Why Do I still sin even though I am a Christian?
Okay, credit where credit is due. This is unabashedly "borrowed" from Pastor Steve McVey. I don't agree with everything he says (some of the things later in life). But with this caveat, I found his work on this subject to be tremendously helpful in understand my identity. I read it years ago and hung on to it. Thought I'd share it with you all. I'd be open to your thoughts.
There are two important aspects of overcoming temptation. One has to do with the residual effects of sin in your physical body (why you sin) and the other will equip you to say a victorious “NO” to temptation when it comes to you.
Romans 7:16-23. In this passage, Paul describes what it looks like when a person tries to experience victory over sin. You will read that sin was repulsive to Paul, just like it is to every child of God. It is the nature of the Christian to hate sin.
You have the very nature of Jesus Christ. If you didn’t hate sin, you wouldn’t give it a thought when you commit sin. The reason you experience internal conflict when you commit sin is because in your spirit you hate it. If you didn’t hate it, there would be no conflict-sin would come naturally to you. Even if you feel enslaved to a sin, even if it gratifies you, that doesn’t mean you love it.
The fact that sin is pleasurable doesn’t say something about you. It says something about sin. Sin is pleasurable many times. When a person is operating under legalism, he will often try to stop committing a certain sin because he is convinced this specific sin is his problem. That sin isn’t the problem at all. That specific sin is just a symptom of the problem. Someone has said, “Your main problem is that you think your problem is your problem. But your problem is not your problem at all, and that’s your problem.”
Do you think the specific sins in your life are your main problem? They aren’t. The real problem is that sin occurs when a Christian functions out of his flesh. That’s your real problem. What you do-the sin you commit-is the symptom of the problem. The problem is that you are living out of your flesh when you commit sins. The real sin is independent living.
Sin occurs when a Christian functions out of his or her flesh. Your flesh is not who you are, but only how you function when you fail to depend upon Jesus as your life source. It’s important to renew your mind and stop saying things like, “but I love my sin. That’s why I do it.” When you say that you are affirming a lie. If the truth will set you free, what will lies do to you? Put you in bondage! You don’t love your sin.
Look back at Romans 7:16-23 and note each time the apostle Paul uses the personal pronoun “I”. Read the text, inserting your name every time he uses the word “I” as if the passage were being written about you. Then answer, does the person in the text love sin or hate it? Is this person evil or does he simply recognize that there is something evil within himself? Deep within his “inner man” (his true self), what is the attitude of this Christian toward the ways of God? What is the source of sin within the life of the person the passage describes?
Do you see that Paul actually reveals is faith right in the midst of his expression of his failures? He hungered for God’s ways to be fulfilled in his life. He hated the sins that caused him to stumble. He recognized that when he sinned, it wasn’t his true self.
Think about the sin that most often causes you to stumble in your life. Write a detailed description of how you feel about the sin. Don’t write how you feel about yourself after you’ve committed the sin, but how you feel about the sin itself.
If it “feels” like you still love your sins, tell God so. By faith, express your love and appreciation to Him for the victory over your sins that the Bible teaches is possible because of the cross. You don’t need to understand HOW to experience freedom over your sins in order to praise Him for the freedom made possible through the cross. Just thank Him by faith.
Now we’ll look at why you still sometimes sin. Look again at Romans 7:16, 17, and 20. “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…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.” Twice in three verses Paul says, “When I sin, I am no longer the one dong it. It is the sin which indwells me.” He speaks of what many call “indwelling sin.” Where is this indwelling sin? In vs. 23, Paul says it is “in my body.”
The Bible is teaching that we, as Christians, do still have indwelling sin within us. Indwelling sin is IN you, but it is not You. It’s not who you are. Your spirit has been completely redeemed and sanctified. Your soul is being sanctified. But we all know we don’t have glorified bodies yet. We have the same body we had before we were saved. It is within this body that indwelling sin resides.
