Are Christians Still Sinners, But Saved By Grace – Part 4 Series

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Are Christians Still Sinners, But Saved By Grace – Part 4

(Rev. Barry Johnson and Rev. Rodney Johnson)

Introduction

This is the fourth lesson in this series “Are Christians Still Sinners Saved by Grace?” In lesson one we opened with a statement that is very popular in the Church today: “I am a sinner saved by grace!” In the first three lessons we looked at scriptures that identified the biblically accurate description of who we are as sons and daughters of God: “I was a sinner who was saved by grace! Now I am a righteous, blameless holy child of God!”

In the last lesson, we identified what we see as the lack of sound biblical knowledge and understanding by the Body of Christ concerning the truth that all of us have a spirit with a soul that is housed in a body. And, by all us, we mean those who have Jesus on the inside of them and those who do not have Jesus on the inside of them. Everyone who is born into this world is born a triune being. All of us have a spirit, a soul, and a body. This is critical to understanding why Christians may occasionally commit sin, and while others choose to commit sin more often.

In First Thessalonians chapter five, we see a reference to our triune existence in Paul’s prayer for the church at Thessalonica. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (First Thessalonians 5:23)

In the last lesson, we also looked at Genesis 2:7 which says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” What God breathed into man was His essence, who He is – a spirit. And we see this in John 4:24 – “God is Spirit: and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” We also see in Genesis 2:7 that when God breathed His spirit into the dust of the ground, man became a living being. The King James Version says man “became a living soul.”

In the lesson, we saw that the soul is not the same as the spirit. While the soul makes you who you are, makes you different from any other soul, the spirit is what gives the body life and we see this eloquently stated in James 2:26. The verse says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.” We closed the last lesson with a brief look at the body and learned that it “drives” our emotions, passions, and desires through what it sees, hears, and feels and we see this in Galatians 5:16-17: “(16) I say then: Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust (desire) of the flesh (body). (17) For the flesh (body) lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh (body); and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

If you look closely at what is recorded at the end of verse 17, it tells us that our spirit wars against our flesh and vice versa. Why is this war happening? The flesh is trying to do something it shouldn’t be doing, and the spirit is fighting against it to stop it. Likewise, because the spirit is trying to do something that the flesh does not enjoy, the flesh is warring against it to get its way. This is why Christians sometimes sin. The flesh wins the battle, but this my friend should be the exception and not the rule.

In the first three lessons, we provided the foundation for what we are going to cover in this lesson and in the next two lessons. So, again we ask the question: “Why do most Christians believe that they are sinners saved by grace?” But an even more important question is this: “What have they seen in scripture that appears to support this belief?” As we said earlier, one of the reasons for this belief is how the body of Christ has been taught to read Romans chapter seven. Most believe the chapter is describing a born again person who is still struggling with the sin nature, hence the phrase “a sinner saved by grace.” But is that the truth we see in Romans chapter seven?