A few years ago, I had the opportunity to teach a course on soteriology (doctrine of salvation) in Zambia. During one of the discussions, I learned that the students’ definition of sinner was causing some confusion. Most of the students came from an Arminian perspective, meaning that they believed in losing salvation if they fell into sin. Therefore, in their assessment, sinners were bound for the lake of fire. If a believer sinned, then they were no longer a saint.
The Zambians’ definition of sinner is not particularly unique; Calvinism often equates sinner with unbeliever. However, Calvinism teaches that if someone falls into sin, he was never saved in the first place (and therefore, couldn’t lose salvation). Either way, the conclusion is the same. In both views, the term sinner is synonymous with unbeliever. This creates an issue with understanding Scripture.
For example, when the Lord ate with tax collectors and sinners (Matt 9:10-11; Luke 7:34, 37, 39; 15:1), both views assume that the Lord was eating with unbelievers. However, that is not stated in the text. Instead, the term is used primarily to identify these people’s lifestyles. Tax collectors, for example, were seen as socially unclean because they worked with the Romans. However, this doesn’t negate the possibility that some of the people referred to as sinners would have believed in Jesus for the gift of eternal life. When the Gospel writers used the term as the Pharisees understood it, the word sinner was not a way of identifying an unbeliever. Instead, it was a way to identify the person’s standing in the community as either a morally good Jew or a socially impure Jew who, as a result, was often excluded from temple worship.
Interestingly, the Lord is also referred to as a sinner by the Pharisees during the trial of the blind man in John 9.
Therefore, some Pharisees said, “This Man is not from God because He does not keep the Sabbath.” Others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them (John 9:16).
Notice that the Pharisees’ definition of a sinner is “one who does not keep the Sabbath.” It was a lifestyle marker, not a spiritual status.
The term sinner is also used in the epistles when addressing wayward believers. For example, in Jas 4:7-8, the Lord’s brother admonishes his audience, saying:
7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (emphasis added)
James is writing to believers (1:2, 16-18), and yet refers to them as sinners. He has just finished discussing the importance of humility and now encourages them to submit to the Lord in repentance. Those not in an abiding walk with the Savior are encouraged to draw near to Him and cleanse their hands. Once again, the issue is not their eternal status, but a lifestyle issue. This is made clear at the close of James’s epistle when the Lord’s half-brother states:
19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. (emphasis added)
Once again, James acknowledges his readers as brethren and gives an example of someone who wanders from their ranks. In other words, when a believer falls into sin, the church should pursue such a person in order to bring them back into the fold. The believer who successfully turns a sinning brother back to the Lord has delivered the sinning brother from physical death. Only Christ can save someone’s soul from the lake of fire. In this context, the soul (psyche) refers to the person’s physical life.
Zane Hodges comments:
“…anyone who turns a sinner from the error of his way (hodou,“road”) is, in reality, turning him aside from a sinful path that can lead him to his physical death (see 1:15). Thus, a Christian’s efforts for the restoration of his brother to the pathway of obedience are life-saving in scope.” GNTC, p. 561
Hodges rightly points out that this verse deals with the restoration of a brother in Christ, not an unbeliever, and he also acknowledges the emphasis on ongoing obedience. In short, a believer can fall into sin, contrary to what Calvinism teaches. It also shows that what is at stake is not this person’s eternal destiny, but the temporal consequences of disobedience, contrary to what Arminianism teaches.
Of course, those who have believed in Jesus for eternal life can rightly be called saints. However, as the apostle Paul also identified himself as a sinner near the end of his life (1 Tim 1:15), Christians today should also be willing to admit that we are all sinner saints.
