Can God Forgive Me if I Keep Falling?

It is interesting that a lot of times we resolve in our hearts to live for God, to run away from sin and live holy, but often, it is then that temptations get heightened and the pressure to fall gets doubled. It’s just as if the hold of sin gets tighter.

The Struggle Against Falling

My own personal experience comes with the determination to go on a fast. On a regular day, I can run on 8 hours without food, especially when I am very busy, but the moment I decide to go on a fast, I start to feel a bang in my stomach even before noon.

Paul captures this in Romans 7:15, when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate I do.” So, if you feel just like this, then you are not alone. We are more in this than you can possibly imagine.

I want to assume that the falling we are speaking of is the falling into sin, because that is what we need God to forgive us for. One beautiful thing about God is that He is a righteous and merciful judge, faithful to forgive all our sins.

God Still Loves Me Even When I Keep Falling

Lamentations 3:22-23 reads, “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion never fails. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” This is the posture of God to all of us whom He created. Remember that He created us in His image and likeness. So, He loves us deeply.

Proverbs 24:16 tells us that though a righteous man may fall seven times, he will rise again. When Peter asked Jesus how many times one can forgive their brother who has sinned against them, He responded by saying seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22). If God asks us to forgive our neighbors that much, you can be sure He forgives us much more.   

The Sinful Nature of Man

The nature of man is to sin; that has been our inherited state since the time Adam fell. The ability to live a righteous life without divine support is not in man. The more a man tries to live righteously in his own effort without falling, the more he falls, and the Lord is aware of this.

Isaiah 64:6 says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags”. God understands the natural state of man; He knows that without His intervention, we cannot attain holiness. The inherent nature of man is sin. And even though God cannot condone sin, He still helps us live above it.

When God sent His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins, He didn’t give any limit to the number of sins Jesus died for. There were no categories of sin that were exempted from that mission. Romans 3:23 tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. The category is: everyone and every sin.

The Redemptive Work of Jesus for the Fallen Man

So, the first assurance that we have from the Bible is that God has taken care of all these sins for everyone by presenting His Son, Jesus Christ, as an atonement sacrifice through faith in His blood (Romans 3:25). So, the righteousness that God is seeking is not the one that comes from self-act of righteousness that is like a filthy rag, but the righteousness that comes through faith in the blood of Jesus.  

That is why we read in Romans 8:1 that "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. This is because our acts of righteousness come not from our self-effort and a struggle with sin that we cannot win. After all, our nature is sin, but by that which comes from our strong faith in Jesus and His finished work for us.  

God Forgives Man, But Hates Sin

In Psalms 103:3, we have a confirmation that God forgives all our sins, not some, but all. But that does not give us an open blanket permission to sin. We can sin and be sure of receiving forgiveness, but that is not an open cheque permission to sin deliberately. God hates sin, and we see that everywhere in the Bible. Psalms 5:4, Proverbs 6:16-19

God loves us, no doubt, and He cares for us deeply. But He hates sin. Hebrews 12:14 tells us that without holiness, we cannot see God. When you keep falling into sin, that does not remove His love for you, but it weakens your intimacy with Him.

In Romans 6:1, Paul asked, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” God loves us so much, but He hates the sin in us because He is Holy, and if we must gain access to Him as His children, then we must do so in holiness.

Forgiving us of our numerous sins is not a problem for God; He does that all the time. The worry is not about the forgiveness, it’s about the “keep falling” because God does not want us to keep falling.

Living Sin Free Through the Holy Spirit

Romans 8:3-4 says, “for what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

We know that the inherent nature of a man is sin; no matter how hard we try in our own effort, we will keep falling into sin. With our baggage of sin, we cannot have access to God. So, God did something profound: He sent His son, first as a sacrificial payment for our sins, so that the back-and-forth case of falling is taken care of, and then fulfilled in us the ability not to keep falling by giving us the Spirit of His Son.

Ephesians 1:13 reads, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit”. This scripture is where it all begins. You receive the gospel of Christ and believe in Jesus. With that decision, you are marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:11 says, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you”. Once you believe in Jesus, you are marked with God’s promised Holy Spirit. This same Spirit was in Christ Jesus, and now He is in You.

Jesus carried the Holy Spirit in Him, and so though He was in the likeness of a sinful man, He was able to live without sin. That is the same Holy Spirit that God has deposited in those who receive Jesus. When we stop living according to our flesh, which is our sinful nature, and start living according to the Spirit, we begin to live without sin. The battle against “keep falling” is then won in our lives.

So, to answer the question: “Can God Forgive Me if I Keep Falling?” The answer is that God has forgiven you all of your sins, and we know that because the Bible has said so. But God does not want you to keep falling. He wants you to live a righteous life, and that cannot be in your sinful nature or self-effort. It can only happen when you receive Jesus, believe in Him, and live according to the Holy Spirit.

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