Tuesday, September 09, 2008
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As Christians Why Do We Keep Sinning?
by mr pine
Romans 6:15 says... "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! (Paul likes to answer his own questions)
And later in verse 18 he writes, "You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness."
If we are free from sin as Christians, why do we keep sinning? Before we were Christians, we couldn't do anything but sin. But now as Christians, we have a choice. Most of the time we choose sin... all the more disturbing is that most of the time we don't even care. It doesn't phase us one bit.
If we are slaves to righteousness then what's the deal with acting like we're still slaves to sin? Well, I think there are two reasons...
The first, we forget who (and whose) we are. As being people of the flesh, that's all we knew before - and I'm not even talking since we were born - I mean since Adam's first sin. Someone once said that it's like what happened with the slaves immediately following the Civil War. By the law of the land, they were free - free to do whatever they pleased (I know, I know, no voting rights and etc... but you know what I mean). But what happened? Many of them went right back to their old masters and worked as indentured servants basically in the same conditions they saw before the war- because that's ALL they knew. They didn't know what to do with this newfound freedom.
Another analogy (that I'm stealing from a sermon I heard somewhere). When circuses get elephants, they bind their leg to the strongest tree with the strongest chain. The elephant keeps trying to escape, even to the point of getting their legs bloodied, but they can not. Eventually they give up even trying. Well, really thick chains are expensive, so gradually, the elephant trainer, replaces the chains with weaker ones because in the animal's mind, it still thinks it's impossible to escape. Eventually, all they need is a peg in the ground with some rope to hold the elephant in place, because they stop even after the slightest resistance. We are like that elephant, for so long we were chained to the tree of sin and could not escape. After becoming Christians, Christ actually REMOVES the tie that binds us to that tree, but we still think, we can't move. So we don't even try.I said that there were two reasons... The second is much more tragic in that we are fooling ourselves. We think we are Christians, but we really never were. We really are still complete and utter slaves to sin. We never got the emancipation proclamation. They never removed the thick chain. But the good news is that Christ's offer is always still on the table. Those who looked at it and said, "give me 24 hours to think on it" and just forgot and just kept attending church like they always have and went to Christian events and even did Christian-like things... the offer is still good. You're not going to get a better deal anywhere else in town...
Why do you think more often than not we choose sin? What does it mean to be a slave to righteousness?
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Comments (90)
I think one major reason we keep sinning is that we are largely motivated by pain. We don't realize it, but a lot of our actions, both "good" and "bad" are motivated by fear, anger, hurt, anxiety, and other unresolved emotions that keep getting triggered by life situations. Those emotions are results of lies Satan told us during negative situations. Our brains kept believing the lies, and we don't even usually realize it. When our emotions are triggered later, we go into pain management mode, and that tempts us to do things to excess. We always have a choice, but when we are riled up emotionally, it is harder to resist committing sins that our brains know will control our pain.
We will keep struggling until we are willing to get to the root of our emotions and let God bring His truth into our lies and heal our pain. That is why I believe in theophostic prayer or other things that address emotional pain from the standpoint of letting God's truth comfort and heal us and bring truth to lies we believe from childhood trauma and other trauma. If we don't address our emotional pain, we will keep struggling. Of course, we will always be tempted to sin, but freedom from pain takes away much of our internal motivation to sin because we no longer have controlling pain that we're trying to suppress or comfort in ourselves.
Good post, by the way
Go just a little farther in Romans and read 7:14-25.
7:22-24: "For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?"
For the most part, we sin because we are still sinful. We may now have the Holy Spirit, Christ's justification, and are sanctified, but we are slaves to both God and our flesh. Being "slaves" to God is a good thing, but being slaves to our sinful nature is what keeps us sinning. Now, specifically, there are many reasons beyond being sinful as to why we keep sinning.
One reason that we all share is that none of us have a very accurate view of God; I like the phrase "Is your god really God? because he is not if he can fit inside your head". You can find things similar to that throughout Psalms and Romans 11. The point is, we don't fully understand God's character; it is impossible. We are feeble creatures who have a skewed sense of His greatness and His glory. If only we could truly realize who He is! If only we could realize the eternal value of the salvation He has given to his people! For if we could, we would glorify him with every bit of life we have; sin wouldn't even be existent in us.
Can you imagine what it will be like to be made perfect in Heaven?!
"The elephant keeps trying to escape, even to the point of getting their legs bloodied, but they can not. Eventually they give up even trying."---This quote is like the power of most religions over their followers. Often power and fear keep many people from questioning or rebeling. They just give up the fight and accept the doctrine of the written word. Notice, I'm getting better at using qualifiers like "often and most" because nobody likes a stereotype and I realize that a minority of the religious are not dictators of the doctrine.
Perhaps Christians sin because they acknowledge its existance. If someone like myself does not believe in hell and the devil and "sin" then I am free to make better choices. Extremes are for the weather. Rather than considering the ultimatums of sin vs good maybe Christians should consider everything.
Between "yes sir" and "certainly not!" How much difference is there?