Make no mistake-when you sin, it didn’t just happen. You made a choice. What Paul is saying is that when we sin, it is not consistent with who we are and we are not acting out of our true identity. It’s not ME when I sin because that’s not who I am. The source of sin in my life is In me, but is not ME. Paul didn’t think of himself as an evil man. In vs. 21 he wrote, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me.”
Sin Is in Me, but Is Not Me
Think of a man having an operation. Imagine that the surgeon, during the course of the operation, puts four sponges in the man to absorb fluids. At the end of the operation, the surgeon removes three sponges, but accidentally leaves one sponge behind inside the man. He sews him up with that sponge in him. A few days later, the surgeon checks on the man to see how he’s doing. The patient says: “Doctor, something is wrong with me! Since you operated on me, I have had an insatiable thirst. I can’t get enough water! Another thing, since the surgery I have not emptied my bladder once. I think something is wrong with me!
So the doctor sends him for X-rays to determine what is wrong with him. After examining the X-rays, the doctor comes to the man’s bedside and sheepishly admits, “Sir, there’s not something wrong WITH you. There’s something wrong IN you.” The point is that the power of sin is IN you, but it is not YOU.
Notice in this text how Paul separates the power of sin from his identity. “No longer am I the one doing it,” he says. Paul is saying, “Here is my behavior, these are my personal actions-I am doing the very things I hate.” Does that sound like a man who loves his sin? He did not. When you sin, it is a contradiction of who you are.
Sin is resident in the Christian’s body. Indwelling sin is in you, but it is not you. Indwelling sin does seek to overtake you and control you if you let that happen by not trusting Christ to be your life source. You aren’t a bad person just because something bad is inside you.
Understanding the presence of sin within you is a key to finding freedom over sins. It isn’t because it is still your nature to sin that you still commit sins. It is because of indwelling sin that is not you, but rather resides in your body. People often struggle with the idea that their old nature is dead because they mistakenly think that, when they see the presence of indwelling sin in themselves, they are seeing the old nature. It is important not to confuse the two. Consider the differences between the old nature you used to have and the indwelling sin that is still in you.
The Old Nature Indwelling Sin
to do with who you are
3. was in your spirit, the core of 3. is in your body
your being
Once you know that the problem within you is indwelling sin and that it isn’t your own nature, you come to realize that you aren’t your own worst enemy. You are a holy person who still lives in a human body that has the residual effect of the sin that once gave you your identity as a person. That’s not true anymore. The old man is dead, and the indwelling sin that resides in the members of your body has nothing to do with your identity.
If we are holy, then why do we sin? It’s because the power of indwelling sin lives within our bodies. This doesn’t suggest it isn’t our fault when we sin, but does suggest that it isn’t our NATURE to sin any longer. This distinction is important because, to overcome the enemy, we must first understand who the enemy is and how he operates.
Who we are is determined by what is in our spirits, and indwelling sin resides in our bodies, not our spirits. The culprit in temptation is indwelling sin, not ourselves. The enemy of our souls uses this indwelling sin to cause us to yield to sin. How can he so effectively cause us to fall prey to this indwelling sin? He does it through the thoughts that come into our minds.
When the enemy comes, he speaks in first-person singular- “I”- so I think it’s my own thoughts. In other words, he would never say, “Hey, Steve, will you do a favor for me?” He knows I would recognize the source of that voice and immediately say no.
So he puts a thought in my mind and makes me think it is my own thought. I may have a thought like this: I am sick and tired of the way my wife has been doing this. I’m going to let her have it. Now, that’s not my thought. It was planted in my mind in an attempt to fire up the old engines of indwelling sin.
It’s not me who generated that thought, but it’s there nonetheless. It continues, That’s right, I’m going to let her have it. I’m just going to tell her what I think about her stupid behavior. Then I have another thought: No, wait a minute. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to be mean to my wife over such a small thing as this. That thought was mine. How do I know that’s my thought? Because it’s consistent with who I am to act lovingly toward my wife. Then another thought comes. But I’m just tired of this happening. And I’ve already told her not to do it. So I’m just going to go in there and tell her what I think about it. Then I think, No, I love my wife. I’m not going to talk to her like that.
