Why do Christians continue to sin?

As Christians who follow Christ, at some point, all of us placed our trust in Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. We’ve been washed by his blood and made clean, but why then do we still sin? Why is this, did something go wrong when we received salvation?

If my old life is dead and gone, nailed to the cross with Christ, why does sin still seem alive and kicking in each of us?

Old habits and behaviours, learnt in our former lives can be hard to kick. They are like a default setting, that without thinking about, we return to instinctively

All of us see changes when we become believers, and big changes at that, yet all too quickly we soon slip up and fall back into the old ways that no longer belong in our new lives. It even happens after years of being a Christian. Sure, we’ve dealt with the big issues, but sins can hide, lurking deep in our hearts, and we haven’t yet gotten around to slaying them. They’re like a faint whiff of a bad odour, that we can’t figure out where it’s coming from, and even worse, we can become so accustomed to the whiff, that we stop noticing it.

The comedian Charlie Chaplin is attributed with saying,

“Amateurs, that’s all any of us are, amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else”

And in many ways as new believers, that’s just what we are, amateurs. But an amateur is an enthusiast who pursues something in the spirit of love because they love that thing. The amateur doesn’t do it to get paid as professionals do, but simply because we love, just as we who love Christ, pursue him.

As amateurs when we embark on our Christian life we lack training, sure we know the basics and our hearts and souls have been convicted by the Holy Spirit to follow Christ, but at the outset, we are mere fledgling amateurs, that lack knowledge, experience and the skills associated with being a disciple of Christ. So, it’s only natural that we will slip up, make many mistakes, and fall into the traps of sin that the deceiver lays to trip us up.

We are a work in progress,

Everything was brand new when we moved into our home that had just been built some twenty years ago. But there was still work to be done. The walls and ceilings needed painting, the kitchen and bathroom needed tiled, curtains and blinds had to be bought and fitted, and carpets laid. And at the start, great progress was made as we worked to make the house a home and habitable.

But when we moved in, we recognised that we couldn’t do all this work at once. Back in those days, “turnkey” homes weren’t a thing. The work had to be prioritised so that the right things got done in a logical order. Privacy first, blinds, curtains, painting next, and tiling after that. But after a while, things started to slow down as our home reached a point where it was mostly completed and comfortable to live in.

I have to confess that there are still some small jobs that remain undone, like the doorbell that has never been connected, with its wires hanging in a loop at the side of the front door! (I get reminded about this every so often!)

Just a few wee finishing touches, that we’ll get around to eventually, but over time we’ve forgotten about and no longer even notice.

Sin can be like that, the wee sins that we didn’t get around to sorting out, put on the back burner to be sorted out next week, next month, or next year!

As it always does, time waits for no home builder, relentlessly marching on, and we start to find that the bigger things in our homes, and our lives, become a bit jaded, worn out, broken, and dysfunctional. When this happens, that’s when we need to stop the rot and make some urgent repairs.

But being a Christian is to be in Christ, we’ve become one with him. When he died on the cross, our old selves died on that cross with him, and when he rose, we too rose from death, being reborn and made new.

Paul writes in Colossians 3: 1-4

Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. ³ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ⁴ When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Here Paul tells us that our identity is now found in Christ and that’s where our life now is.

But yet these problem-sins remain, stubborn and hard to shift. Secret sins that very often no one but us and God knows about. Paul tells us that to deal with these sins properly we are to “Set your minds on the things from above” so we can eradicate these sins from our lives.

In Colossians 3:5-10 Paul continues by saying,

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. ⁶ Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. ⁷ You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. ⁸ But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Our old lives are gone, but all of us are fledgling amateurs, works that Christ has begun in us, works in progress, that need to be nurtured, guided, taught in ‘the way so that we grow, gain experience, and knowledge as we are shaped in his likeness.

In Christ, we have become a new creation with a whole new identity. And in that, we should strive to put to death any lingering habits and behaviours of our old selves. Christians strive to get rid of the sin in their lives not to get into heaven, but because we already live there. We are driven to lead new wholesome lives while we remain on this earth, here and now, because our new lives exist in heaven, there and then.

It's worth remembering that there are three tenses of salvation, past, present, and future. When we first believed we were saved from the penalty of sin and were justified in Christ.

Now as amateurs and works in progress, Christ continues to work in us, to sanctify us and save us from the power of sin in our earthly lives.

So that when we finally leave this world for heaven, we will be saved from the very presence of sin. Our faith will be made perfect, and we will be glorified in Christ our saviour.

All Christians, while on earth are amateurs, but love for Christ drives us to grow and develop in him so that we improve. Throughout life, we are a work in progress that will one day see us made perfect in Christ.

Have a great day, and God bless,

Trev.