Why does a Christian sin?

Thank you for this good writing Tuc.

What you have written I learned from Joseph Prince. And the more I read my Bible the more it becomes my own and I see it.

I try not to try which is still trying. Then Spirit brings to mind Faith in the finished work. I died. I am the righteousness of God in Christ.

A desire for holiness is far different from a trying to keep holiness.

Trying shows your continuing unholy ugly parts.
Desire activates faith for God to finish the work once begun.

Trying to be holy bad
Desiring to be holy good.

Maybe Im off here and what you wrote.

100% of the time a Christian sins because they want to do so. Not that in their heart of hearts they would rather not sin, but for whatever reason they choose to sin over not sinning. My point is that there is not accidental sinning.

Your post explains why there is a battle. But bottom line we do have the power to choose not to sin. The question is whether we are willing to walk in the Spirit or step off that path.

James left us a very simple answer for why someone sins. ...."they are drawn away of their own lusts and when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin."

If we will simply abide in Christ, we will be kept safe and the evil one will not touch us. So Paul writes "walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

We will suffer being tempted, just like Jesus, but He was perfected through the things He suffered and once made perfect became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him.

Those who obey Him abide in His love, just as He obeyed the Father and abode in the Father's love.

This is the obedience of faith, the faith that is the victory that overcomes the world.

No one abiding in Him sins. In other words, abiding in Him never results in sin. Sin happens by being drawn away and fulfilling our own lusts.

Mak

Do Nothing Christianity is absolute lie of a Devil. Jesus clearly said in Matthew 11:28:-

Come to Me, all [z]who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is [aa]easy and My burden is light.

There is a yoke that every Christian should take. No one will put a yoke on top of another and ask him to do nothing.

The people who preach such do nothing Christianity also believe that Sermon on the mount and all teachings of Jesus as Old Covenant, not applicable for us. Such a big lie.

The proof should be in life, I am sure people who preach such do nothing Christianity will themselves live in open sin. They will have ugly married life, cannot have fellowship with anyone and hence not part of a Church at all.

Apostle Paul struggled with his flesh in Romans 7 because he did not have power of the Holy Spirit. He was given the power in Romans 8 life. That is why Romans 8 is life lead by Spirit.

Only person who is dead is the Old Man who lived how ever he wanted. The new man is born of God's word. He wants to please God by keeping every word of God. But the new man will be weak without the power of God. The habits of Old Man can easily over power the New Man if he is devoid of Power of God. That is why we need God's Holy Spirit to face everyday.

Everyday we have to abide in the death of Christ, take up our cross. Otherwise we can fall into sin anytime.

As Brother Alan Martin pointed out from James 1-16:-

But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by HIS OWN LUST. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

There is no deception here. The Scripture is very clear here. It is our own Lust that tempts us. Let God alone be true and every man a liar.

We all have a flesh that we inherited from Adam. This flesh does not die at all. As long as we live on this earth we will be tempted by this Flesh. When we are born again, we receive a new Man who still lives inside the old Flesh. Flesh does not change. It will always like things that are against God's word. We have to resist the flesh and put to death on the Cross each and everyday.

It is spiritual immaturity to put all our sins on Satan. Satan is not responsible for all our temptations. He can create an environment to tempt us, but he has no authority inside us to put anything inside us.

Dear Tuc,

Here is an opportunity to test your own words with the specific grammar of the text we believe is inspired.

Please look again at the Greek grammar used for "his own lusts" and you will see that James chose this very specific wording.

The question then is why have your own thoughts led you to an expression that is not supported by the New Testament. I appreciate your earnest desire to lead believers to experience Union Life in Christ.

However, I hope that you will see that by making statements like the one you have set forth, you have not worked out all the intricacies of your belief in a way that fully harmonizes with the writers of the New Testament.

By the way, neither have I, so I can appreciate those parts of what you share that are sound. Please be careful about statements like this that are not fully developed.

Mak

By the way, neither have I, so I can appreciate those parts of what you share that are sound. Please be careful about statements like this that are not fully developed.

Brother Alan Martin, what do you believe deception is? Or lie of Satan is? Do you think it will be completely against scripture or will it have some lie silently mixed with sound truth?

When we believe there is a small drop of poison in a very taste dish, we are not going to eat it. Same is a doctrine that has a small lie mixed with Sound scripture. Ignore it completely as a lie of Devil, instead of pick and choose using Scripture as light.

Many thing that Tuc writes here have some sound truth but in them are lies mixed that are clearly against scripture. There will be some addition to God's promises, which to an untrained mind will appear awesome. But the scripture says that any addition to God's word deserves to be cursed.

Dear Sree,

I understand your concern, but "error" can accomplish through sincere brothers as much as "lies" can do through insincere.

I share your concerns about errors that involve expressions that undermine believers' responsibility to consciously obey and abide. However, I count TUC a brother and seek to build upon what we agree on while we discuss the areas we understand differently.

Mak

I have always felt something "off" about what brother tuc is proclaiming. Perhaps not a red flag- but perhaps an orange one.

It's very hard to exactly state what the problem is. Sree has hit on at least part of it it.

It seems very pipe-dreamy to me. There are too many "dos and donts" in the NT to be ignored.

The bible writers clearly seem the idea that we have the power to obey or not obey. No one said it was easy- that's why there is much talk of suffering and cross bearing.

