Our Fallen Nature

Though our spirit is renewed, we are in fallen corrupted bodies until the resurrection. Though we try not to, Christians will inevitably always fall into sin. Being born again means we are no longer choosing to consciously intentionally sin without trying to resist or repent.

1 John 1

8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

Ecclesiastes 7:20
20 Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous,
no one who does what is right and never sins.

Proverbs 28:13
People who conceal their sins will not prosper, but if they confess and turn from them, they will receive mercy.

Psalm 37:24
Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.

James 3
Taming the Tongue
2 We all stumble in many ways.

Romans 7:14-25
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 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 through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.

The following verse shows that though we are in sinful bodies, instead of living for sin we turn our focus away from it to God. But we will always be in sin while in these corrupted bodies.

Romans 8
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.

Philippians 3

10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

1 John 32

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him.

1 John 2

1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.