Grace - Why Do I Sin?

Why do I sin?

by Phil Drysdale

As discussed in my last blog Jesus has paid the perfect sacrifice for you to have perfect righteousness. Your sinful nature was crucified on the cross and it is dead, it wasn't raised up again but rather a new you was raised; a new creation, as Paul writes to the Corinthians in his second letter. As a side, the word used (in the passage) means new in a totally different way than we often interpret it. There are two words in the Greek for "new"; one means something new in the sense of a replacing of something with something of the same kind. For example, if an apple tree was cut down and you planted another apple tree, it would be a "new" one. This is the word "Neos"; it means new of the same kind. "Kainos", in contrast, means something new but wholly different. To follow the same example, it would be planting an orange tree in place of the apple tree, a new tree but a totally different kind!

The big question

So for many Christians, including myself when I first came into this revelation of the gospel I had a gnawing question in my mind night and day – If I'm righteous by nature and my sin nature is dead then "why am I not perfect? Why do I still sin?"

The answer surprisingly is incredibly simple. We still struggle with our old sinful nature because we believe we should. In fact, the reason there is any sin whatsoever in our lives in any area is because we have a framework of belief that empowers it.

I'd encourage you to read through the New Testament again and, every time you come across the topic of seeing grace appropriated in your life, read the verse in its immediate context and you will see that while we HAVE everything through grace, we RECEIVE it by our faith.

Ephesians 2:8 - For by grace you have been saved through faith…

Romans 4:16 - Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace…

Romans 5:2 – Through [Christ] we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

There are countless verses about faith and grace--even Solomon understood this principle in the old covenant when he said "For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he" (Pr. 23:7).

Another side note, look at what Ephesians 2:8 actually goes on to say: 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God'. Your faith isn't even yours; it's a gift from God! Lest you could boast in your own faith! haha

Activating grace

So if the grace has already been paid for and given to us on the cross by the power of what Christ did, then how do we see it activated in our lives? By faith. By believing.(Faith. Belief) This is what Paul means in Romans 12:2 when he stated that we will be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

You see, transformation cannot be brought by you trying to do better. This is what Jesus was talking about with the vine producing fruit: he called you branches for a reason. We don't try to produce fruit. We can't. Our job is to just be what we know; that it is your nature to produce fruit.

In our old nature we constantly had to fight against the current of a stream flowing towards unrighteousness. If we did nothing we would just float down the river towards sin. If we fought hard enough we might do some good acts but with effort and strain that ultimately is not good enough (Isa 64:6, Phil 3:9). However now we have a righteous nature, we flow down the stream towards righteousness! We do good by nature! In fact – and this will be a hurdle for some - you striving to do good actually produces sin in your life! If you try follow the law it will always lead to sin. (1 Cor 15:56, Rom 4:15)

So why do I still sin? Because somewhere along the lines we were taught that we are still sinners, or worse, that we are righteous, but we have to "work" out our salvation.

The key then is to stop resurrecting the old man and operating out of that nature! Which, given the world around us and our old thought patterns, can be harder than it seems at times but really is profoundly simple: Take those thoughts captive.

Warring against the flesh

On that note, look at 2 Co.r 10:3-4 – "…we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God".

It is not in the flesh we war, we aren't fighting against our nature but rather it is against the strongholds of the minds and arguments/high things that war against the knowledge (i.e. the way you think) of God.

Eph 6:12 says "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." – Again you are not fighting your flesh and blood but rather you're combating the attacks of the enemy. And we all know his way, the ONLY way he can attack: through our beliefs. It was the only way he could attack Adam and Eve in the garden, it's the only way he could attack Jesus and it was the only way he could attack the NT believers. It's always been a war over what we think… never about what we do.

So on that note I'll finish up with a final thought…

In the beginning

Look at Adam and Eve, they had absolute authority over everything, they were put entirely over everything on the earth and yet they had one area that Satan could attack them: Their beliefs. Notice that this is all Satan did, he challenged their beliefs. Did God really say that about you? The fruit? Are you really like Him? The funniest part is they were both perfect in nature and in their environment (bar one bothersome snake). Yet we believe there is no way we could be perfect in nature, because we sin!

The simple fact of the matter is that your old nature is dead, there actually is almost no way to argue that biblically – maybe 2 or 3 verses which you have to take out of context quite drastically. The fact that the traditional church has rewritten our theology of this, not on the basis of scripture but our experience, is terrifying. I'd challenge you to reread through the epistles and ask yourself, are they written to people who need to believe they are righteous or people who need to act more righteous?

Grace=Peace,

Jeremy