RE: ///Here is an opportunity to test your own words with the specific grammar of the text we believe is inspired.
Please look again at the Greek grammar used for "his own lusts" and you will see that James chose this very specific wording.///

I am not convinced that the James verse quoted negates Tucs logic.

RE: ".. we will suffer being tempted, just like Jesus.."

How was Jesus tempted ?

edit : remove quote to ask a question

When I first came into contact with the teaching that tuc has been sharing, I also was wary of it and thought it was too passive. It is the default setting of all humans to put the emphasis on "doing, action”. In fact, most people have a hard time believing in God’s free grace apart from our earning it. They feel much more comfortable in doing something good to point at for God to have a reason to be good to us. And even good Christians who do believe in the unconditional love of God that provides salvation often believe that it is their good works that causes God to continue to enjoy them.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to promote greasy grace that says it doesn’t matter how you live before God. But God is more interested in your motive for doing what you do than the doing itself. The Pharisees did some good works that seemed very commendable by the entire religious community. But they were trying to obtain "self-righteousness” almost as a way to keep God at bay and make themselves irreproachable which naturally led to pride and judgementalism of others who couldn’t measure up. The law of Moses was intended to cause Israel to despair of their sin and throw themselves at God’s mercy with extreme humility. The Pharisees, because they looked at the law as external acts apart from heart values and inner motives went in the exact opposite direction. Jesus’ harshest criticism was directed at the Pharisees and Scribes because of their lack of humility mostly.

What helped me see the truth of what I call the "inner life” or "surrendered life” is found in the difference between willfulness and willingness. The young Christian who has a besetting sin that is defeating him day-in and day-out vows to try harder and make a more dedicated resolution to not fail next time. This is willfulness that is not centered on the spirit but is the "arm of the flesh”, religious flesh to be sure but still "flesh”. This is precisely what you read about in Romans 7. Only after repeated failures even when trying with the utmost determination can God break such a soul of such willfulness. Think about it, if you could live a life totally pleasing to God just by sheer human willpower, you wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit.

But God gives grace to the humble soul who after painful failures turns to God with in meekness with a hungry heart for a righteousness that originates from one’s inner man. This is where godly willingness comes in. And the willingness I am talking about also carries with it a hunger, thirst and enthusiasm that the God who indwells me is able to transform me starting from the inside and working itself out into demonstrable works. And don’t misunderstand me here, I am not saying to wait for a "feeling” to overwhelm you. But it is critical to bow you head and in humility say to God, "I cannot live the Christian life but God, I am looking to you in faith to work through me your imparted righteousness as I willingly surrender myself to you.” And then when a testing, trial or temptation comes you way, say to God, "Lord, you are my patience, Lord, you are my purity, etc. In other words, "Lord you indwell me to be that holy resource within that will meet the challenge.” And if you are sincerely willing to allow God to work and you truly believe, you will see results. Major Ian Thomas and others have written extensively on depending on the Christ life within.

We as Christians do have a responsibility to be on the lookout for the stirrings of the flesh and reckon ourselves dead to it. And it is critical to see yourself in Christ as a saint (in the process of still having the mind renewed) instead of a wretched sinner by nature (even though it is true we still do sin). Putting on the new man and putting off the old man is very much our responsibility. Notice in Galatians Paul says, "Walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” I think too many Christians put the heavy emphasis on suppressing the flesh by means of fleshly effort and never get anywhere with that. I have found that when I see my identity as a new creature (in my spirit man, the real me) which is holy and wants to please God, the struggle with the flesh is less problematic. A person will only consistently behave in a manner that corresponds to how he sees himself to be. It is not impossible to act out of character to the way you see yourself but it is the exception and not the rule.

There is a divine balance in just how much of the Christian walk is God’s part and how much of it is our part. God is a work in you both to will and to do His good pleasure. We need to cultivate an inner life with the indwelling Lord so that we remain humble, knowing that apart from Him we can do nothing (good). Also, we need to be hungry and thirsty for righteousness that originates from within from the Spirit for He satisfies and fills the hungry and thirsty with good things. And surely we need to believe in the power of the indwelling Christ to come to our aid as we look to Him for the power to live the Christian life knowing that we can’t (and are never expected to) do it all by ourselves. The Christian life is not a self-improvement program.

So I totally get how some of you who read these teachings about the "inner life”, "exchanged life”, etc. are thinking it is so passive because the primary focus is not on works per se but on the Christ life within that must be made room for and allowed to be expressed. It is not difficult but it is very nuanced. Almost all of Christ’s spiritual teaching was done with parables because it cannot be spoken about directly because the mind cannot comprehend the spirit directly. It is far easier to try to explain the Christian life as all about do’s and don’ts and willfulness because anything else seems like "do nothing-ism.” But if you don’t first focus on the origin of the what and the why you do what you do, you are pursuing self-righteousness and will probably get many pats on the back by your church brethren because it looks so good on the outside. Focus on getting the inside of the cup right and the outside (works) will take care of itself.

Amen TrueWitness! If you were to write a book I would buy it and read it.

Bear I agree with you. What I disagree with is the idea that we are powerless to avoid sinning. I see two sources of power to live a holy life- primarily the power of the HS in us, and MY power to choose to obey or quench the Holy Spirit.

I don't think we can simply lay back and float down the lazy river of grace. Sometimes we have to paddle a bit to avoid rocks and waterfalls.