1 John 3:4,
4. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
In the Holy Scriptures, particularly the Scriptures of the Old Testament, but also in the New, that which is clearly demarcated as "sin", in our world, would be more easily recognizable as "crime".
Take a look for yourself some day. In the Law and Prophets, but also in the Psalms, the Scriptures show that things like bribery, extortion, perjury, theft, rape, murder, attempted murder, slander and libel, misappropriation of funds, unequal weights and measures to gain advantage, baiting and switching in business, manipulating the system to oppress and injure the under-privileged or marginalized population, and finally, turning a blind eye to all these crimes (and more not listed!) are sins that God detests.
So, when John writes that sin is the transgression of the law, it is important to think in terms of criminal behavior. We have to first, see how our sins are really crimes, and then see how our crimes affect the larger community of people around us, whether inside our families, our churches, our workplaces, our hometowns, our nations, and/or even our world.
In the end of all things, for so many of the human race, the last words all these lost souls are going to hear is "Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness", which is just another way of calling these doomed "sinners" criminals.
When Jesus said He came to fulfill the law, it wasn't just mere moral or cultic laws of the people of God and of His temple and its priesthood. It was also the full standard of all that God's holiness and righteousness demands in order to satisfy the wrath and death sentence for all people for all times in all places against the cumulative sin debt of the entire human race.
In order to fulfill such a law, Christ had to live above transgressing, or sinning, against the Father, by failing to keep God's laws. When we are in solidarity with the Messiah, and have our spiritual identity in Him by faith and active belief, we too, must fulfill the same law as Christ by living above such transgressions, or sins, against the Father.
Thank you, God, for presenting us with the Holy Spirit, that we may be empowered to do just that!
Saints and brethren, let your faith continually come through hearing, even as you let your hearing come entirely, and exclusively, from the Word of God.
There is no sin in your life that you cannot overcome, for this is your faith:
1 John 5:4,
4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Crimes against God and His laws do not have the right to reign in your mortal bodies as long as you refuse to submit yourself to them. Whom the Son has made free is free indeed, and that freedom, friends, is the freedom from sin.
John 8:34-36,
34. Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
35. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
36. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Since the Son of God abides forever, you no longer have to be a servant of sin forever, but rather, you can be free from your service to the flesh and the works therefore, forever.
Through the Holy Spirit and It granting you ever increasing Christ-likeness, you can begin to sin less and sin less and less and less until...? You guessed it! You can sin less and less until you are sinless.
1 John 1:5-10,
5. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7. 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.
8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Proverbs 28:13,
13. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
There is nothing but the deception locked up in your souls that says you have to forever remain a sinner who can't help but walk in darkness and sin everyday of your life. You can today, right this very moment, confess your sin and FORSAKE IT, and find mercy.
The way only seems strait and the gate only seems narrow to those who prefer the broad way and the open gate. But to those who find the eternal life promised to all through our Lord Jesus Christ, it is like as when Jacob first saw Rachel and worked fourteen long years for her hand in marriage, but found those years to be as nothing, for the prize of earning his bride.
What about us? Are we sick and tired of toiling away for the King of kings, complaining that He's making us wait too long for the prize we first desired as we laid spiritual eyes upon it back when we first believed?
No, my brothers and sisters! Let us not grow weary, but renew ourselves and continue to run and not give up! The very next breath you take is proof of another opportunity to subject yourself to the Law-Giver, to yield to His commands, to leave your life of "crime" behind, and find eternal rest for your soul, just as Jesus found eternal rest for His soul when He died on the cross.
So what I say to one I say to all:
DON'T QUIT!