So my mom posed the question--"if we have accepted Christ's atonement and as such have been called to lead a holy blameless life, how do you explain people that continue to sin in their new life in Christ?" Here is what I answered her, after a few days of contemplation, and the Holy Spirit kind of slipping me the answer. Hey, He's the Holy Spirit, it's not like I'm cheating on a test here...

I was reading in Ephesians 3 today. I read Ephesians 1 yesterday, but felt led to skip ch. 2 and come back later. Anyway, in my Holman Christian Standard Bible, the title of the beginning of ch. 3 is "Justification through Faith." I'm always wary of this "finding" Scriptures to back up my thoughts. My intentions are always to search the Scriptures for the answer, not search for my answers in the Scripture.

So in Ephesians 3, Paul is asking if the church of Ephesus thinks that their receiving the Holy Spirit was based on their works or their faith. I know it seems like an easy question to people who have been in church forever--without a doubt, God's indwelling comes from our acceptance of salvation. But the truth of righteous living still remains to be understood. Paul answers that with the question: "after beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete in the flesh?" And then he asks again if that means God gave us the Holy Spirit as a result of our good works or our faith. Vs. 6, 7--"Just as Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness, so understand that those who have faith are Abraham's sons."

Skipping down to verse 18, "for if the inheritance is from the law, it is no longer from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise." It is my understanding that while God has a very definite standard--which was even more rigorous and detailed in the Old Testament before we were ultimately set free from the law--which we must live by, our acceptance of His forgiveness and salvation is credited as righteousness. While our good works will never be more than filthy rags to Him, accepting His atonement means that our sins are covered. It's like with real insurance. The premium is paid, and you are covered, whether anything bad happens or not.

In cross-referencing, I came across Romans 4 which also mentions Abraham's belief being credited as righteousness, even before Jesus came. It also says something very interesting by David: "How happy those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered! How happy the man whom the Lord will never charge with sin!" Even the sins we commit, even the backsliding that occurs, after we have staked our life in Christ, is covered and God has already forgiven us for. More than that, He will never "pin" those on us--they were all pinned on Christ. A verse in Sunday School pops in my head though, which should be taken into account--if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So I suppose that one must be straight with God, one must be accepting of the forgiveness and salvation. But I cannot find anything that says that we, in the flesh, will live perfectly. Because while Christ's atonement is complete, as is God's forgiveness, His work in us is not. He has redeemed the human race through His son, but it is only when we are fully made like Him in His own realm after the shuffling off of this mortal coil that we will be able to live perfection. I think since the fall, our world became tainted, and it is not within our realm to live without human characteristics. But I don't think that's anything to fret over. After all, like in a man-woman love relationship, if they love you when you're at your worst, do they really expect you to always be at your best? "For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, [then how] much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!" "He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised up for our atonement."

If we are truly saved, how can we still live in sin? I suppose I always go back to what Paul says--somewhere in Romans, maybe?--about always doing what he didn't want to do and not doing what he did want to do. As the Bible puts it, if we have died to our flesh, and live in the Spirit, then how can we still commit sinful acts? Does it negate our life in the Spirit? I'm sure this is where the concept of "re-dedication" comes from. People accept Christ's forgiveness & love but do not give up their sinful ways, even though they try. What does this mean about our life in the Spirit? If you are dead to the flesh but, as people say, you struggle with the flesh...how can you struggle with a dead thing? Can our death to the flesh be resurrected? That would negate Christ's whole sacrifice! If it were so easy to go back against that forgiveness of sin. In Romans 6, Paul asks "how can we who died to sin still live in it?" He walks us through what Christ's death, burial, & resurrection symbolizes in our own death to sin. "Christ was raised from the dead...so we too may walk in a new way of life." Don't miss that "may." "If we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection." "A person who has died is freed from sin's claims." "So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, so that you obey its desires. ...But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God...for sin will not rule over you, because you are not under law but under grace."

I think people have the misconception that acceptance of Christ's salvation means we will live a perfect life. God only sees the perfect. And we have been set free from sin. No matter what. But living under grace means that we are held to a ratified standard. It does not negate the law of God. But even Christ said that a lot of the laws from the old testament would do nothing for our righteousness and that it was a person's heart, a person's belief in God and His atonement, that saved a man. So I believe Paul says in Romans that we have been set free, Christ died so that we could have a new life. But so many of us choose to go back to living the way we did before. I don't think it negates our salvation in any way, and I don't think it means that you were never saved in the first place. I think that when the Scripture refers to someone living in the flesh, they are referring to a lost person. I do not think that we live in the flesh ever again after we've chosen to walk in the Spirit. Now, we obviously sin after accepting Christ. But Paul says that anyone who lives in the flesh is an enemy of God, cannot please God. I think that once we become children of God, there will never be another day that we don't please Him. Just as with a child of our own. Once they're there, once they're born, once they're ours, they could kill somebody and we would still always love them. We maybe angry, disappointed, need to discipline...but nothing could ever change our love for them. God takes it one step further. Not only will He never stop loving us, but He has already forgiven us, already redeemed us.