Is It Possible A Christian Is Not A Sinner Saved By Grace? Series

Monday, March 6, 2006. It was Day 2 of the week-long Spring Prayer and Power Conference hosted by Dave Roberson Ministries in Tulsa, OK. I had booked the detached living quarters that were part of a bed and breakfast for me, Candace and Stephen, two of my children.

I got up that morning around 3:00. The first meeting of the day started at 8:30. I made a pot of coffee, sat down at the kitchen table and put in the first message of the Born Again Trail, the series taught by Pastor Dave Roberson.

Pastor (Jim Martin, Dayton OH) had talked about the Born Again Trail and the impact it had on his ministry. From time to time he’d encouraged us to listen to it. So, on the first day of the conference I purchase all six volumes, a total of 60 messages on cassette tape.

My schedule that week: 3:00 rise and shine. Make coffee. Listen to three messages. Attend two morning sessions and an afternoon session with Candace and Stephen. Bed.

Why am I sharing this with you?

The Born Again Trail opened my eyes to the truth about what happens when we confess Jesus as our lord and savior. The truth about the spiritual change that takes place in us and why it matters literally changed how I began to approach things in my life.

Now that we’re born again, we have the same spiritual DNA as Jesus! Did you hear me? We have the exact same spiritual DNA as Jesus! We’re exactly like Him except we’re not deity. That is the only difference. Ladies and gentlemen, let that sink in. And because of this, Romans 8:17 boldly proclaims “And if children (and we are!), then heirs, heirs of God, and (here it comes!) joint-heirs with Christ.”

Now listen to me. There is not one verse in the four gospels that hint at Jesus believing He was a sinner and the Son of God. Not one. If we are joint-heirs with Him, how can we believe this about ourselves? How can we believe that we’re both a sinner and a child of God?

The simple truth? We shouldn’t because it’s not true.

I want you to “hear” what Pastor Dave says 47seconds into the very first message of the Born Again Trail.

“We found out in Romans that sin will not have dominion over you. You’re not under the law but under grace. And for a believer to really walk in victory the first transformation that we’ve got to have is to that fact, I mean totally transformed to the fact that sin does not have dominion over us. And anything we’ve been set free from

that we continue to justify, then you’ve taken away from the Holy Spirit what He needs to set you free with.

“So to really walk this born again trail out that’s the first transformation — that sin no longer has dominion over me. And all of the cohorts or by-products of sin which was poverty, sickness, disease, and depression — all those things that accompany spiritual death — they don’t have dominion over me either.

“So to really, really have victory the first order of transformation, in other words, the first thing the Holy Spirit is going to do in your life using that new nature is transform you to the fact that none of these things have dominion over you. I’m saying this not to bring you under condemnation. I’m saying this to set you free.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus has made us free! Praise God! Hallelujah!

As I’ve said over and over in this series: Sin no longer has dominion over a born again believer because she no longer has a nature that’s ruled and dominated by sin. Turn with me to Romans 6 and we’re going to read verses six and seven.

6Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin [the sin nature] might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Each time I read verse 6 “should not” waves its hand at me. It gets my attention every single time because of the truth it communicates. Even though you and I no longer have a nature that links us to Satan — that links us to spiritual death — we can choose Satan over our new nature. Ouch! I know that hurt. But we all know that it’s true.

After transcribing Pastor Dave’s comments, the Lord reminded me of the passage in John 8 where Jesus tells the scribes and Pharisees they are not free from sin, from the sin nature, even though they believe they are.

(33) They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never under bondage to any man, how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?