Right now, if I don’t know the truth, I think I’m having an argument with myself. But I’m not. I’m having an argument with indwelling sin. If I don’t know who I am in Christ, this thought may keep bombarding my mind until I finally give in to it and give my wife a piece of my mind. Then immediately the thought floods my mind, Oh what a terrible husband I am! How could I speak to my way that way? Guess where that one came from!
Do you see how the enemy works? He’ll inject thoughts into your mind and make them sound like yours. The power of indwelling sin will activate your flesh and you’ll act out of that flesh. Then the enemy will turn around and condemn you for doing the very thing he convinced you to do.
Not every thought you have is your own. Thoughts can be introduced into your mind that don’t come from you. They don’t belong to you. How do you know if a thought is from Jesus, the devil, or me? If it is an unholy thought, that thought did not come from Jesus or from you, so you know where it came from.
What if it’s not an unholy thought? Is it my thought or the thought of Jesus? The answer is “Yes”. It is OUR thought. The Scripture tells us we have the mind of Christ. Not only can Jesus live through you, He can THINK through you. We have fallen into the error of believing that there are 3 kinds of thoughts: holy, unholy, and regular. Consider this example:
What’s the most holy thought?
I think I’m going to take my son on a mission trip with me.
I think I’m going to take my son to a ball game.
It’s a trick question. They are both equally holy. One thought is more religious than the other, but both thoughts are holy. Jesus can live through me at a ball game just as well as He can live through me on a mission trip.
When you’re abiding in Christ, every thought you have is a holy thought. But not every thought that comes to you is your own. So when the power of indwelling sin introduces a thought, you take that thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
How does Paul instruct us to deal with unholy thoughts in 2 Corinthians 10:5? What’s the difference between having a thought that passes through your mind and acting on that thought? In trying to illustrate this concept to a man I was counseling. I was trying to get him to understand that not every thought a person has is his own. There was another man in the session also, named James. I leaned forward to the man I was counseling and whispered to him so James could not hear, “Hit James in the face and knock him off that chair. It won’t kill him. Do it”. The man was puzzled-he didn’t know what to do. Finally I said, “Are you going to do it?” “No!” the man answered. “I’m not going to do it.” “Well, are you at least going to ask God to forgive you for having such a terrible thought?” I asked.
“You’re the one who said it!” replied the startled man.
Do you see? Not every thought you have comes from you. You are righteous. If you have an unrighteous thought, bring it into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
We must Recognize our CONDITION in Christ
We need to understand our condition in Christ and how that affects our relationship to sin. Look again at Romans 6:1: “He who has died is freed from sin.” Let’s see how this relates to temptation.
You have died to sin. You have joined together with Jesus Christ on the cross, and the old you who loved to sin is dead. Sin has no power over you anymore. Any power that sin seems to have is just an illusion.
Have you ever seen elephants at a circus? Outside the big tent, you may see a great big elephant shackled to an insignificant stake in the ground. The truth is, the elephant could walk away any time he wanted to go, but he doesn’t. The stake holds him captive because he believes it can, so he never tries to walk away. He isn’t held captive by the chain. He is held captive by the illusion. He believes a lie.
Sin has no power over you, but if you don’t believe that, you are in trouble. You may believe you are still held in bondage to sin. If so, you are believing a lie. That kind of negative faith will keep you in bondage to sins. In reality, the chains of sin have been broken and you are free. So what are you to do when temptation comes? You are to respond, “I’m dead to sin! This temptation has no power over me. Lord Jesus, my life is in You. Now You express Your righteousness through me in the face of this temptation to do evil.
One man said that before he understood this, he used to hear temptation knock at his door. He would answer the door and say, “No, I can’t go with you. I shouldn’t because I’m a Christian.” He said he often failed, giving in to the persuasive power of indwelling sin. Now when temptation comes knocking, he says: “Jesus, will you answer that? The difference is Christ within you will overcome temptation. You’ll never do by your own determination.
