Originally posted by @philokalia
It says in 1 John 1 the following:
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
We can c ...[text shortened]... e?
If you do not dney it... how could you preach some kind of total justification by the law?
An important concept to understand in Ezekiel 18 is that God does not require the individual to have never sinned. Only that the individual no longer commits sin. The gospel preached by Jesus during His ministry, Isaiah 1 and Jeremiah 7 are all consistent with this concept.
1 John 1 is also consistent with this concept. You took 1:8-10 out of context:.
1 John 1
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
"God is light; in him there is no darkness at all". Therefore "[walking] in the light as he is in the light" would preclude walking in sin which is walking in darkness.
The author of 1 John unambiguously drives this point home in the following:
1 John 3
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
So continuing with 1 John 1
7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
They are to " walk in the light, as he is in the light" and then and only then will they be "[purified] from all sin".
1:8-10 is addressing those who "walk in the light, as he is in the light" and might think that they have no sin from prior to doing so. It does not say that it is impossible for an individual to no longer commit sin or anything of the sort.
Many point to 1:8-10 as saying just that, but that doesn't make any sense when viewed under the light of truth. Seems like Christianity was largely built upon these types of half-truths.