The short answer is “No” but it’s greatly
misunderstood. How about you personally,
how would you answer that question before reading the remainder of this blog?
If you consider some of the sins you commit, you may
conclude that you do. In that case, you
would be using your behavior to determine your conclusion. God uses birth, not behavior, to define who you
are.
When you hear, “I’m just a sinner saved by grace”, you have
often heard it so often that you probably nod your head in agreement without
giving it much thought. However, you
cannot find any New Covenant scriptures which proclaim that you are a sinner as
a Christ follower. You may say, what
about where Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:15? This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. If you start reading in verse 9 and then
to 17, you will see the larger story he is using to make this statement. He is saying that because he persecuted the
church before he met Jesus on the Damascus Road, he is the worst sinner ever and
if God can save a sinner like him, He can save anyone.
When I played basketball in high school, I set a record for
the most rebounds ever in the history of the school. A rebound is when you grab the basketball
after it hits the backboard or rim and doesn’t go in the basket. To my knowledge, I still hold that record a
few decades later. Though I have graduated
from high school and no longer attend there, would it be a fair statement to
say that I am the “chief rebounder” at my high school? Yes it would be though I am no longer a part
of that school. It is simply a part of my past, just as Paul being the chief of
sinners was a part of his past, though he says it in present tense.
Another issue is that you may have been told most of your
life that you have two natures as a Christian.
The old nature and the new nature.
However, Romans 6:6 is very clear that your old nature died once and for
all on the cross with Jesus. It’s no
longer in you. You only have a new
nature – your identity in Christ.
One more challenge you may find is that you grew up reading
the New International Version Bible. I
like it too, except where they translated the word flesh as sinful nature. That
is very confusing because the old nature is dead and removed. However, God did not remove the flesh from the
Christ follower. In addition, the old
nature and the flesh are not the same. So when you see in places like Romans 8 that
we are dealing with a sinful nature, it’s easy to make the assumption that you
have one. To the NIV’s credit, the
newest version changed 95% of those back to flesh, which is more accurate.
Rejoice today! Though
you and I certainly act in a sinful way, you do not have a sinful nature! You have the new nature where Jesus has made His
home in you! And you have the flesh
which is not the old nature or the sinful nature. Galatian 2:20 says it died and no longer
lives, my paraphrase.
“Why is this so important?” you may be asking? Because it goes to the very heart of the
Gospel about what really happened when Jesus died on the cross for us and when
we died with him. It goes to the core of
who you really are deep within. Are you
both a sinner and a saint? Or, are you a
saint who sometimes sins? According to Romans
6, you are a saint who sometimes sins. When
we teach this truth to people here at GLI and they have embraced it, we’ve
watched God change them. Why? The truth always sets you free! Will you believe the truth today so you can
live freer in your own life?
Believe it! It's the Gospel.
Live Free In Christ,
Mark Maulding, President and Founder
www.GraceLifeInternational.com All Content Copyright © 2015 Mark Maulding but feel free to pass it on!
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