Do Born-Again Christians Continue to Struggle with Sin?

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Comment by JB on July 15, 2012 at 11:31am

I believe that our biggest problem with sin is our perspective of God and His plan of salvation.

First of all when we are born again, we have a tendency to think we are born again: Spirit, soul and body, but in reality our spirits are the only part that was born again. So when He says in 1Jo.3:9 whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for His seed remains in him and he cannot sin; because he is born of God. The “he” He is talking about is the new man; our inner man. He calls it the “hidden man of the heart” 1Pet.3:4 but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible…………. So your born again spirit is incapable of sinning, all sin is in the flesh; which has not been redeemed yet.  Eph.1:13 says you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise… after you heard the truth, and believed; the gospel of your salvation.

Our body has no contact with our spirit, our soul is being renewed by the Holy Spirit, “our mind, will and emotions” which with the spirit; makes up the heart of man. We think of the body as our earth suit.

If we are walking in the spirit, we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, the desires of things that only appeal our senses. This is one reason we get offended or our feelings hurt, because we are not walking in the spirit of Love, Love takes no account of evils done to it, pays no attention to a suffered wrongs,  1Pet.2:19, 2:23 when He was reviled, He reviled not again, when suffered, He didn’t threaten; but committed himself to God. Or Him that judges righteously.

So I would reiterate;  our biggest problem would be our perspective of God and His plan of salvation.

Joe  

Comment by Rita Cullimore on July 15, 2012 at 6:31am

Colby,

First, this is an awesome post. It entices me to think about what sin actually is.

• We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him." (1Jn3.6,9;5.18)  This is a true statement. Once we have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord, the sin of Adam and Eve is finished. They rejected God. We, as we accept Christ, are removed from the *sin*. God does protect us from all the on-slants of Satan.We do err, in that there are times when we take our eyes and minds off God. We give an inroad to Satan. The more our eyes are on Christ, the more focused we are, the less sins we commit.
• \We do make errors, but if our attention is focused on Christ we are listening harder to the Holy Spirit. If we are listening to the Holy Spirit, and willing to obey what we are hearing, sin will not happen.
• Obedience to the Word, to the Holy Spirit, keeps us from sinning...so the question is...do we listen intently to the Voice of the Spirit? Are we able to listen 100% of the time? If we are not, and I'm not so sure that a person lives that can listen to and obey the instructions of the Spirit, we do have errors in our life.
• Christians don't deliberately sin. Because they, at least some of the time, have their mind on Christ, they avoid error by listening to the Holy Spirit.
• We will continue to make errors until we our spirit, changes the thinking of our soul. Our spirits are perfect because we were given a perfect spirit when we came to Christ. It's our soul that needs educating. Our bodies are still under death and will remain under death.
• If we allow our own spirit to pass on to our souls the things that the Holy Spirit is teaching, the sinlessness or errorlessness of our souls will increase.

 

Blessings...

Rita

Comment by Leonard T on July 14, 2012 at 5:15pm

There are several things to consider. First is the statement "keep on sinning." What is the time frame here that meets the standard to be viewed as "keep on sinning?" Is the Word calling us to sinless perfection the moment we become a believer or does God have a long view in mind with our completion, which is in his hand and time, in sight? Second is the understanding of conviction experienced and repentance expressed by the child of God when they fail. In other words, we sin, fall under conviction and repent (not unto salvation again, but regarding the sin and desire to be cleansed and uselful to God again) of the sin asking for forgiveness. God then picks us back up and dusts us off as His child. If we fail again it is not a continuation, but rather a new sin if we truly went through conviction and repentance the first time. Third deals with rebellion. What will God do (Hebrews 12) to get the attention of the rebellious child of God? Will this person be able to continue in sin or is there an inevitable end to that sin in sight?

 

Sin is a serious thing, but we also need to be sure that we live with the big picture in mind and not try to live a micro-managed life. Is God more concerned with the moment or the end product? I know that is a subjective question, but God has a great advantage in that He really does see the beginning, the end and all that is in-between. Here is a poor illustration. I remember when I first start to learn to drive a car. My focus was just beyond the hood and doing my best to keep the car in the center of my lane. As I became more experienced I began looking further down the road as staying in my lane had become natural without all my attention being focused just over the hood. We can become so focused on the next step that we miss the joy of the journey.

 

Sinless perfection will not be experienced in this life because we live in the fallen flesh. There is a war that takes place between the spirit and the flesh. Most of this battle is fought in the mind. Though it is not fully attainable, we must aspire to holiness. In our life journey as we surrender day by day the holiness of God will be demonstrated in us and through us to the level of surrender we achieve recognizing that there are times that we may foolishly take back that which we previously surrendered.

 

Lastly, salvation has three parts which are seen in three tenses. These tenses are past, present and future. We are justified and regenerated the moment we receive Jesus. This becomes a past tense experience as we are saved. We then embark on the life long journey of growing in the Lord also known as sanctification. This is the present tense portion of our salvation. Lastly we will experience glorification, at which time we are truly a completed product having been changed spiritually at salvation and then changed physically at the resurrection. This is a future tense portion of our salvation.

 

Lord Bless,

LT