Humans are simply imperfect people. We are going to sin, we are going to stuff up and there is just nothing you can do about it.
You don’t have to have been a Christian to have heard that saying before and, while all humans have sinned, is it really true for those who have professed to have a new nature that we are never going to sin again?
Bible or human experience?
As Christians we need to look to the Bible as our ultimate source of authority on this matter. Let’s read Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians in chapter 5 verses 17 to verse 21.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (NIV)
That means we are new creations, the old sinful past you had is not who you are anymore, but people love to trust their own human experiences more than God’s word.
In my work as a Pastor I was speaking to a lady about this truth.
Now this is a lady who graduated from Bible school before my Dad was even born and she said to me: “I see what you are saying Ben but that has not been my experience.”
So, you doubt God’s word just because of your human experience?
And then she pointed me to Romans chapter seven, where Paul says:
“Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law, but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.” (Romans chapter 7 verse 22 to 23)
The verse is frequently taken out of context because Paul has an answer—Jesus Christ our Lord delivers me from this body that is subject to death (Romans chapter 7 verse 25).
If Jesus Christ can rescue you from your sinful self, why are we holding onto the old nature?
Are we teaching it right?
There is a big difference between saying you don’t have to and you will.
When I was growing up, I was taught that even as a believer you are not perfect and you are going to stuff up and make mistakes and I just accepted that fact and as a result I did exactly that, I stuffed up and I made mistakes (I still do).
It’s only recently that I realised that my old nature has been put to death on the Cross.
Jesus did not come to make bad people good, or to take away the bad part of you, he came to give you life and life abundantly (John chapter 10 verse 10).
He gave you a new nature, a nature that is Christ living on the inside of you.
Christ does not make mistakes and if he is living on the inside of you and you are guided by the Spirit, the Spirit will not lead you to sin or make mistakes.
Yet we do and I think one of the most empowering things you can say to a new believer or any believer for that matter is—your old self is put to death. You may sin and you more than likely will make mistakes but you don’t have to. That does not have to be your future, you can live 100% in the righteousness of God.
I think if we firmly grabbed hold of this truth, our lives would never be the same again.
This is not to say that you will never make a mistake or stumble and I do believe the Holy Spirit is there to make us aware of sin, but you don’t have to sin anymore.
Ben Kruzins is the Campus Pastor of The Hub Baptist Church in Ocean Shores on the North Coast of New South Wales. He is also a Journalism graduate who has written articles in The Canberra Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.