There are two important aspects of overcoming temptation. One has to do with the residual effects of sin in your physical body (why you sin) and the other will equip you to say a victorious “NO” to temptation when it comes to you.
Romans 7:16-23. In this passage, Paul describes what it looks like when a person tries to experience victory over sin. You will read that sin was repulsive to Paul, just like it is to every child of God. It is the nature of the Christian to hate sin.
You have the very nature of Jesus Christ. If you didn’t hate sin, you wouldn’t give it a thought when you commit sin. The reason you experience internal conflict when you commit sin is because in your spirit you hate it. If you didn’t hate it, there would be no conflict-sin would come naturally to you. Even if you feel enslaved to a sin, even if it gratifies you, that doesn’t mean you love it.
The fact that sin is pleasurable doesn’t say something about you. It says something about sin. Sin is pleasurable many times. When a person is operating under legalism, he will often try to stop committing a certain sin because he is convinced this specific sin is his problem. That sin isn’t the problem at all. That specific sin is just a symptom of the problem. Someone has said, “Your main problem is that you think your problem is your problem. But your problem is not your problem at all, and that’s your problem.”
Do you think the specific sins in your life are your main problem? They aren’t. The real problem is that sin occurs when a Christian functions out of his flesh. That’s your real problem. What you do-the sin you commit-is the symptom of the problem. The problem is that you are living out of your flesh when you commit sins. The real sin is independent living.
Sin occurs when a Christian functions out of his or her flesh. Your flesh is not who you are, but only how you function when you fail to depend upon Jesus as your life source. It’s important to renew your mind and stop saying things like, “but I love my sin. That’s why I do it.” When you say that you are affirming a lie. If the truth will set you free, what will lies do to you? Put you in bondage! You don’t love your sin.
Look back at Romans 7:16-23 and note each time the apostle Paul uses the personal pronoun “I”. Read the text, inserting your name every time he uses the word “I” as if the passage were being written about you. Then answer, does the person in the text love sin or hate it? Is this person evil or does he simply recognize that there is something evil within himself? Deep within his “inner man” (his true self), what is the attitude of this Christian toward the ways of God? What is the source of sin within the life of the person the passage describes?
Do you see that Paul actually reveals is faith right in the midst of his expression of his failures? He hungered for God’s ways to be fulfilled in his life. He hated the sins that caused him to stumble. He recognized that when he sinned, it wasn’t his true self.
Think about the sin that most often causes you to stumble in your life. Write a detailed description of how you feel about the sin. Don’t write how you feel about yourself after you’ve committed the sin, but how you feel about the sin itself.
If it “feels” like you still love your sins, tell God so. By faith, express your love and appreciation to Him for the victory over your sins that the Bible teaches is possible because of the cross. You don’t need to understand HOW to experience freedom over your sins in order to praise Him for the freedom made possible through the cross. Just thank Him by faith.
Now we’ll look at why you still sometimes sin. Look again at Romans 7:16, 17, and 20. “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…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.” Twice in three verses Paul says, “When I sin, I am no longer the one dong it. It is the sin which indwells me.” He speaks of what many call “indwelling sin.” Where is this indwelling sin? In vs. 23, Paul says it is “in my body.”
The Bible is teaching that we, as Christians, do still have indwelling sin within us. Indwelling sin is IN you, but it is not You. It’s not who you are. Your spirit has been completely redeemed and sanctified. Your soul is being sanctified. But we all know we don’t have glorified bodies yet. We have the same body we had before we were saved. It is within this body that indwelling sin resides.
Make no mistake-when you sin, it didn’t just happen. You made a choice. What Paul is saying is that when we sin, it is not consistent with who we are and we are not acting out of our true identity. It’s not ME when I sin because that’s not who I am. The source of sin in my life is In me, but is not ME. Paul didn’t think of himself as an evil man. In vs. 21 he wrote, “I find then the principle that evil is present in me.”
