinning Cause Believers to Lose Fellowship With God?
Updated: Jun 1, 2022
The idea of confessing our sins in order to be forgiven has in many ways distorted the idea of the gospel. Don’t get me wrong. Agreeing with God that we have sinned, and talking to a trusted friend about something with which you are struggling is good and healthy. I also believe that, as Christians, we are dead to sin and therefore it goes against our nature to want to do it. We should turn from it and turn towards Jesus every time. Let's look at some answers to the puzzling double-talk of modern Christianity as it comes to this idea of our fellowship being broken with God because of sin.
After Jesus died, a New Covenant is made, and God's standard of perfection for performance and even sacrifice for sins has been met completely and fully in the death and resurrection of His Son. The blood of Christ cleanses from all sin at salvation (I John 1:7-9, Hebrews 10:10). The barrier of our sins no longer separates us from God. As a matter of fact because we are pure and holy through the death and resurrection of Christ, we are separated to God now and separated from sin.
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:11 KJV
The word fellowship in the New Testament is never used in the context of us falling in and out, or God breaking fellowship with us, or us breaking fellowship with God.
On the contrary! Our fellowship as New Covenant beneficiaries is always referred to in a positive sense in order to assure us that God does not break fellowship with us.
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9 KJV
We were actually invited to fellowship with him, and because of the finished work of Christ there are no strings attached.
We simply trust in what Christ has done and quit putting our trust in our ability to try to offer our own way of "restoring fellowship".
Jesus already restored our fellowship through His blood.
We were invited through The Gospel -- the faithfulness of Jesus! So either you have fellowship or you don’t. Either you are saved or you are not. Either you have Jesus living in you and you have constant fellowship with him or you don’t.
There is no middle ground.
The scripture tells us that just as sure as we have grace through Jesus, and just as sure as God loves us we have fellowship with the Holy Spirit (II Cor 13:14). The Holy Spirit is always leading those who are God's children, He is never breaking off communication with them, never. If you do not have the Spirit of Christ you are not a Child of God, but if you do then the resurrection power of Jesus lives within you and leads you. This means that there is constant unbroken fellowship even when we sin. Keeping this in mind is what helps with saying, "no" to sin and saying, "yes" to godliness.
"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. ...For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ...The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:" (Romans 8:11, 14, 16 KJV)
It is extremely dangerous when we start taking things out of context so that it fits our feelings about Christianity. Our feelings and experiences do not define doctrine, the Bible does.
As I have already said, please don’t misunderstand me. We should feel sorry for our sins, but that does not mean that the price has not been paid for our sins. Your feelings on how much you sin or what you feel like you need to do to be forgiven by God do not change the fact that his Son, Jesus has already paid everything necessary for you to be in complete fellowship with him. You are forgiven, and He is not turning away from you or letting anything come between you and Him anymore.
There is not one verse in the entire New Testament that refers to a Christian losing fellowship with God. Not one. We need to stop saying, "Thus saith the Lord!" where God has not spoken.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7 KJV
As believers we are never not in the light because Jesus is the light. Our entire life is wrapped up in Christ (Col. 3). We are in the light. We do not walk in darkness. We have the light of life in Jesus and we are walking in Him every hour of every day (John 8:12). Jesus blood cleanses us from all sin. That is powerful and effective and it means that whatever there was in the way before you got saved is not there now. You can rest in the finished work of Christ. Enjoy your relationship with God there is nothing standing in the way. Jesus has taken it out of the way and nailed it to his cross (Col 2:14).
An Old Covenant Perspective.
Where many Christians get the idea of God turning his back on them when they sin is from The Old Covenant. Many times God would punish Israel and break fellowship with them for a time because of their sin until they got it right according to the law. However, as New Testament, or New Covenant believers we are not under the law. We are under grace! Grace means the unearned favor and blessing of God unconditionally based upon Jesus. God did not change, the law did not change. But the covenant changed Hebrews 8:9-13)! So we see that God is no longer turning his back on our sin. He turned his back on our sin for the last time at the cross. And now we are forgiven, and our sins have been totally forgotten. (Hebrews 10)
Do not get fooled into believing that religion can provide something better than Jesus.
Not Speaking to Each Other.
When we say that our sin breaks fellowship with God or causes us to break fellowship with God it is not true! God does not break fellowship with you. You may stop talking to God, but God is not going to stop speaking to you. The implication of saying that we can break fellowship with God is that both parties stop speaking to each other. Now the parties may be grieved with each other but that does not mean that they have completely abandoned one another. Return to the fact that Jesus paid for sin. There is nothing left to pay! God is delighted to speak to you!! He wants to continually testify to you about your righteousness in Him!
When you sin He goes through that with you. He never leaves and He doesn’t stop trying to communicate your completeness in Him! (Col. 2:10)