Now that I'm a Christian, why do I still sin ?

Sin is a reality, even for Christians. We still sin.

You might be a new convert who just gave your life to Jesus or you might have been a Christian for more than 50 years and yet you still sin. Perhaps you have stopped telling lies, but in some other areas of life, like say anger and lust; you still struggle.

Unfortunately, the battle against sin is a lifelong battle, a battle we will not see the end in this life. The scriptures tell us that if we say we are without sin, then we are making God a liar 1 John 1:10. Thus, sin is always going to be a reality even for the most mature believer.

For born-again Christians however, we do not sin as before. Before our new birth - our coming into God's family- we sinned because we wanted to; we sinned because we didn't fear God; we sinned because we were slaves to sin and we loved our sins; we sinned because we were by nature sinners.

Now as Christians, we have been given a new nature 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Bible says we are sons and daughters of God 1 John 3:1 and we shouldn't sin anymore, but sadly, we still do.
Why do we still sin? if we are new creatures, why does sin still seem to have a grip on us?

Thanks be to God, for He knows us and knows our struggle with sin and so He dedicated an entire chapter of Scripture to discuss this. In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit answers this question. To understand it, let us go step by step.

Firstly, Justification - Only God does this.

When we repented of all our sins before God, according to His word in 1 John 1:9, He forgave us, not just that, He gladly welcomed us into His family ( He adopted us as His children ). He gave us His Holy Spirit and equipped us to live Holy and godly lives like the Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 1:3. The moment we repented of our sins and were granted forgiveness by God, we were Justified, this means that God declared us totally righteous before Him (a bit like someone declared innocent before a judge in court). He forgave us every sin we had ever committed and will ever commit. The righteousness here spoken of is Christ's Righteousness, not our own. It is Christ's active and passive obedience while He lived on earth and later died on the cross. This righteousness of His is accounted to us by God and we receive it by Faith says the Apostle Paul - Romans 1:17. Because of this righteousness, we believe that God has forgiven all our sins, we believe that we are righteous before Him, we believe that He loves us and will never love us more or less than He currently does, we believe this because Jesus' righteousness is perfect and we are clothed by it and The Father loves His Son and consequently us because we are in Him.

We are sealed by His mark and are His forever. For a genuine Christian, the Bible says neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord Romans 8:38–39.

However, all this doesn't mean we can carelessly indulge ourselves in sin or take sin for granted, NO, far from that. God cares about our holiness and wants us to be Holy 1 Peter 1:16.

As I aforementioned: we do not sin as before.
How do we sin then? Well, when Christians sin, we hate it. We mourn over it, we are grieved that we disobeyed our Lord, the one who gave His own life for us. But the question remains;

If we hate our sin that much, why do we keep sinning in the first place?

In Romans 7, the Apostle Paul refers to this as the indwelling sin, the remains of the flesh. The flesh which still remains in us. This flesh due to which we:

do the very thing which I do not want to do and that which I want to do I do not do Romans 7:15

and also:

the spirit craves what is contrary to the flesh and the flesh craves what is contrary to the spirit so that we do not do what we want" Galatians 5:17.

In other words, we have the desire to do good and please our Lord and to some extent, we can see some things which weren't there before our conversion, things like; we love the Bible more and we want to study it, we love God more and more, we love Jesus more and more, we love the church (the people of God). These are results of the Spirit working in us, for the scripture says:

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor 2: 14

Secondly, Sanctification - God helps us to become Holy like Jesus.

God declares us righteous and Holy, but we still seem to be drawn towards the sinful things we once loved; lust, pride, anger, jealousy etc... and sometimes we fall into these sins, and yet we do not dive into them( i.e we do not plan on sinning); we do not make it a continual practice to sin unrepentantly. When a Christian sins, the Holy Spirit convicts us and calls us to repent, but let's be aware, for in these times, another voice can be heard. For, "now", he thinks, he has solid grounds, something he can bring before God to accuse us. He reminds us that we are sinners and wants us to believe that God doesn't want us anymore. He wants us to despair and run away from God, he wants us to give up totally. But it's in these times that we should be reminded of the Gospel, we should be reminded of the great promise of Romans 8:38–39. Rather than giving in to the deceitful words of the devil, we should acknowledge our sins and repent and the Father, who is Just and faithful and Kind, will forgive us as He promised 1 John 1:9. And we on the other hand, we should strive to be holy, we should press on like Paul who says:

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me" Philippians 3:12.

and

"But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:27

And yet we do all these in the power of the Holy Spirit, not trusting in our abilities, but recognising that we are unable to do this by just our efforts.

Like what, we are saved by grace alone, but this grace that saves us is never alone. The Holy Spirit who now dwells in us strengthens us in our battle against sin and sanctifies us daily. Our works are the result of this progressive sanctification whose goal is to make us conform to the image of Christ, holy as He is and we have the promise that as He has "started a good work in us, He will perfect it until the day of His Son" Philippians 1:6.

The battle against sin is real and unfortunately a life long-battle. Nevertheless, we can remain assured, that as God has started a good work in us, He will perfect it. We can and should trust in that promise. When we fall into sin, we can be tempted to despair, but we should be reminded that nothing can separate us from the Love of God. We should remember that if God gave His Son to die a horrible death for us while we were still sinners - His enemies - how much more now that we are His children? We should be reminded that the Holy Spirit by His power and through our studying of His word, and the means of grace He has given - baptism and the Lord's supper - actively works in us to sanctify us, to make us more and more like Jesus Christ John 17:17.

We are being renewed daily 2 Corinthians 3:18 and someday we will stand in glory. When we would have received glorified bodies and would have been freed from this body of sin. That day we will see Him face to face, and we will worship and enjoy Him forever - that which we were meant for. So be encouraged dear brother/sister in the Lord, and cheer up! Be reminded of the Gospel, study and meditate on the Bible, take your sword and war against sin and know this: you are not alone in this battle, but whatever happens, look unto Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.