Do We Still Have A Sin Nature

[Waggles]

53 minutes ago, Peterlag said:

You need to get born again so as to be filled with the spirit of Christ to be able to be happy in heaven.

Someone needs to inform Calvin  

[OneLight]

1 hour ago, Peterlag said:

You need to get born again so as to be filled with the spirit of Christ to be able to be happy in heaven.

You won't even make it to heaven if you don't have His Spirit, but you know that already, yes?

[Guest clancy]

4 hours ago, OneLight said:

You won't even make it to heaven if you don't have His Spirit, but you know that already, yes?

Amen!!!

[Wesley L]

Romans 7:15-24
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

Paul is certainly not saying he is without sin. Nor is he trying to move away from his own responsibility of his current sins. Here Paul is emphasizing the fact of his changed heart, how he hates sin and long for righteous living.
The mark of a born again  believer is NOT lying to himself telling himself he does not sin anymore. This is a false teaching, because experience tells us otherwise. You have to twist your own reality to make yourself belief this lie. That is not what a born again believer should do. This is what an unbeliever does, denying the truth to make himself feel righteous. That is why you try to avoid the question when asked whether you actually never sin in your current life. That is the conviction of your conscience and I truly hope also the conviction of the Holy Spirit within you.

Let's assume you are without sin. Then it still wouldn't be applicable to believers who are not without sin. That would be putting a yoke on their necks about their salvation. Because salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Abraham was seen as righteous by God because of faith and yet Abraham sinned.

The mark of a believer is a convicted heart towards sin and a longing for living righteous.

1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

1 Corinthians 2:14 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.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Romans 6:1-2
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

The Holy Spirit Who dwells in me convict me of my sins. The sins which I hate. I repent (turn away) every time and follow Christ. I would never lie about being sinless, that would be a blasphemy towards Jesus Christ who died on the cross for all my past and future sins and rose again on the third day. Never will I forget that I was a unbelieving sinner. And now I am a saved born again believer who sometimes fall back into sin. But each time, Jesus Christ saves me and helps me living righteous again.

Not by myself have I received salvation. Not by myself shall I keep my salvation. Not by myself can I lose my salvation. I am not mine, I am His bought with His blood. All by Him, for Him. Through the Holy Spirit that lives in me and His words of wisdom.  All glory to our Lord!

Edited March 28, 2021 by Wesley L

[Waggles]

Born new again of water and the Spirit praying in tongues now for some 24 years 

but God still needs to correct and guide me; to help me stay on track; to warn me of temptations that I am not on guard about.

So some mornings prior to waking up I get spiritual dreams that reveal to me the danger I am in because of being casual or slothful; or letting myself be boiled slowly one degree at a time.

When I awake I know that I have just had a spiritual dream and I know what God wants me to address and deal with. And so after a cuppa I get real and pray in tongues for a good half-hour often citing scriptures. 

I would have no need of such parental guidance if I had no residual sin nature competing with my new inner man. 

Galatians 5 lays it out. 

[Marathoner]

Yes, the Lord deals with us as sons and daughters. His Spirit dwells with us and so we dwell with Him, teaching us, illuminating us with His truth, correcting us, admonishing us if need be, and disciplining us if called for. What can I say?

If we screw up, God deals with us swiftly. This is how I've learned that some matters are unimportant to the Lord --- they don't matter to Him. There was a time when I cried out, "Lord, I'm a stupid man! I don't know my left from my right and if You called upon me to catch a boat, I'd miss it and fall off the dock." 

I worried too much, consumed by my shortcomings and errors. Ah, but this is a place we all must walk through, a trial which teaches us to keep our focus upon Christ and not ourselves (or others). Did I trust in the Lord to keep me as He promised? The Lord declared that I am in His hand, and nothing could snatch me away from Him because I am His work, not my own. 

Did I learn the lessons? When the time was dark and hope was a distant memory I despaired of living; surely the Lord despised me and death was all that remained. I was mistaken, my friends. The Lord accomplished the impossible and so here I am, all these years later, walking with the Lord in this life He gave to me. 

Let us cease from gazing at ourselves and focus our eyes upon the Son of God.