As a Christian, Why Do I Continue to Sin Against God?

Salvation is a wonderful thought and experience. “He saved us (Titus 3:5),” are some the most delightful words written by the Apostle Paul. Our disposition, as ungodly rebels, has been transformed. By God’s grace, a new heart and a new mind have been granted to those regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:1–8; 1 Pet 1:3).

By being made alive by the Spirit of Christ (Eph 2:5; Col 2:13), the soul of the saint has been resurrected from the dead. For we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), and this was our spiritual state from conception (Rom 5:12). With the original sin of Adam and a sin nature (Eph 2:3), all we could do before God, our Judge, is sin against Him (Rom 3:23).

The judgment against sin is condemnation (Jn 3:18) and death (Rom 6:23). The dead soul from conception merely waits for the body of sin to perish. The resurrection of the unsaved, body and soul, is a resurrection to judgment on the Day of Judgment (Jn 5:25–29). This is the Day of the Lord, when King Jesus returns to judge the living and the dead (Mt 24:29–31; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Pet 4:5).

Sinners, already condemned (Jn 3:18), merely wait for sentencing, which is eternal punishment in the fiery hell of the lake of fire (Rev 20:14–15). Here is the consequence of endless offense against the infinite majesty of God.

The knowledge of one’s salvation is a matter of great joy and thanksgiving, in light of what each one of us deserves. It is Jesus Christ who delivers us from the wrath to come (1 Thess 1:10). The Christian’s soul (heart and mind) knows the joy of salvation because of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Jn 14:17; Rom 8:9, 11; Jas 4:5), given as a permanent token of the promises of God to His elect, redeemed people (2 Cor 1:22; 5:5).

It is the Holy Spirit, who has begun this good work of sanctification in the born again (Phil 1:6). The cleansing agent He employs is the washing of the water by the Word of God (Eph 5:26). Jesus prayed for His own that they would be set apart unto holiness, by the truth (Jn 17:17). The promise remains for the finishing of this work of God, in every believer (Phil 1:6).

Although the soul (heart and mind) have been put into this purification process (sanctification), and his ambition is to please God (2 Cor 5:9), the problem of sin remains in his body of death (Rom 7:24). Each Christian soul remains housed in sinful flesh. The flesh of the Christian is at war with the Spirit, who lives in him (Gal 5:17). The Christian is a walking civil war zone.

The kind intention of God’s will is to have mercy on His chosen people (Rom 9:15–16; 1 Pet 2:9), from every nation, tribe, and tongue (Rev 5:9; 7:9). Instead of whisking His beloved away to heaven, He fulfills His purpose for each one. This includes suffering in the civil war within, and the war with the world and the devil out with.

The Christian life is lived by faith (Gal 2:20). When repentance and faith are granted to the elect at regeneration (Acts 5:31; Phil 1:29), the heart and mind are set on trusting Christ to accomplish all that concerns us (Ps 57:2; 138:8). The believer focuses on Jesus (Rom 12:2). He sets his mind on the things above (Col 3:2).

The Christian’s faith is the manifestation, the substance of things not seen (Heb 11:1). The hope of glory is within Him (Col 1:27), and so there is no leap of faith. The Christian knows whom He has believed and he is convinced Christ is able to fulfill what God has promised (2 Tim 1:12). He knows this not just in thought or emotion, but he has the indwelling Christ working to convict of sin, reprove behavior, and correct erroneous doctrine.

The simple answer to why Christians continue to sin is that we remain in the flesh, this body, until it dies. Nothing this body of death does is ever pleasing to God. It remains on its course to die, and die it must. There is a futility in putting too much effort into preserving or improving the body. It is destined for death, and the aging experience is an irreversible demise. There is no reversing declension. The sins of the body only expedite the inevitable.

How then should the Christian live? Learning Christ and knowing more of Christ is the profitable enterprise for the saint. One must not worry about performance in this regard because it is the Spirit who sanctifies (1 Thess 5:23; 2 Thess 2:13), according to the predetermined plan of God (Acts 2:23), to fit each living stone into the Temple of God (Eph 2:20–22), according to the specifications of the architect and builder, who is God (Heb 3:4; 11:10).

Christian, your entire life experience is in the hands of the Potter (Jer 18). Never doubt that He is good (Mk 10:18). Know that He is omnipotent, in the accomplishment of His sovereign will (Eph 1:11). This includes you, personally. It includes all your sins, each one known to Him, each one dealt with by Him, at the cross of Calvary (Acts 5:31; Rom 8:1).

Press on through your days of disobedience. Remain in the Word of God. Confess your sins. Ask for forgiveness. Pray for wisdom and strength to go and sin no more. It will never surprise God, when there is more sin. Rejoice, therefore, in His full forgiveness and the fact that He has ordained for you, by His Spirit, to be like Christ Jesus, holy and blameless before Him (Eph 1:4; 5:27; Col 1:22). Just as the Father is working, the Son is working, and so the Spirit is working conformity to Christ, every moment of everyday, whether it is a day of obedience of faith or a dark day of sin.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

November 15, 2022