What about victims of psychological, emotional, verbal, physical and sexual abuse? Those who are distressed and afflicted; who's lives are crippled and corrupted before they even have a chance to grow up? What about those who are deceived and brought into bondage before they are old enough to tie their shoes?
Yes there are many success stories. But that doesn't mean all are, nor that everyone's experiences are the same, or are equally as damaging.
What about men with high sex drives who are rejected by society, as well as undermined by shallow, selfish, feminist women? What about those who really need love and intimacy but never find it?
What about those who are not raised in Church, and who are deceived growing up and who are taught a secular understanding of life?
I'm so sick of so many Christians and in proxy God (Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:18 & 19) superficially judging people in an effort to defend themselves and God; writing people off, and trying to blame them for being the way He (and they) purposefully made them to be in their alledged 'ignorance,' fear and envy.
Perhaps those are just the ones God didn't really want, or didn't choose, huh? But maybe they will get away with it. After all, with God on your side, who can be against you?
@SandraDeeDees@xanga - Many church denominations unappologetically utilize a fear-based approach to a relationship with God, despite the fact that it is unbiblical based on what Christ taught and the body of Scripture in the New Testament.
It shouldn't be that surprising then to find that for so many of these, their spirituality is shallow, their love is cold and they frequently do not overcome sin; because they do not have much of the power of God. This is because they do not have much of the Spirit of God, which is because they do not know who's Spirit they are of (if indeed they know God.)
These are the type of 'believers' who like the 'Sons of Thunder' Jesus rebuked, heavily preach the Old Testament Scriptures, who are critical and quick-tempered, quick to judge others and to look for sin in them, and who judge others superficially and in anger.
@Pickwick12@xanga - I agree with your points; but I think I can say it more simply: it's a lack of faith in the times of testing that bring us to disobedient choices. We can describe them as incidents of pain of varying degrees...but it is always our faith that brings us to points of courage - or the lack will bring us to cowardice. Some would say it is a selfishness..but even that is a failure of faith. For if we know we can trust God for enough good things in our lives, why would we even need to be selfish?
@metal_core1@xanga - "We are feeble creatures who have a skewed sense of His greatness and His glory. If only we could truly realize who He is! If only we could realize the eternal value of the salvation He has given to his people! For if we could, we would glorify him with every bit of life we have; sin wouldn't even be existent in us." Right you are...and this is what bolsters our faith!
@Koolou@xanga - this sounds very much as if you have been injured yourself. I will pray that you let God have all the pieces of your broken heart...
@IMChurchmouse@xanga - "this sounds very much as if you have been injured yourself. I will pray that you let God have all the pieces of your broken heart..."
I already did that. And I keep endeavoring to do so despite everything that is happening. -But thanks for the opinion.
@IMChurchmouse@xanga - I don't think I quite agree, actually. I believe it has to do with specific lies Satan imprinted on us, usually as children when we could not have been expected to have defenses up. I believe lack of faith is an issue, but I believe that lack of faith flows from the pain we experience as a result of the lies we believe. It's not just what happens in a situation now; we are influenced by the pain we carry from lies we've been told in the past that we still believe, often without knowing it.
I know from experience that when we have those lies healed by God's truth, we don't feel the need to respond sinfully as much.
Is it lack of faith? Maybe, but I would call it lack of truth. And I believe it's a deep heart issue. We can't just determine to have faith and grit our teeth; that may help our outward performance, but it won't change our heart. We have to have God's truth applied to our lies, which changes our emotions and our motivations for our actions.
I believe this is at least a big part of the sin issue. There can be others.
@Koolou@xanga - All of those people can find healing, and God wants to give it to them. They are responsible for their actions now, not the original things that were done to them.
God isn't waiting to punish them; He desperately wants to free them from destructive patterns if they will let Him.
He understands the pain that motivates much of people's sins. He doesn't approve of the sin, but He understands why they're doing it. He desires to free them by healing their hurts and filling the holes inside them with His love.
God hates sin, not only because it's against Him, but also because it hurts His children. He wants to free them for their own happiness and peace as well as His own glory. When we experience healing, He's as delighted as we are (probably much more!).
@IMChurchmouse@xanga - Thinking back over what you said, I realized I do agree with you. I just think getting there is a little bit more complicated. I think it's a supernatural revelation of truth that we can't just get to because we decide it in our heads; I believe our negative experiences have to be replaced with God's experiential truth supernaturally. As Ed Smith says, you can replace data with data, but experience has to be replaced with experience, and our negative choices are often being motivated by painful emotions that result from lies that are attached to experiences. So we need God's truth experientially to recover from them.
@Pickwick12@xanga - Well He certainly hasn't seemed to be trying to free, heal and help me too badly. Nor has his people. Quite the opositte actually.
And now that I am rejected by the Church and God, I finally really do feel like a sinner. Well done.
And as for being responsible for our actions now, I am thoroughly a mess and doubtful of God now. I mean, if God chose not to help me when I was a new believer in Christ, believing anything was possible, filled with His Spirit, love and faith, why would He now try to fix the damage He has caused by not doing so, and which was caused by allowing it in the first place?
