Why We Sin

Have you ever truly pondered why we sin? I’ve been a Christian for nearly 30 years, but I sin all the time. Over the years, the reality of my sin before God has caused me a great deal of pain, frustration, and even despair. As a Christian, the overall desire of my heart is to please God; to be obedient to Him. And yet, I can fall into sin so easily. Sometimes, it has felt as though I were sinning against my own will.
In desperation, I would then cry out to God, asking why I struggle with sin as I do. I would ask pastors, Sunday School teachers, and other Christian friends. Or perhaps I would hear someone teaching on the subject. And the answer I’ve received most of the time is that it is caused by the Sin Nature. “You’ve got the Sin Nature inside you, compelling you to sin. It will be with you as long as you are on this earth, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The only thing you can do is fight against it as best you can. Do what you can to avoid sin, but understand that you will never be perfect in this life. You will always sin, at least on occasion. It just can’t be helped.”
This seems to be what I’ve always been taught, and I believe it to be true. However, I have a problem with using it as the default answer to the question as to why Christians struggle with sin—why I struggle with sin. I have a problem with it because it lends itself toward being just an excuse for sin. It allows for the potential of someone saying, when they sin, “Well, you know I just can’t help it. I’ve got the Sin Nature living in me.”
The truth is that, even though we do have the Sin Nature within us, it is never to be used as an excuse for sin. And I am not fully convinced that the Sin Nature by itself is a viable explanation for sin. Particularly since we also have the Holy Spirit living within us, empowering us to not sin. In addition, while the New Testament does acknowledge the reality of sin in the believer’s life (see I John 1:8, for example), the overall teaching of the New Testament is that a Christian is someone who no longer lives a sinful lifestyle. The Christian life is presented to us as a life of obedience to Christ.
So, regardless of how frequently or infrequently, why do Christians sin? Whenever a Christian commits any sin, how is it to be explained, without using the cliché that it’s just the Sin Nature?
I would submit to you two answers that I have received from a couple good friends of mine. And I will say that the second goes a long way in clarifying the first. In the midst of a discussion we had several months ago, one friend of mine told me that any time we sin, it reflects a wrong belief about God.
What he said rang true for me, but it also created a problem for me. What wrong belief do I have about God? I was raised in the church. I have studied the Bible as much as anyone else. I have even had a measure of formal biblical and theological training. I’ve got all my theological ducks lined up in a row. So what wrong belief about God do I hold to that causes me to sin?
This leads me to the answer given to me by another friend. In answer to the question of why I struggle with sin as I do, he said, “Jesus is not enough for you.” I instinctively balked at this statement, but only for a moment. For I quickly understood what he was saying. He was saying that whenever I sin, I have a need or a desire that I believe Jesus will not meet or fulfill.

Two Brothers

I recently had opportunity to attend a Bible study at a friend’s house. They were looking at the story of the Prodigal Son, with which we’re all familiar. The younger of two sons asks his father for his share of the inheritance and squanders it on riotous living. When he finds himself destitute, feeding pigs, and not even having as much to eat as the pigs do, he decides to return home, asking his father for the place of a hired servant.

But the father, having compassion on his son, calls for a robe, a ring, and shoes for him to wear. He kills the fattened calf, and throws a party such as the neighborhood has never seen.

The older brother, coming in from a hard day’s work in the field, sees that a party is taking place and learns that his brother has come home. However, he is neither happy nor excited to see him. Instead, he becomes angry and refuses to even step foot inside the house. When his father comes out, trying to persuade him to join the party, he says, “This isn’t fair! I work hard for you all day, every day. And what is my reward? You don’t even give me enough to be able to have an occasional party with my friends. Now, this son of yours, who’s been gone for months on end, drinking, gambling, sleeping around, and who knows what else—he comes crawling home, and you have a feast! What’s going on here?”

The father reassures his eldest son of his status in the family, saying, “All I have is yours.” But he also tried to get him to see the reason for the party: “Your brother was lost, and now he is found. He was dead, but now he’s alive again.”

After reading the story from Luke 15, the group was posed with the question, “Which brother do you most identify with?” As we went around the room, it was interesting to hear people’s responses; which brother they identified with, and why. Some identified with the younger brother; some with the older. One gentleman said he’s always had a tendency to identify with the older brother, but is slowly learning to identify with the younger. Another said he used to really identify with the younger brother, but had to admit that, since becoming a Christian, he sometimes falls into the trap of being the older brother.

When the question got around to me, I said that I am the younger brother, desperately trying to be the older brother. I want to be the son who does what the father commands. I want to be the son whom the father can be proud of. But this is not what I am, and because of the Sin Nature living in me, I never can be. So I am always frustrated in the effort.

My friend then did an excellent job of bringing us all back to the point of the story. He said that we should not want to be either of the two sons. For each one, simply being loved and accepted by the father was not enough. Yes, the younger son did come to his senses and return home, giving us a beautiful picture of repentance. But early on, he couldn’t wait to get away from home; away from his father. The older son stayed home, he worked hard in the family business for his father, always doing what was asked of him. But he wanted grand recognition and reward for it. Just being with the father and being loved by the father was not good enough for him.

The fact is, both sons were accepted on the same basis: the grace and love of the Father. That should have been enough for them. And it should be enough for us.

Which of these two brothers do you most identify with? Try not to be that one, without becoming the other.