Do believers still have a sin nature? Do we have a partially righteous nature and a partially sinful nature?

You may have heard the “white dog, black dog” theory. This idea says that believers still have a root of sin or “sin nature” after being born again. The dogs come in as an illustration, meaning you have two natures (dogs) in you and whichever one you feed will grow. You will always struggle with sin because it’s still part of your identity.

I disagree. Why?

Colossians 2:9 For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, 10 and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. 11 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Verse 11 says a circumcision has taken place and your dead, sinful self was removed. Couple that with these truths:

• Jesus became your sin so you could become righteous 2 Corinthians 5:21
• You were dead but have been made alive in him (see above passage)
• His blood/sacrifice has sanctified you and made you holy Hebrews 10:10
• Righteousness is by faith and not by works  Romans 3:21-22

We’re left with the conclusion that we are currently righteous because we have put our faith in Jesus and as a result we are made alive in him and he has given us his righteousness. The old you was crucified with Jesus and the new you is like him. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus doesn’t have a sin nature.

Some may say that we are still partially sinful because we still have a physical body or flesh. The word of God distinguishes between our bodies and our flesh. Our bodies can be yielded to sin or righteousness, it presents our physicality as caught in the middle of the world and the new man, able to choose sin or yield to righteousness. Flesh is described as a mindset or our own efforts to be made righteous through works.

The Gnostics believed that the physical body was inherently sinful and evil. Much of the New Testament was written to refute Gnostic thought, including the idea that the body is inherently sinful. You do not still have a sin nature because you have a physical body.

Why do you still sin? That’s easy, because you choose it. It’s just as easy, if not easier to yield to righteousness as it is to choose sin. Because you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, you have a righteous nature. You have a steady flow of grace directly from the indwelling life/spirit of God that strengthens your inner man to live above the power of sin and in the righteousness that you’ve been given in Jesus, but you have to yield to that influence to live in that power rather than turning to the physical world to fulfill your desires.

Romans 6:13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

So why do you still sin? Again, not because it comes natural to you but because you’ve opened yourself to sin. There is much more opportunity to live in the power of grace than there is opportunity to sin. It may be time to meditate on God’s word until you change your perspective and believe that his spirit can feed you and satisfy you much better than the world ever could.

Choose well. Choose life. Yield to righteousness. Soon you’ll naturally look on the outside like you already do on the inside.

Ephesians 3:16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

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