And what about all those who helped cause this in me KNOWINGLY and deliberately for their selfish purposes? I am talking about Christians, the Church, the Collective, and especially women and their feminist agenda which has destroyed me and so many men and caused us to become sinful and perverted simply because they wanted and demanded power.
@Pickwick12@xanga - I don't know that I disagree with your point on the way sin is imprinted, since I've never heard it before, and it seems plausible.
As far as suffering a lack of faith being more complicated - I agree! That's why we don't always see immediately (not even years later perhaps), how it was that our faith failed. I just really try to keep my comments as brief as I can, to allow the reader to extrapolate themselves - or to ask me if they need more. I like reading other folk's comments more than my own, quite often ;)
@Koolou@xanga - I'm sorry people have hurt you, and I'm also sorry it feels like God has abandoned you. Could it be that your feelings about people are affecting your view of God? He isn't the same as imperfect humans (as hard as that is for me to get).
As hard as it is, I have learned that my feelings don't necessarily reflect truth. They reflect what I believe, but not necessarily reality.
God loves you every moment, no matter your feelings. I realize that telling you that won't make you believe it; I've been there myself. But I realized that God was my only option, or else I would be hopeless. He showed Himself to me when I accepted Him on His terms.
Are you willing to have faith that He loves you, even when you don't feel it?
We're human. We make mistakes. From Adam's transgression on, man has been fallible. That was the main purpose for the Savior's atoning sacrifice. Now because of it we will be held accountable for the things that we say, think, and do. However, there is hope. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple and it boils down to two concepts (respectively). "Can I repent" and "Can I forgive?" When we have Faith in the Savior we will do what it takes to be forgiven of our sins and transgressions (there is a difference), and to follow His example. Does that mean we become "puppets" and we stop sinning after we know we've been forgiven of the things we've done before? No. Just because we've been forgiven of past mistakes, does not guarantee future forgiveness. It's a continuing cycle. We have to continually repent and come closer to God instead of just saying "I'm good from now on". Therein lies danger and we start believing a lie.
@IMChurchmouse@xanga - :) I do tend to comment long, don't I? I track with what you're saying. It has to be a lack of faith in one sense, because God will supply all of our needs, and we look to something else instead. I like your point. I believe that our lack of faith is rooted in specific lies: a real example in my life is that I know in my mind that God will always keep me safe, but the lie from my experience is that He won't keep me safe because of childhood trauma. I couldn't fight the experiential lie with head knowledge. I tried for years, and it just kept coming up, no matter how much truth I knew and believed. I finally invited God to reveal His truth while I was feeling the memory and painful emotions associated with that lie, acknowledged the specific lie, and then He literally changed my experience. I can't explain it fully, but it was powerful, and it was about heart experience, not head belief. It's not something I have to maintain; the lie is just gone. I don't have those painful feelings about that any more. I know God was with me.
@IMChurchmouse@xanga - It wasn't my faith that failed. It was my Faith that failed me.
@Pickwick12@xanga - It almost makes it sound like we are born sinners. That's not so. How can we sin when we have no idea what the law is? God is far more just than that.
@Pickwick12@xanga - We know God, and know of God based on our experience and His Word, and rightly so.
Based on my experience, God's love for an individual is not quite as strong as we think it is. He is indeed an angry, 'Hard man,' Matthew:25:24. Nor is His protection, faithfulness, or justice in this life. Life is not nearly as clear-cut, simple or just as most believe it to be.
@J_Goldens_Shadow@xanga - I believe we're born sinners, but that we are not held accountable by God until we are old enough to understand.
Psalm 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
@Koolou@xanga - His Word tells us that He loves us utterly and completely and that He desires to bind up our broken hearts and that He is close to the brokenhearted.
Those things are true for you, no matter how you feel. I will provide references if you'd like.
God's Word is true, no matter our experiences. God's dealings with us cannot contradict it, even though people often do.
@J_Goldens_Shadow@xanga - "Just because we've been forgiven of past mistakes, does not guarantee future forgiveness. It's a continuing cycle. We have to continually repent and come closer to God instead of just saying "I'm good from now on". Therein lies danger and we start believing a lie."
Indeed. And this is not the Gospel I was preached when I was saved. Nor apparently was it what most American Christians have believed, or currently believe.
@J_Goldens_Shadow@xanga - "It almost makes it sound like we are born sinners. That's not so. How can we sin when we have no idea what the law is? God is far more just than that."
And yet, we are all born in sin, and are affected by it, and reap the repercussions of it whether we know the law or not. And the Bible doesn't say we do not know the Law at all in any form, whether we've heard it or not. It says that we have the basic understanding of the most important requirements of the Law via our conscience unless we are deceived or are sabotaged unduly.
@Pickwick12@xanga - "I believe we're born sinners, but that we are not held accountable by God until we are old enough to understand."
I agree. Though I'm not sure that some are not protected from sin and deception far more than others, nor that some are allowed to go right from being essentially perfect in God's sight to being saved; while others are not.
@Pickwick12@xanga - I appreciate your attempt at encouragement, however those verses are general statements about God's relationship with His people (plural), not directed specifically at any one person, or given as a promise to everyone.