God Without Religion_ Can It Really Be This Simple_ - Andrew Farley [46]
“The Bible calls us sinners!” some will say.
Well, not really. If you’re a Christian, the New Testament repeatedly calls you a saint, not a sinner.
“But Paul said he was the chief of sinners!” some reply.
It’s true that Paul wrote to Timothy, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Tim. 1:15). However, context reveals that Paul was referring to his track record in killing Christians, before salvation, when he was “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man” (1 Tim. 1:13). Here Paul is remarking how gracious God was in forgiving him and calling him to serve as an apostle. Paul was reborn as a saint, after having been a chief of sinners in his past.
Although Paul’s meaning is fairly straightforward, it’s funny how we Christians will grasp at nearly any verse we can find to justify continuing in a poor self-image. We seem to be infatuated with wallowing in guilt while perceiving ourselves to be dirty sinners saved by grace. We end up believing that we should live uprightly, but we really don’t want to deep down. But, because of our rebirth, I dare you to consider the following thought:
I never really want to sin.
Of course, we Christians can and do sin. That’s not what I’m talking about. What I’m saying is that we don’t want to sin. If we’re in Christ Jesus, we’re re-created for good works (Eph. 2:10), and sin is just awkward and unproductive for us (Rom. 6:21). If we want to make ourselves uncomfortable, there’s one surefire way to do that—by sinning. Sinning goes against everything in our being:
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. (1 John 3:9)
Now, I know what you’ve heard: sin is the stuff we want to do but aren’t supposed to do. What I’m saying is, that’s wrong. Sin is totally incompatible with who we are, and it’s the last thing we want to do:
For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. (Gal. 5:17 NASB)
Did you notice the two “teams” in this passage? There’s the flesh on one team, and then there’s you and the Spirit of God on the other team. The flesh’s goal is to keep you from doing “the things that you please.”
Apparently, we want what God wants. He has imprinted his desires on our hearts: “though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart” (Rom. 6:17 NASB). For the rest of our lives, we’ll continue to prove our new birth, one way or another. We’ll prove it by expressing Christ and being fulfilled, or by sinning and being miserable.
Either way, we prove our true identity.
Waking Up Canadian
Through a series of laws enacted decades ago, many Canadian-born children lost their citizenship when their parents decided the family should move to the United States. It’s estimated that more than one hundred thousand Canadians were affected.
Recently everything changed. Thanks to years of petitioning by just a small number of people, one morning in 2005, thousands of people literally woke up Canadian. The Canadian government restored citizenship to those who had previously lost it. Thousands of letters went out announcing to those affected, “As of today, you are officially a Canadian citizen.”
In the same way, we lost our spiritual citizenship in the Garden of Eden. When our ancestor Adam abandoned God’s kingdom, the human race was transferred to a land of separation and darkness. Through receiving Christ Jesus, we’re restored to citizenship in God’s kingdom. But lots of us still aren’t really aware of our newfound citizenship and its implications. Maybe we never got the letter, or maybe we received it but didn’t quite understand what it all meant.
God says there’s been a spiritual transfer