The “Inside” Scoop on Sin and Grace

Why do believers struggle so much in dealing with S-I-N in our lives?  I thought if Jesus saved us, we shouldn’t have to worry about the S-word any more.  The G-word (grace) trumps it!  But if that’s true, why did the apostle Paul, that icon of the New Testament, still struggle so much in trying to explain all the back-and-forth that believers face when confronting sin in our own lives?  And if you read his treatise on sin as it relates to the believer in Romans 6, 7, and 8, you’ll come away feeling a bit like you just rode the teacups in the Magic Kingdom!

So let’s look at the end first, and then fill in the middle.  In Romans 8, we can read:

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”

“…Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”

“If God is for us, who can be against us?”         (verses 1,2,31)

Paul REALLY wants us to understand that if you have trusted that Jesus died to pay for your sin, then God is on your side now.  You are not condemned.  You are no longer in bondage to sin and death.  No one who tells you otherwise really matters.  You’re His.

But what about the struggle that you admit goes on inside you?  Paul felt it, too. 

“Why am I struggling with sin, I don’t understand.  I want to just do “good” things, but I’m not doing them.  And the things I find myself doing, I hate them!  So if I do the things I don’t want to do and I know they’re wrong, it’s not the “real me” doing them, but sin that dwells in me.”   (Romans 7:15-17 – my paraphrase)

Wait a minute!  I thought I was FREE from sin.  How can it still be dwelling in me?  Am I some schizophrenic spiritual freak now?  I don’t want that old sinful person in me anymore, I just want to be the “new me” in Jesus. 

Well, here’s the inside scoop on that dilemma.  You’re just going to have to wait.  It’s true that you’re not the “old” you anymore.  And it’s true that you’ve been changed into a new spiritual lifeform (2 Corinthians 5:17).  And it’s also true that your new, living spirit can commune with the very Spirit of the Living God if you will and do.  But your spirit that was brought back from the dead by the transforming power of Christ is still housed in that old body with its habits of sin and, when you allow it, that spirit that can keep you from sin still gives in to the thoughts, desires and emotions arising from that old sinful brain of yours.

So what does waiting have to do with anything?  Paul reminds us that after we’ve escaped from the kingdom of sin and death that we need to kill off those sinful bodily desires and reprogram our brains so we can live like we want to live (Romans 12:1-2).  That takes time.  He also helps us understand that someday – and none too soon for most of us – this shiny, new living spirit that Christ redeemed is going to be housed in a body meant for heaven.  One that fits perfectly and without the wrinkled, defective, nasty tendencies that this one has.  I can’t wait. 

Jacob