Do you believe New Covenant believers have a sinful nature?
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Romans 3:21-25
21But now the righteousness of God (1)apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22even the righteousness of God, (2)through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on (3)all who believe. For there is no difference; 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 (4)being justified (5)freely by His Grace (6) through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25whom God set forth(7) [as] a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
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This whole issue really is a great issue for Christians to discuss! I will say that this is definitely not a light issue, and the more I study it the more I come to a point of being increasingly more restful when it comes to accepting various points of view.
Well, let me back up a minute. Your actual question is, "Do you believe New Covenant believers have a sinful nature?" In regards to that exact question, I will wholeheartedly say "No! :) I do not believe that Christians have a sinful nature. I believe that our spirit, which is the actual essence who we are, was "in Adam" with a nature of sin that was inherited from Adam. But that nature died, and our spirit was born again, made into a new creation in the likeness of Jesus, and we received an brand new nature. We inherited God's righteousness as our very nature. I really do think scripture is quite clear about that.
For me personally, a connected but slightly different doctrine - the doctrine of indwelling sin - is debatable, and I'll explain why I see it that way. If there is such a thing as "indwelling sin," which is the position I have leaned towards for many years now, the indwelling sin is not a "nature" of sin, and it's not in our spirits, but rather in our body. "Our members which are on the earth."
I read Ryan Rufus' pdf book a while back, and to me there is a LOT of great, solid stuff in there, but also a lot of stuff that I find myself disagreeing with. BUT... I will not disqualify what he says either.
It would take way too long to get too deeply into it (perhaps it would take a book!), but the reasons why I can see it both ways are because of the myriad of words and phrases that Paul uses in various places throughout his epistles, that are really not as clear (at least to me) as they might seem when taken at face value.
Various translations of the Bible (KJV, RSV, NIV, ASV, etc) translate Greek words and phrases of Paul in more than one way in English. This can end up being confusing! Some of the English words that I'm referring to include the following:
sin
sin nature
sinful nature
body
flesh
members
law of sin
body of sin
law of death
body of death
inward man
old man
new man
sin that dwells in me
in the flesh
after the flesh
according to the flesh
Not only can each of these words and phrases be taken to mean more than one thing in the original Greek, but the meaning in English isn't always too clear either. And when any of the words or phrases are put together to form a certain doctrine, that particular doctrine isn't necessarily standing on solid ground.
On top of that, words such as "sin" are sometimes the 'verb' version, ("hamartano"), but are more often the 'noun' version ("hamartia"). In English it just says "sin." The meaning (whether it's a verb or noun) is very important... but it's easy to lose the meaning in translation.
Another interesting thing has to do with the phrase "sinful nature." Paul never actually used that phrase! The Greek word "sarx" literally means "flesh," and most of the time translators have used the proper English word. However, while the NIV translators translated the word "sarx" as "flesh" most times, for some odd reason they incorrectly translated the very same Greek word as "sinful nature" 23 times!
Well I could go on and on about all this, but I say all of this to say that I don't know if I'll ever be fully convinced of any particular view of all of this. :)
But I do think that in the Christian community we focus FAR too much on sin and FAR too little on the righteous beings that we are! We will never overcome the "deeds of the flesh" by focusing on this thing called "sin." Our victory is not found in trying to defeat or overcome "the flesh." Our victory is the Person, Jesus! He became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him!
NO. Which is not saying that Christians never sin (for those who do believe in indwelling sin for the believer and point to Christians sinning as proof).
But I used too! Anyone who in interested can find my testimony and beliefs on this topic on my blog.
Let me give my opinion. I think we are saints (that is what the Bible calls us) that are tempted and sometimes fall to that temptation.
As the Holy Spirit re-news our minds, falling into temptation is something that we do less. Not buy our strength, but by the power of the Spirit of God.
I have also just read Jul's article that she mentioned here. I was deeply moved by her honesty and vulnerability. I wonder how many of our brothers and sister have felt like that? I also wonder how our Father feels about His sons and daughters feeling like that?
Amen and Amen! We are saints of God, holy, blameless, spotless. We are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. We have eternal life as a present reality. We are not sinners and we do not have a sin nature.
Perhaps we disagree as to why we sin and/or what causes us to sin, but I think the main thing that will free people up from the bondage that Julie shared and the bondage that I know I lived in for quite some time, is to understand who we are in Christ as holy, spotless, redeemed, sanctified, spiritual saints of God, having become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus!
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