The Sinful Nature: Why So Many Believers Continue to Struggle

I want to talk a little bit about Christians and the sinful nature because I don't think a lot of Christians, or Believers, really understand what it is. Yes, I've mentioned this before,but want to revisit it again. This so important.

We often look at the individual things we do—lying, gossiping, backstabbing, refusing to help someone, or other sinful acts—but we don't always look at the root cause behind those actions.

The sinful acts are the fruit. The sinful nature is the root.

Many Believers continue to fail because they never address the root. They allow certain sins to become habits. They become habitual liars, habitual gossipers, habitual backstabbers, and so forth. Sometimes we don't even recognize these things as sin, so we never address them.

We may even tell ourselves, "Well, I got saved, so Jesus took care of my sins. I'm covered. Once saved, always saved."

But that is not the answer.

"A little leaven leavens the whole lump." A little sin that we allow to remain unaddressed can affect the whole Believer. It doesn't matter whether it's lying, gossiping, backstabbing, or refusing to help a brother or sister in Christ when they're in trouble. Sin affects everything it touches.

And all of this goes back to the Fall of man.

When Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, the entire human race was affected. That is why we are born with what Scripture describes as a sinful nature—the capacity and ability to think, speak, and do things that are contrary to the will of God.

Nobody has to teach a child to lie. Nobody has to teach a child to be selfish. That nature is already there.

And even after we come to Christ, we still have to understand that the sinful nature exists.

When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we receive His divine nature. We become new creations in Christ Jesus. But becoming a new creation does not mean that we no longer have the capacity to sin.

What changes is that the divine nature becomes dominant in our lives, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God.

That is why our Faith matters so much.

Our Faith cannot be placed in our ability, our knowledge, how often we attend church, how well we pray, how much Scripture we read, or how good our pastor can preach.

Our Faith must be properly placed in Jesus and Him Crucified—the Cross of Christ.

When our Faith is in the wrong place, we cannot properly deal with the root cause of sin.

And this is one of the problems in the church today: the sinful nature is rarely taught, and even more importantly, the Cross of Christ is not being preached as the foundation of the Believer's life.

So how does the church respond to the sinful nature?

Sometimes through ignorance.

If you don't know about the sinful nature, you can't properly address it. You only see the outward acts of sin. You ask God to forgive what you did, but you never understand the root of the problem.

Sometimes the sinful nature is denied.

This is where the teaching of "once saved, always saved" can become dangerous when it is used as an excuse to continue in sin. Someone may think, "I'm saved, so it doesn't matter if I do this."

But Grace is not a license to sin.

And then there is another problem: using Paul's struggle in Romans 7 as an excuse.

Paul said that the things he wanted to do, he didn't do, and the things he didn't want to do, he found himself doing.

Some people take that and say, "Well, if Paul struggled, then it's okay for me to struggle. I'm just going to keep doing it."

No.

There is a tremendous difference between struggling with sin and crying out to God for help and accepting sin as a way of life.

A person who says, "This is just who I am. I'm saved, so it's okay," is not the same as the person who falls before God and says, "Lord, I don't want to do this anymore. I can't overcome this on my own. Please help me."

That person is acknowledging the problem.

They're not making excuses.

They're not using Grace as a license.

They're falling upon the mercy of God.

And there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

God knows that we are imperfect. He knows about the Fall. He knows that we have a sinful nature and that we have the capacity to do evil.

That's why we need His Grace.

"It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed in our sin."

When we fall, His Grace is there to catch us. When we acknowledge our sin, repent, and cry out to Him, He does not despise a broken and contrite heart.

But we must be careful not to confuse Grace with permission to continue in sin.

The answer to the sinful nature is not self-effort.

The answer is the Cross of Christ. It was at the Cross that the sin nature was defeated for us.

What Jesus accomplished at the Cross is God's provision for our Salvation, our Sanctification, and our Victory.

The Holy Spirit works in our lives, and He works through what Christ accomplished at the Cross. When our Faith is properly placed there, He can work in us where we are weak.

Think about that.

The Holy Spirit—God Himself—working in you with all of His POWER to help us where we are weak.

That's mind-blowing.

But if our Faith is placed in something else, whether we realize it or not, we have misplaced our Faith.

If it isn't Jesus and Him Crucified, then it's something else.

And if we're following something other than the truth of the Cross, we need to be very careful because we can end up following another Jesus, another gospel, and another spirit.

That's why we have to be careful about the ministry we sit under.

What is the foundation of that ministry?

Paul said, "We preach Christ Crucified."

The foundation of every ministry should be Jesus and Him Crucified.

Every message may have a different topic, but somewhere it should lead us back to the Source—Jesus and the means-the Cross of Christ. Jesus is EVERYTHING, and we get that EVERYTHING through the Cross. Remember, no man comes unto the Father but by Jesus, and how we get to Jesus is via our Faith in the Cross.

We also have to read the Word of God for ourselves.

Yes, listen to your pastor. Yes, listen to your teachers. But don't depend entirely upon someone else to tell you what God's Word says.

You need to search the Scriptures for yourself.

Because when you stand before God, you won't be able to say, "My pastor didn't tell me."

Your relationship with God is personal.

That's why I ask the Holy Spirit every day to correct me—quick, fast, and in a hurry.

Because I know how easy it is for me to get off track.

We still have that sinful nature. We are still capable of thinking evil, speaking evil, and doing evil.

That's why we need Jesus.

That's why we need the Cross.

That's why we have to keep looking to the Cross of Christ, because that's where our victory was won.

And we need to be very careful because Jesus asked a very serious question:

"Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

What kind of Faith will He find?

Is your Faith in your church?

Is your Faith in your pastor?

Is your Faith in your good works?

Is your Faith in how much you pray or how much Scripture you read?

Or is your Faith properly placed in Jesus and Him Crucified—His Finished Work-the Cross of Christ?

If you're expecting to be with Him when He comes, make sure your Faith is where the Word of God says it should be.

Don't assume.

Go and see what the Word says.

Examine it for yourself.

Make sure that the ministry you're sitting under has the Cross of Christ as its foundation.

And make sure that your Faith is where it belongs.

Because when Jesus comes back, will He find that Faith?

The Faith that looks exclusively to Jesus and Him Crucified—the Cross of Christ. This is Faith in God's Plan to redeem our lives.

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