Sin Is in Me, but Is Not Me
Think of a man having an operation. Imagine that the surgeon, during the course of the operation, puts four sponges in the man to absorb fluids. At the end of the operation, the surgeon removes three sponges, but accidentally leaves one sponge behind inside the man. He sews him up with that sponge in him. A few days later, the surgeon checks on the man to see how he’s doing. The patient says: “Doctor, something is wrong with me! Since you operated on me, I have had an insatiable thirst. I can’t get enough water! Another thing, since the surgery I have not emptied my bladder once. I think something is wrong with me!
So the doctor sends him for X-rays to determine what is wrong with him. After examining the X-rays, the doctor comes to the man’s bedside and sheepishly admits, “Sir, there’s not something wrong WITH you. There’s something wrong IN you.” The point is that the power of sin is IN you, but it is not YOU.
Notice in this text how Paul separates the power of sin from his identity. “No longer am I the one doing it,” he says. Paul is saying, “Here is my behavior, these are my personal actions-I am doing the very things I hate.” Does that sound like a man who loves his sin? He did not. When you sin, it is a contradiction of who you are.
Sin is resident in the Christian’s body. Indwelling sin is in you, but it is not you. Indwelling sin does seek to overtake you and control you if you let that happen by not trusting Christ to be your life source. You aren’t a bad person just because something bad is inside you.
Understanding the presence of sin within you is a key to finding freedom over sins. It isn’t because it is still your nature to sin that you still commit sins. It is because of indwelling sin that is not you, but rather resides in your body. People often struggle with the idea that their old nature is dead because they mistakenly think that, when they see the presence of indwelling sin in themselves, they are seeing the old nature. It is important not to confuse the two. Consider the differences between the old nature you used to have and the indwelling sin that is still in you.
The Old Nature Indwelling Sin
- was crucified with Christ 1. still resides in you
to do with who you are
3. was in your spirit, the core of 3. is in your body
your being
Once you know that the problem within you is indwelling sin and that it isn’t your own nature, you come to realize that you aren’t your own worst enemy. You are a holy person who still lives in a human body that has the residual effect of the sin that once gave you your identity as a person. That’s not true anymore. The old man is dead, and the indwelling sin that resides in the members of your body has nothing to do with your identity.
If we are holy, then why do we sin? It’s because the power of indwelling sin lives within our bodies. This doesn’t suggest it isn’t our fault when we sin, but does suggest that it isn’t our NATURE to sin any longer. This distinction is important because, to overcome the enemy, we must first understand who the enemy is and how he operates.
Who we are is determined by what is in our spirits, and indwelling sin resides in our bodies, not our spirits. The culprit in temptation is indwelling sin, not ourselves. The enemy of our souls uses this indwelling sin to cause us to yield to sin. How can he so effectively cause us to fall prey to this indwelling sin? He does it through the thoughts that come into our minds.
When the enemy comes, he speaks in first-person singular- “I”- so I think it’s my own thoughts. In other words, he would never say, “Hey, Steve, will you do a favor for me?” He knows I would recognize the source of that voice and immediately say no.
So he puts a thought in my mind and makes me think it is my own thought. I may have a thought like this: I am sick and tired of the way my wife has been doing this. I’m going to let her have it. Now, that’s not my thought. It was planted in my mind in an attempt to fire up the old engines of indwelling sin.
It’s not me who generated that thought, but it’s there nonetheless. It continues, That’s right, I’m going to let her have it. I’m just going to tell her what I think about her stupid behavior. Then I have another thought: No, wait a minute. I’m not going to do that. I’m not going to be mean to my wife over such a small thing as this. That thought was mine. How do I know that’s my thought? Because it’s consistent with who I am to act lovingly toward my wife. Then another thought comes. But I’m just tired of this happening. And I’ve already told her not to do it. So I’m just going to go in there and tell her what I think about it. Then I think, No, I love my wife. I’m not going to talk to her like that.
