A reader of my book Heaven sent us this feedback:
On page 33 you wrote, "And all of us, like Adam and Eve, are sinners." I assume you were referring to the unsaved as sinners, not those who are followers of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul always opened up his letters and addressed believers as saints, though he knew they still sin as we all occasionally do. But to say that we who are saved are still “sinners” is to imply we couldn’t help but sin, the work of Christ on the cross is less than sufficient, and the power of the Holy Spirit is limited. Yes, we who are saved still sin, but we are not sinners. We are saints. If we are sinners before being saved and we are still called sinner AFTER we are saved, our new identity in Christ is moot.
The context of that sentence is the chapter “Can You Know You’re Going to Heaven?” The point is that none of us can accept Christ’s offer of salvation unless we first understand the problem—our desperate need to be rescued from the sin that separates us from God.
Once someone accepts Christ, I agree that our primary identity in Christ is that of saints, believers, and children of God. I wonder how often the key to questions like the one sent by this reader above is simple semantics. Someone might give a definition to sinner, which to that person means “I can’t help but sin,” while to me it means, “I sometimes do sin, and I need to remain humble about my need for a Savior.” As long as someone holds to that first definition of sinner, then I guess it would be wrong for them to call themselves or any Christian a sinner!
David Platt writes in Counter Culture:
[Jesus] has offered us a new identity–His identity. No longer separated from God, but now united with God. No longer stained by sin, but now clean from sin. No longer slaves, but now free. No longer guilty before God as Judge, but now loved by God as Father. No longer deserving eternal death, never to grasp all that God created us to be, but now having eternal life, experiencing more and more exactly who God has created us to be.
Several years ago, I did an article on the question of Sinless Perfectionism, and touched on the question of whether Christians should still refer to themselves as “sinners”:
In Romans 7, Paul is speaking as a believer he is, not the unbeliever he once was.
22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
He doesn’t say “what a wretched man I was,” but “am.”
Paul is recognizing that in the future he is going to be delivered from wrestling with the old sin nature. Yes, he is a new person in Christ. Absolutely. It’s not just a matter of two dogs who are in a fight within him, and one has equal powers with the other.
We should recognize and live in accordance with our redeemed identity in Christ. Yes, we are cleansed. Yes, we are new in Him. Yes, we are covered by the righteousness of Christ. We are His saints, His holy ones. But there are three tenses of salvation: we have been saved, we are being sanctified, and we will be glorified. Glorification still awaits us, when we enter the presence of God. When glorification happens, there will be complete sinlessness. But until that time, we are still sinners. Sanctification is very real, but it is not the same as glorification. Sanctification means having great progress and victory in our battles with sin. But it does not mean sinless perfectionism. That is reserved for glorification, which awaits us in Christ’s presence, but is not the state we are in now.
That’s why in 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul says, “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.” Paul frequently spoke in the past tense, but here he spoke in the present tense. He doesn’t say “I was the worst” but “I am the worst.” The more godly someone is, the more he is aware of his sin. Not that there was literally no one who sinned as much as Paul, who was a righteous man, but that simply every righteous man is more familiar with his own sins than those of anyone else.
Look at the very godly people in history that include John Calvin, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, and Amy Carmichael—all of these people were very aware of their sinfulness and referred to their sinfulness. William Carey, the father of modern missions talked about his wretchedness and his sin. John Newton talked about being a wretch in his sinful state. But even at the very end of his life, after knowing Christ many years, he said, “I don’t remember too many things. But I do remember this: that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” Not “I used to be a great sinner,” but that “I am a great sinner.”
Now, there is a danger in affirming our identity as sinners. Some people rationalize sin and end up saying, “It’s inevitable that I’m going to sin, so why bother trying not to?” God has given us the power of Christ so that we do not have to sin. We are empowered to live righteous lives. We can live righteously for some period of time, and sin is not inevitable.
The caution is worth repeating: if you are a believer, don’t fall into the mistake of thinking sin is inevitable, or that you are not fully responsible for your sins. Don’t say to yourself, “I’m just a sinner—it’s no big deal. We all sin all the time anyway. That’s normal, so I may as well sin this time too.” Don’t dare to commit sin reassuring yourself it doesn’t matter since Christ will forgive your sins anyway. Sin against God always matters. No sin is small that crucified Jesus.
Remind yourself you have died with Christ, you are raised with Christ, and you are a new person in Christ. Live a righteous life, calling upon His power. Never deny your capacity to sin. If you do, you deny the Word of God, and you set yourself up to make God a liar. The person who thinks he can’t sin won’t be careful to guard himself against sin.
Finally, see John Piper’s thoughts here.
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