The Ability God Gives to All Men to live without sin.
1 Corinthians 10:13 is a strong declaration that man is not a slave to a sinful nature. God always provides the capacity to resist and overcome temptation by following His instruction, His Law, and by listening to the guiding voice of His Spirit.
All men are born in the same condition as Adam before the fall:
with the ability to choose between good and evil.
Ecclesiastes 7:29
Only this have I found: God hath made men upright; but they have sought many devious ways.
Every human being created by God enters the world uncontaminated by Adam’s sin.
The human faculties of freedom, conscience, and moral knowledge must be stable for man to be a responsible moral agent.
The doctrine of a “sinful nature” destroys this moral accountability and becomes a license to sin without remorse.
2. Individual Responsibility and the Justice of God
Ezekiel 18:19–20
The soul that sins, it will die… The son will not bear the iniquity of the father.
Therefore, a hereditary sin propagated from generation to generation is totally contrary to divine justice.
Sin is not born with man; sin is committed by man voluntarily, by imitating Adam’s bad example.
The fault lies not in human nature, but in human free will.
Thus, each person is entirely condemnable and punishable for the sins he commits during his earthly life.
Romans 5:12
Sin entered the world through one man… and death through sin; and death passed upon all men, because all have sinned.
Each individual possesses a well-ordered and stable free will, and therefore has the ability to resist temptation.
Because man has this ability, God can judge him justly for his deeds.
Romans 1:21
Although they knew God… they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish heart was darkened.
3. The Possibility of a Life Without Sin
Man can be without sin and keep the commandments of God if he wills, because God has given him the capacity to do so.
Yes, throughout the natural life of an unconverted person, there are seasons of willful sin.
But when a man is converted, forsakes his sins, and accepts the redemptive work of Christ, he can—by his regenerated free will and the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit—live without sin.
1 John 3:6
Whoever abides in Him does not sin.
The glory belongs to God, who gave us this ability by His grace.
By exercising this ability and living in complete holiness, we honor Him.
1 Corinthians 15:34
Awake to righteousness, and sin not.
But under the false pretext that “it is impossible not to sin,” many develop a false sense of security in sin.
Anyone who hears that holiness is impossible will not even try to attain it.
Such a man excuses himself by believing his occasional sins are inevitable, imagining that faith automatically compensates for his unwillingness to overcome temptation.
4. The Command to Obey and the Responsibility of Man
Philippians 2:12–15
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling… that you may be blameless and harmless, children of God without rebuke.
God, the God of justice and majesty, commands nothing impossible.
Why seek excuses by invoking a supposed weakness of our nature against the One who commands us?
God has given us the ability to be righteous, pure, and holy every day of our lives.
Since this ability is from Him, no man can hide behind weakness or sickness.
We must use this ability to glorify God.
Is it not a form of contempt to believe that God’s ability is not sufficient for us to do His will completely?
Ecclesiastes 7:29
God hath made men upright.
No one knows the true measure of our strength better than the One who gave it to us.
Isaiah 64:8
We are the clay, and Thou our potter.
It would be unjust for God to command the impossible or condemn someone for what he could not avoid.
Full and complete freedom is required for guilt and punishment.
5. Personal Righteousness as the Fruit of God’s Grace
Just as a worker’s salary is not purely his own doing—because God gave him the ability to work—so righteousness is not self-exaltation.
It is the result of God’s enabling grace working in synergy with the believer’s will.
This does not exclude God’s role, just as earning a salary does not exclude God’s providence.
6. Jesus’ Teaching on Obedience and Eternal Life
Matthew 19:17
If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
Luther taught that the Law reveals man’s inability to obey.
But Jesus’ words show the opposite: obedience to the commandments is the pathway to eternal life.
In Matthew 19:17, Jesus’ statement that “only One is good” is a declaration of God’s greatness and unity (Deut. 6:4).
It does not deny human ability but highlights humility.
Jesus affirms that obedience to the Law remains essential, and He nowhere suggests that man is incapable of doing good.
By establishing the New Covenant, Christ grants not only forgiveness of past sins but also the enlightened ability, through the Holy Spirit, to produce ripe fruit and live in harmony with God’s Law.
7. The Mentality of Victory
If you doubt your God-given ability to live without sin, you will be unstable in temptation.
Therefore you must adopt the mentality of a victorious warrior, determined to live in complete holiness.
God’s power is displayed when man chooses good over evil.
This choice glorifies the Creator who endowed him with such ability.
Genesis 4:7
Sin is crouching at your door… but you shall rule over it.