Brothers and sisters in Christ, why do you continue to call yourselves sinners? Have you not been freed from your life of sin, through the saving grace of the Lord?
1 John 5:18 tells us:
“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God *keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.” (NKJV)
*footnotes refer to the word keeps as “guard” as well
The Living Bible puts it this way:
“No one who has become part of God’s family makes a practice of sinning, for Christ, God’s Son, holds him securely, and the devil cannot get his hands on him.”
And again, it is reiterated in 2 Corinthians 5:17:
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (NKJV)
“When someone becomes a Christian, he becomes a brand new person inside. He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun!” (TLB)
A new creation. A brand new person. All things have become new. We are not the same, sinful people we used to be.
Knowing this, why do we continue to call ourselves sinners? Why are we putting that on ourselves, when the Bible tells us that is *not* who we are anymore?
Is it an excuse that makes it easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission? Is it something that we have been taught, and have been doing for so long, that we have now given the devil his foothold to continue to keep us in the sinner mindset?
Romans 3:23 says the we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. This is 100% true. But notice the word HAVE. Not continue. Not still. HAVE. In the past. Before we truly started following Jesus.
Jesus told the woman at the well to go and sin no more. If we are incapable of being sin-free, then why would He tell her that?
Jesus then goes on to say,
“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” ~ John 8:12 (NKJV)
Sin is a choice. It is a deliberate act of stepping away from the will and commandments of the Lord to do something we know we shouldn’t.
Do we make mistakes? Of course. Are those mistakes sin? It depends on what it is.
So many times we are tempted; we are tempted to get angry, to lie about something, to treat someone unkindly or do something we know we are not supposed to do. But temptations are just that – temptations. Being tempted is not a sin. What we do with those temptations are where we can allow sin to enter into our lives.
We are human, and as such, we have human emotions. Our emotions are not sin, but they are something that we have to watch, so that we don’t allow our feelings to get in the way of the work that Christ has set before us.
We have to guard our hearts and our minds, so that we are always seeking to be holy and pure before God. Christians are allowed to feel, to think, to live normal lives just like everyone else. We just have to remember Who we serve, and keep ourselves in check so that we do not defile the love of God in the process or lead an innocent astray.
We’ve been told many times to “speak our truth” and to “speak life” into people. If that is the case, we need to stop referring to ourselves as sinners. We once *were* sinners, but if we have truly accepted the Lord’s forgiveness and grace, then we are sinners no more!
There are so many verses I could post, but I will leave you with these two passages:
“Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.” ~ Psalm 34:13-14 (NKJV)
“Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left; remove your foot from evil.” ~ Psalm 4:23-27 (NKJV)
It’s time to claim your freedom in Christ!
With so much love,
(Photo by: Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash)
