LIE: Christians are sinners saved by grace

Lie:      Christians are sinners saved by grace.

Truth: Christians are saints who have sin.

Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother, To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, — I Corinthians 1:1–2a

This is a stark divide. Who are we – saints or sinners? We can’t possibly be both, can we? In the scripture quoted above, Paul clearly called the Corinthian believers ‘saints,’ – literally, ‘holy ones.’ And if you’ve read the letter to the Corinthians, you know that they were also fleshly, and were not what we normally call holy. Yet they were holy ones.

To get right to the heart of the matter, the real question is: do we have an un-eradicable, sinful nature carried over essentially unchanged from our state of unbelief? In other words, are we as Christians still essentially, in our hearts, sinful by nature? Can we get our theology straight on this?

To begin to answer that question let’s first make one thing clear. Christians still sin. Listen to John’s words:

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us. — I John 1:8–10

John’s warning cautions us to be careful how we think of ourselves and not deny the presence of sin in us; in his words: “we have sin.” That should not be a surprise to any of us. The presence of sin is not in question, but the conundrum is, where does this sin come from? and why do we still have it?

Some claim that they are sinners (saved by grace thankfully). Far from denying they have no sin, these believers in Christ say that, at their core, they are sinners, that is, they have a sinful nature or essence. The previous edition of the NIV translation of the Bible supported this concept, translating the Greek word sarx (traditionally translated ‘flesh’) as ‘sinful nature.’

Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature [sarx]. — Romans 13:14

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature [sarx] a slave to the law of sin. — Romans 7:25

This is an unfortunate mistranslation (corrected since the 2011 NIV edition) that, because of the NIV’s popularity, caused much confusion. The NIV editors had inserted their interpretations; they did not faithfully translate. The Greek word that they had translated ‘sinful nature’ simply means ‘flesh,’ that is, the soft tissue of the body that covers the bones. Of course that word does have theological connotations, but Paul chose the word sarx carefully and it should not be changed to suit the translator’s preferences.

Paul uses the word flesh (sarx) as the location of sin. He is actually very specific about this.

But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. . . .  Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. . . . But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. — Romans 7:17, 20, 23

Paul denies that it is him – that is the core of his being – that is sinful. Rather sin dwells in his body, in his ‘members,’ that is the members of his body: his hands, feet, eyes and ears. As Christians, sin is located in the members of our bodies. This may seem like a strange concept, but if you think about it, it makes sense.

The simplest way to understand this is to think about how habits form and function. Our bodies are very good at creating habits. We have hundreds of these habits that our bodies ‘remember’ and perform for us. Things like: writing, reading, brushing our teeth, playing an instrument, pouring from a pitcher, turning a page, buttoning a shirt, going down stairs, or driving a car. We also have mental and emotional habits or inclinations, things like how smelling burning leaves triggers memories of cool nights watching kids play soccer games. (Ah yes – those are good memories indeed.)

All these we perform largely without thinking; our bodies do them for us. This is a wonderful feature of our creation. But Paul’s point is that sin also becomes an automatic, habitual activity too. This is flesh — simply allowing these ‘bad habits’ to form and stay active. But Paul in many places tells us to put off, crucify or mortify this behavior:

. . . that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,  and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. — Ephesians 4:22–24

And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. — Galatians 5:24

But sin is not our nature. Peter rather tells us that we have become partakers of the divine nature.

. . . by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. — 2 Peter 1:4

This is good news: we are not schizophrenic, having two natures. We have one new nature, but we do still have remnants of sin that our bodies and brains carry. To use another metaphor, that ‘wiring’ or ‘programming’ is still there because we have not yet received our resurrection bodies. And we can still choose to power up sin’s wiring at any time if we don’t focus on the things of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience.

The real danger here is that, if we claim to have a sinful nature, we will more likely excuse our sin and claim that ‘we can’t help it’ – that we’re just poor, helpless sinners at the mercy of our sin. That may seem to be the case, but we must resist that and walk in truth.

The conclusion is that God saved us and made us new creatures in the Messiah with a new nature. We therefore no longer need to be bullied by ‘sin’s programming,’ but can now walk in newness of life by the indwelling Spirit of God.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. — 2 Corinthians 5:17

See also the introduction to this category: Lies about sin.