We Christians are NOT as much sinners as “they”—unbelievers—are. We are saints, washed by the blood of Christ, sins forgiven forever, Hebrews 10: 10-23, and do not walk in the manner they formerly walked when we were dead (spiritually) in our trespasses and sins.
[Ephesians 2:1-10].
We have been raised up to walk in newness of life, and therefore, God does not call us sinners anymore, but saints.
We are clothed with Christ’s righteousness.
No matter how that is placed before us, we still have a sin nature. We are simply not yet in our perfected bodies. As long as we live in the earth suit, we still have a struggle with sin.
No doubt, you will consider the apostle Paul to be one of the greatest men that ever lived, but he said this:
1 Timothy 1
15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
He places this in present tense with the use of the word “am”.
Also, he goes into great depth of his own sin problem in Romans 7 & 8.
Romans 7
21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.
Not a one of us lives perfectly, and we need to manage ourselves properly. One problem in the church is that we take this idea of “grace” and use it as an excuse to live how we want to live, and merely lay it out to God as a weakness of the flesh. I am willing to make that statement for myself, even no one else will.
We wander around thinking of ourselves as “good”, but that is simply not true. Yes, according to Galatians 5:22 (I think) we can walk in goodness, which is one of the fruit of the Spirit. We must not see it as our goodness, but actually the goodness of God, thorugh His Spririt, as he works within us.
Consider the words of Jesus here:
Mark 10
18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
Those words came from the mouth of Jesus, who died for our sins. By His own words, He was not good. That says a lot about the attitude we as Christians should hold. With that, I have no good in me, aside from the goodness given to me by the Spirit of God. I also struggle with sin, and need to be in continual prayer and repentance. Otherwise, I am sure that my ego will get the best of me.
There is a such thing as judgment, but it must start inside my own skin. I know I am forgiven, but the attitude i show towards the unsaved can show a sense of “self-righteousness”, even though I do not intend it.
>>We Christians are NOT as much sinners as “they”—unbelievers—are.
I think we both understood what I meant. I know that I am forgiven by the grace of God and the blood of Jesus Christ, but as the Bible states “All have sinned.”