Well yes. Just about everybody. We all sin to one degree or another. We still inhabit these dead bodies, and until we are transformed into our glorified bodies we are not perfect and sin. If we WERE PERFECT then we would never sin.
The Holy Spirit transforms us and gives us the power to walk in the Spirit, but Like Lazarus, whom Christ raised from the dead, we still have our stinky, rotten grave clothes on.
So what constitutes "habitual"? That word seems to be what is in contention.
All this simply boils down to whether we are Born again or not. If we are born again, we are a new creation. We ARE His Kids!!
1 John 3:10
By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
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Believers who have been saved by grace through faith practice righteousness. They are a new creation in Christ. Righteousness flows through their new-life veins. So they will begin practicing righteousness. Not perfectly yet, but they leave their life of sin even if/when they trip up.
1 John 1:5-10 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.
~ John says that those who walk in darkness don't practice the truth. They lie as a habit. The believer is not walking in darkness, we are walking in light and do tell the truth.
We are in the sanctification process and will begin to lie less and less because we don't walk in darkness anymore. We are walking in the light and because of that we begin to tell the truth. We desire truth, we want to live truth.........we want to live Jesus because He is the truth.
And because we're walking in the truth, we admit our sin. We confess our sins to the Lord and because we're now walking in the light, because we're practicing righteousness even thought we may sin along the way, we are going to confess our sins and be cleansed because Jesus is righteous and faithful and forgives us.
My kids don't have to work, or try to be my children. THEY ARE BY BIRTH! Now, they disobey sometimes, even "habitually". BUT they know they REMAIN my children but will have to deal with the consequences of their disobeying. ONE of the consequences WILL NOT BE that they are no longer my children.
Sometimes parables we come up with just don't work. And I think this is one of them. We can't compare this with God's children because we don't have the same situation to compare. All of God's children are fallen even though He gave us life......He birthed us.
We, as fallen children have to accept His gift of grace through faith to be restored to a righteous relationship with Him. There are many who will not bow the knee and will not desire the new birth and will continue on in their sin. So we're not really comparing apples with apples in this example.
But I will say that the one who is truly born again are God's child forever. Because they will walk in the light, they won't walk in darkness. When we sin, He makes a way to cleanse us through confession and repentance.
Are we God's children by NEW BIRTH? Of course we are! WE ARE BORN AGAIN. We are forever His Children, and He will do what is necessary to transform us into the likeness of His One and only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Yes, we are God's children through the new birth.
But our saying we're His child or our saying that we've been saved by grace through faith isn't so because we say so. It's through genuine faith that we are and it's because He says so and in His word, He shows us what it means to be saved/born again.
We've been chosen to obey. We've been called to obey. We are to abide and bear fruit. Easy believism will not agree with this. Easy believism allows the carnal person to continue on. Just say Jesus is Lord and you're in. Just say that God is your savior and all is well.
In other words, easy believism makes up their own rules whatever they want them to look like.
But God says only those who do my will are my children. Jesus says those who love me will obey my commandments. Easy believism doesn't like those words.
