Are Christians Still Sinners, But Saved By Grace? Part 3 Series

NOTE: New Light Faith Ministries and Barry Johnson Ministries, founded by Rodney V. Johnson and Barry O. Johnson, respectively, are partnering to offer Bible studies for Christians who are seeking to grow in their relationship with Jesus. This is a Bible study lesson, not a sermon. The Bible studies teach foundational truth that are designed to challenge, encourage and, most importantly, flame the fire of hunger in the Christian who wants to learn more about who they have become in Christ Jesus. The Bible studies you find on this site contains the written version of the lesson. However, these lessons also include a video and an audio file of the study, a PDF version of the lesson and a sheet for note taking. If you would like any of the additional resources for these studies, please email us at newlightfaithministries@gmail.com or bjteachingltr@gmail.com for more information or contact us at the email provided on both of our Sermon Central pages. Be blessed.

Are Christians Still Sinners, But Saved By Grace? Part 3

(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)

Opening Prayer & Introduction

In our first lesson of this series, we shared with you that the statement, “I’m a sinner saved by grace!”, while popular in the Church today, biblically is not true. A more biblically accurate description of a Christian is, “I was a sinner saved by grace! Now I’m a righteous, blameless, holy child of God!”

In the second lesson, we spent some time examining Romans 3:23, a verse used to teach that everyone is a sinner, including Christians. The verse reads as follows: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) To help us understand the verse, we asked one question: “Who is the “all” that Paul refers to in the verse?” We highlighted verses 9 through 12 and 19 through 22 in Romans 3 and saw that, initially, Paul was talking to both the Jews and the Greeks (Gentiles) about their common spiritual condition – “they are all under sin.” (Romans 3:9) Why were they all under sin, or sinners? They were not born again. So, the point Paul is making in Romans 3:23, when the verse is kept in context, is that anyone who has not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior is a sinner. If you have not heard Part 2, we encourage you to do so before proceeding with this lesson.

The focus of the second lesson was to look at who we are because we have the life of Jesus living on the inside of us. The most important thing we learned in Part 2 that separates us from a person who is a sinner was this: God is with us just like He was with Jesus. And because of this, (1) He can partner with us, just like He did with Jesus, to carry out His will (John 3:2), (2) He can anoint us with the Holy Spirit and with power to carry out His will (Acts 10:38), (3) we have the ability to live our lives and not commit sin (Romans 6:10-12, 14), and (4) we can renew our minds to agree with God and His Word (Romans 12:11-2). We ended the lesson looking at several promises we have because Jesus lives inside of us, and what’s available to us through grace. Again, if you have not listened to Part 2, we highly encourage you to do so.

We Are Triune Beings

In this lesson we are going to take a closer look at who we are and how we exist on this earth. By knowing who we are and how we exist on this earth, we will have a better understanding of what is captured in Scripture pertaining to the state of man and what is happening within us, especially as it relates to sin. With this is mind, one of the things we must understand, which is very important for us as Christians, is that we are individuals who are comprised of three parts or members: a spirit, a soul, and a body. This is critical to understanding why Christians may occasionally commit sin. Now notice we said, “may occasionally commit sin.” It is a distinction that we have made repeatedly in the first two lessons of this series. A person who lives a life of habitually committing sin is not a Christian, and we see this in First John 3:8-9, which we read from the Amplified Bible because it brings out additional understanding of the Greek that we don’t always see in the New King James. It says, “(8) [But] he who commits sin [who practices evildoing] is of the devil [takes his character from the evil one], for the devil has sinned (violated the divine law) from the beginning. The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done]. (9) No one born (begotten) of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, for God’s nature abides in him [His principle of life, the divine sperm, remains permanently within him]; and he cannot practice sinning because he is born (begotten) of God.” (First John 3:8-9)