Right now, if I don’t know the truth, I think I’m having an argument with myself. But I’m not. I’m having an argument with indwelling sin. If I don’t know who I am in Christ, this thought may keep bombarding my mind until I finally give in to it and give my wife a piece of my mind. Then immediately the thought floods my mind, Oh what a terrible husband I am! How could I speak to my way that way? Guess where that one came from!
Do you see how the enemy works? He’ll inject thoughts into your mind and make them sound like yours. The power of indwelling sin will activate your flesh and you’ll act out of that flesh. Then the enemy will turn around and condemn you for doing the very thing he convinced you to do.
Not every thought you have is your own. Thoughts can be introduced into your mind that don’t come from you. They don’t belong to you. How do you know if a thought is from Jesus, the devil, or me? If it is an unholy thought, that thought did not come from Jesus or from you, so you know where it came from.
What if it’s not an unholy thought? Is it my thought or the thought of Jesus? The answer is “Yes”. It is OUR thought. The Scripture tells us we have the mind of Christ. Not only can Jesus live through you, He can THINK through you. We have fallen into the error of believing that there are 3 kinds of thoughts: holy, unholy, and regular. Consider this example:
What’s the most holy thought?
I think I’m going to take my son on a mission trip with me.
I think I’m going to take my son to a ball game.
It’s a trick question. They are both equally holy. One thought is more religious than the other, but both thoughts are holy. Jesus can live through me at a ball game just as well as He can live through me on a mission trip.
When you’re abiding in Christ, every thought you have is a holy thought. But not every thought that comes to you is your own. So when the power of indwelling sin introduces a thought, you take that thought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.
How does Paul instruct us to deal with unholy thoughts in 2 Corinthians 10:5? What’s the difference between having a thought that passes through your mind and acting on that thought? In trying to illustrate this concept to a man I was counseling. I was trying to get him to understand that not every thought a person has is his own. There was another man in the session also, named James. I leaned forward to the man I was counseling and whispered to him so James could not hear, “Hit James in the face and knock him off that chair. It won’t kill him. Do it”. The man was puzzled-he didn’t know what to do. Finally I said, “Are you going to do it?” “No!” the man answered. “I’m not going to do it.” “Well, are you at least going to ask God to forgive you for having such a terrible thought?” I asked.
“You’re the one who said it!” replied the startled man.
Do you see? Not every thought you have comes from you. You are righteous. If you have an unrighteous thought, bring it into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
We must Recognize our CONDITION in Christ
We need to understand our condition in Christ and how that affects our relationship to sin. Look again at Romans 6:1: “He who has died is freed from sin.” Let’s see how this relates to temptation.
You have died to sin. You have joined together with Jesus Christ on the cross, and the old you who loved to sin is dead. Sin has no power over you anymore. Any power that sin seems to have is just an illusion.
Have you ever seen elephants at a circus? Outside the big tent, you may see a great big elephant shackled to an insignificant stake in the ground. The truth is, the elephant could walk away any time he wanted to go, but he doesn’t. The stake holds him captive because he believes it can, so he never tries to walk away. He isn’t held captive by the chain. He is held captive by the illusion. He believes a lie.
Sin has no power over you, but if you don’t believe that, you are in trouble. You may believe you are still held in bondage to sin. If so, you are believing a lie. That kind of negative faith will keep you in bondage to sins. In reality, the chains of sin have been broken and you are free. So what are you to do when temptation comes? You are to respond, “I’m dead to sin! This temptation has no power over me. Lord Jesus, my life is in You. Now You express Your righteousness through me in the face of this temptation to do evil.
One man said that before he understood this, he used to hear temptation knock at his door. He would answer the door and say, “No, I can’t go with you. I shouldn’t because I’m a Christian.” He said he often failed, giving in to the persuasive power of indwelling sin. Now when temptation comes knocking, he says: “Jesus, will you answer that? The difference is Christ within you will overcome temptation. You’ll never do by your own determination.
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