“Why would a Christian choose to sin?”

A Christian is an individual who has received the presence and life of the risen and living Lord Jesus by faith. “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, that person is none of His” (Rom. 8:9), i.e. not a Christian. When the Spirit of Christ dwells within a Christian, He is the total provision for the expression of His righteous character in that Christian’s behavior.  In relationship with Christ the Christian has the privilege and responsibility to allow Christ’s righteous character to be expressed through his behavior by faith.  Faith is the receptivity of God’s activity of grace. 

A Christian is not obligated to sin (Romans 8:12). But the Christian still has the “freedom of choice” to misrepresent his/her new identity in Christ by expressing selfish and sinful character in his or her behavior.  Sin is defined as any character that is contrary to, and “misses the mark” of, the righteous and holy character of God in Christ by the Spirit.  Sin is not simply engaging in a particularly prescribed action, but is the character of the Evil One expressed in any action we have chosen to participate in.  Sin is anything derived from other than God.

So, why would a Christian choose to sin?  This is the question of the ages.  Realistically, all Christians do sin, 1 John 1:8 “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” We are tempted by the tempter, Satan, who wants to express his evil character in our behavior to negate the character of Christ that brings glory to God. 

You are not the problem, nor are your desires evil.  You are not tempted by your own sinful desires because you do not have sinful desires, just God-given desires that are patterned and warped by sinful propensities.  The straw-man labeled “Self” does not tempt us.  Our “flesh” does not tempt us.  Temptation is always, and only, from the tempter, the devil. 

God never saw you as the problem, but the Adversary, the devil.  When you were “spiritually exchanged” by the receipt of the Spirit of Christ, you were united with Him. “For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection” (Rom. 6:5).

The Christian has received Christ within his/her spirit, but within the soul, the behavioral mechanism, the Christian individual still has residual patterns of selfish and sinfulness formed in his/her God-given desires.  These patterned desires of selfishness and sinfulness are what the apostle Paul called the “flesh.”  Flesh is not to be personified as some hunk of evil in us, but is a sinful patterning from our unregenerate past, but can still be developed during our regenerated spiritual condition by choosing to participate with Satan’s character of sin.  A working definition of the “flesh” might be: how I learned to manage and operate my life apart from God under the deception of Satan and his character of sin.

Under the selfishly patterned desires of the “flesh” is where the tempter goes fishing in an attempt to snag us, deceive us, and prompt us to make a decision that corresponds with our old patterns of action and reaction.  The choice is always ours, but when we succumb to temptation we manifest the character of the Evil One, and misrepresent who we are as Christ-ones (Christians).  “The one who engages in sin, derives what he does from the devil” (I John 3:8).

Too often our focus is on our behavior. One of the chief aims of the enemy is to get our attention and focus off of Christ as our point of reference.  Behavior, as important as it is, is always the expression of the character of the spirit-source we are trusting in or depending on.  We do not generate any character within our behavior.  Character is always derived regardless of whether it is good or evil.  When we understand who we are in Christ, and that our identity of being is in union with Christ, we can live free, gladly choosing to be dependent on what He is doing in us.  This allows everything in our lives to be an expression of worship as we live in the fullness of His presence as our life. Worship is the expression of the “worth-ship” of His character.  As we embrace the reality of our union in Christ and enjoy living in the freedom that He has provided for us, “why would a Christian choose to sin?”

When you pray, who’s praying?

The Christian life is not what we do, but what He does in us, as us, and through us.  Everything in the Christian life is Jesus Christ in action, which is what Grace is ... “God at work.”  We derive all that we are, and all that we do, from our union in Christ.  Jesus said in John 15:5, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

What about our prayer life? Who’s doing the praying?

C.S. Lewis writes, "Our act, when we pray, must not, any more than all our other acts, be separated from the continuous act of God Himself, in which alone all finite causes operate." Lewis, C.S., "The Efficacy of Prayer"

Some would say that pray is “our part” and the answer to pray is “God’s part.”  Not so. Pray is depending on the Spirit of God and expressing the life of Christ.  He is our ability regardless of the activity.  "The Spirit helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God" (Rom. 8:26,27).

So when you pray, listen to what He is doing in you and agree, which is to confess or “say the same as.”  When you open your mouth your prayers or confessions are then verbalized and prayer is made.  The indwelling presence of Jesus Christ who is our life is the Pray-er (the prayer-prompter).  You cannot pray apart from Him praying through you nor can Jesus pray though you apart from you agreeing with Him.  Jesus is both the beginning and the end of Christian prayer.  Christian prayer is not activated by human effort, but is prompted by the One who is our Life.  We pray in response to what He is doing in us.  As we abide, confessing what He is initiating us to participate with Him in, we experience His grace and our lives become His prayer!

In all of your praying, simply remember who you are in Christ.  When you pray for wisdom; when you pray for discernment; when you pray for patience, gentleness, kindness or love, you are praying for what you already have in Christ.  Whatever you are led by the Spirit of God to pray for, has already been provided and promised in Jesus Christ (Phil. 4:19).

So, why don’t you gladly express in prayer today what He is initiating in you?