Is Unbelief/Doubt in Christ a Sin?

Is Unbelief/Doubt in Christ a Sin?

We see many times that Jesus faced unbelief even amoung his own disciples, was it a sin?

Matthew 28:17
And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted.

Mark 9:24
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Mark 16:14
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.

I think not a sin, for we read:
Jude:
20But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,

21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.

22And have mercy on some, who are doubting;

23save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.

24Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,

25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

From Scripture, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. (Roman 14:23)

From the SOP

If a person believes Jesus is the Christ without sufficient evidence he is deceived. And vice versa.

Can you expend a bit on what is "sufficient evidence"

It is different for each person. For me, it happened in the person of my Uncle. I associated his unconditional love for me, a troubled teen-aged orphan, with Jesus. It was all the evidence I needed to believe Jesus is everything the Bible says about Him.

Doubt is not in the same category as unbelief in Christ, unless those doubts lead the person to no longer believe and trust in Christ is their Savior. Then it is a serious sin and an affront to their salvation.
There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Though doubt can lead to the loss of faith, doubt is not the opposite of faith. Unbelief is the opposite of faith and doubt is not necessarily unbelief.

As we accept Jesus, and commit ourselves to walk with Him in faith, there will be times when we have doubts; when we have questions about some things.
There are so many varied interpretations about Jesus and the whole concept of salvation. We hear someone preaching and we think, I doubt he really understands the truth on that matter.

If handled correctly doubt can actually be a good thing, as long as we continue to believe and trust God, because doubt forces us to nail down why we believe what we believe. This type of doubting can actually cause our faith to grow as we work through the issues that simply are not clear in our minds, and stimulate us to find the answers. Asking questions that cause us to dig for truth helps build our platform of truth.

A healthy bit of doubt can shield us from swallowing, hock, line, and sinker every new doctrine being pushed upon us, if it causes us to go to scripture to see if these things are really so in God's Word.

Unbelief, on the other hand, isn't so much questioning, but an act of rejection of the Gospel Truth. It is the point where one says, ?I don?t believe this anymore.? Doubts that are not addressed by turning towards God for answers, may end up with the doubter turning away from God altogether and ending in the pit of unbelief.

Take Eve's example.

The serpent called her to come to the forbidden tree where he precedes to place doubts into her mind concerning God's fairness, suggesting God had selfish reasons for denying them access to the fruit.

QUESTION--Had Eve sinned during this initial conversation as doubts gathered in her mind?

No -- she had not yet sinned, the deciding factor at this point was "what will she do with the doubts"?

She could have turned away, and joined her companion and talked this strange situation with the
serpent over with him. Or better yet, she and Adam could have discussed it with Jesus when He came in the evening to walk with them.

Having those doubts in her mind at this point wasn't sin -- but what did she do with her doubts, that is the issue?

What can we learn about doubts from Eve?

1. First, do not pretend that your doubt is not real; every believer at some time in his or her walk of faith has doubts. Too often people, like Eve, ignore the danger signal the doubts activate, and don't take them seriously, thus they don't seek answers or help, and rush on thinking they are in control.

2. Now Eve should have asked questions and waited till she could talk this over, not only with Adam but also with Jesus, who came to walk in the garden with them every evening. She should have looked for answers. She should not have allowed her doubts to make her throw away her faith in God.
When doubts arise don't let those doubts about something, make you think everything you believe should be doubted. For Eve, it seems the doubt concerning God's prohibition, led her to doubt Christ, so she didn't even think of first talking it over with Christ.

3. Another caution -- while it's good to seek answers from others who can help us resolve our doubts, it is very harmful to dwell and enlarge and plant doubts in ourselves and others. Our conversations should never be filled with doubts concerning God's love and salvation.
What we talk about affects us and others -- if we talk doubt, doubts will grow, if we talk faith and God's wonderful love and salvation, faith will grow.
Also our very thoughts can take a small doubt and make it into a mountain if we constantly ruminate on it. Doubts will come, they are not sin, unless we internalize, cherish and feed them, and make them our focus. Replace them with the faith building thoughts and prayer.


So basically how a person chooses to respond to their doubts determines whether it is a sin or not.
If they let those doubts turn them away from God, and darken other people's view of God, then yes, that is sin. However, if we turn to God in faith and trust, even though there are doubts, trusting He will help us work them out, then we are acting in faith and dependence on Him.

We are agreed. To me this just demonstrates the love of God. He uses everything in our lives to better us whether it be good or bad if we will just trust him.