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Prior to our rebirth we were “dead in sin” (Eph 2:5); after our rebirth we are “dead to sin” (Rom 6:2), and this by being “dead with Christ” (Rom 6:8; Col 2:20)! “We have been planted together in the likeness of His death” (Rom 6:5), which is displayed during communion of the Bread and the Cup (1Cor 11:26). The keyword to address here is “dead,” for it is the permanent position of all reborn. Our death to sin involves the termination of the “damnation” (Jhn 5:29) and “dominion” of sin (Rom 6:14), but not its presence (Rom 7:17, 20) and effect (Rom 7:15-20). Through comparative-contrasting sin manifests God’s holiness, which can been seen in “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” They knew right and wrong by God’s commands (Gen 2:16, 17) but this (in my opinion) does not reveal His holiness as does the manner of “knowing” the contrast between good and evil.
Eventually believers will be without the sin nature but for this life, God continues to use it teach us His holiness and our dependence on Him. Otherwise He would have eradicated the “old man” upon rebirth. I believe the issue with God is not so much the continued presence of sin within Christians nor its effects, but the significance is the “work” He does within them (Phil 2:13), which manifests itself through the good-evil contrast.
In Scripture the Greek word for “flesh” is “sarx” and primarily has two meanings, referencing either the physical body (Definitions l-lll), or the spiritual nature (Definition lV):
(Genesis 1:1 (KJV)). The OT usage of “flesh” always references the physical body, and in the NT usage it mostly references the spiritual nature (old man; sin-source). It’s my understanding that condemnation is not incurred in sinning but in the cause of sinning—the sin nature—because the sinning merely manifests the source. Thus, if one who is not reborn in Christ could possibly live without sinning (which only Christ did), there would yet be the necessity of redemption to avoid condemnation!
Though the sin nature is in the believer, the believer is “not in the sin nature” (flesh – Rom 8:9), meaning not desiring and living after the sin nature. It is never the desire of those reborn to “sin willfully” (Heb 10:26), and this is due to the “work” of the Father (Phil 2:13) and His Spirit (Gal 5:17)—using the “life” of Christ (Col 3:4) and the written Word of God (2Tim 3:16); all only through “faith which operates by love” (Gal 5:6). Sin keeps the believer God-dependent, and the unbeliever self-dependent!
Eventually believers will be without the sin nature but for this life, God continues to use it teach us His holiness and our dependence on Him. Otherwise He would have eradicated the “old man” upon rebirth. I believe the issue with God is not so much the continued presence of sin within Christians nor its effects, but the significance is the “work” He does within them (Phil 2:13), which manifests itself through the good-evil contrast.
In Scripture the Greek word for “flesh” is “sarx” and primarily has two meanings, referencing either the physical body (Definitions l-lll), or the spiritual nature (Definition lV):
(Genesis 1:1 (KJV)). The OT usage of “flesh” always references the physical body, and in the NT usage it mostly references the spiritual nature (old man; sin-source). It’s my understanding that condemnation is not incurred in sinning but in the cause of sinning—the sin nature—because the sinning merely manifests the source. Thus, if one who is not reborn in Christ could possibly live without sinning (which only Christ did), there would yet be the necessity of redemption to avoid condemnation!
Though the sin nature is in the believer, the believer is “not in the sin nature” (flesh – Rom 8:9), meaning not desiring and living after the sin nature. It is never the desire of those reborn to “sin willfully” (Heb 10:26), and this is due to the “work” of the Father (Phil 2:13) and His Spirit (Gal 5:17)—using the “life” of Christ (Col 3:4) and the written Word of God (2Tim 3:16); all only through “faith which operates by love” (Gal 5:6). Sin keeps the believer God-dependent, and the unbeliever self-dependent!
