The Sinful Saint
- James Ward
- Feb 1, 2018
- 9 min read
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)
"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come" (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We're all sinners, but a Christian is a new creature. Every human being sins, but unbelievers love their sin. They feed it, and nurture it, and protect it. Christians hate their sin. We fight a lifelong battle against it, and kill it, and overcome it in Christ. True Christians are constantly at war with their sinful nature because the Spirit of God is in us, inseparably attached to our spirit. Our spirit struggles against the corrupt body and the depraved mind. We want to live a righteous godly life, marked by faith, repentance, and obedience. But sometimes our old nature shows up, and we think wicked thoughts, or say something un-Christian, or do something sinful.
The common use of the word saint comes mostly from the Roman Catholic idea of a saint being someone who is more holy and closer to God than just the average Christian, and worthy of greater honor and veneration, perhaps even endowed with special power to work miracles because of their great piety. Roman Catholics even pray to their saints and ask them for special intercession. But contrary to this concept of saints being some kind of super-Christians, the Bible describes every believer as a saint. In 1 Corinthians 1:2, Paul refers to saints as "those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". Anyone who has genuine faith in Jesus is a saint. God has set us apart from the rest of humanity and made us holy in Christ, but every saint is still a sinner. The hope of our total perfection still lies in the future. God is still working. So we sin sometimes, but we do not live in our sin, as a slave to it, like an unbeliever does.
When we sin, the natural reaction can be to turn away from God because of the shame and guilt. You feel like you can't approach God anymore, so you distance yourself from Him. Sometimes we can even become convinced that we're no longer saved, or maybe that we weren't saved in the first place. But God's children are not able to stay at a distance from Him. Although we can stumble and fall pretty badly sometimes, believers do not stay in their sin. When we have a sin issue, we learn to take it to God so He can deal with it. We learn from it and we move forward in our walk with Christ. He wisely disciplines us so that even our mistakes will be used for our ultimate good. (1 John 2:19, John 6, Hebrews 12, Romans 8-9)
Unbelievers keep their distance from God all of the time, for their whole life. They don't have the Holy Spirit in them, so there is no spiritual connection to God. They don't feel the weight of sin in their spirit because they're spiritually dead. They willfully sin all of the time, so it's just normal to them. They've learned to see it as normal. They surround themselves with others who reinforce them in their sins, and they stay away from anything that reminds them of God. Although they have a conscience and they know right from wrong, and even that God exists and that He has laws, they have learned to suppress the truth. So because of this, God gives them over to their sins. He lets them have exactly what they desire. God's punishment on them is to give them what they want. This is God's holy judgment upon them. It's their condemnation and they don't even realize it. Living a lifestyle where you freely sin without any guilt, without the Spirit of God correcting you and drawing you to Christ, is in itself God's active judgement upon you. When He abandons you to your sinful desires and lets you have what you want in the flesh, you're being condemned by Him. (Romans 1:18-32, John 3:16-21, John 6:44)
When we sin, it's in our nature to try and hide from God. That's what Adam and Eve did, and that's what every one of us does too. But that's the opposite of what Christians are supposed to do. Because we are spiritually alive in Christ, we can't stay away from Him. When we sin, we go to God and confess it and ask for forgiveness. Living with guilt and shame is uncomfortable for us. It causes spiritual pain inside of us. Like a child who gets spanked, we learn to avoid the pain that results from doing something we know we're not supposed to do. We eventually learn that the quicker we go to God and confess, the better off we'll be.
We always have Jesus Christ as our Advocate with the Father. Jesus is our High Priest and the Mediator between us and the Father, so we confess our sin to Him and He cleanses us and restores us. Because of our relationship with Jesus, we have His Spirit inside of us helping us and guiding us, always leading us to Christ. Instead of being afraid and hiding from God, we can go to Him with our sin and give it to Him and He'll take care of it. In Jesus there is forgiveness forever. (1 John 2:1, John 16:13, Hebrews 4:14-16, 1 Timothy 2:5, Galatians 4:6)
We all occasionally sin, but by God's grace, Christians are forgiven through faith. We're saved, but we do still have a sinful nature that we must struggle against, and we will sometimes sin and miss the mark, because every saint is still a sinner.
Starting in Romans 7, Paul describes this perplexing condition that we Christians are in. I'm going to keep Paul's train of thought intact by including the first part of chapter 8 too. Remember, originally there were no chapters or verses. The epistles were letters written to individuals or to groups of believers. In his letter to the Romans, Paul explains how we're simultaneously righteous and sinful. Then he carefully shows how this is resolved by the Spirit of Christ within us.
"For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." (Romans 7:14-25 - Romans 8:1-17)
As you struggle with your sinful nature and put it to death, refer back to that section of scripture as often as needed. Now I'll finish by including some other pertinent passages.
"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become boastful, challenging one another, envying one another." (Galatians 5:16-26)
"When the scribes of the Pharisees saw that He was eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they said to His disciples, 'Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?' And hearing this, Jesus said to them, 'It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick; I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" (Mark 2:16-17)
"And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls." (1 Peter 2:24-25)
"And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." (Luke 9:23)
"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out" (John 6:37)
"If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us." (1 John 1:6-10)
"If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1)
Thanks for reading. God bless.
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