Understanding the Old Man, Sanctification, and the Hope We Have in Christ
As a Christian, I struggle daily with the question, “Why do I keep on sinning?” I love the Lord, Jesus Christ, and my heart’s desire is to do his will and help build the Kingdom by telling those I come in contact with about the saving power of Jesus Christ. I want to tell them about the freedom that comes from knowing their eternal future is secure in the arms of God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit. And most of all, I want to show people what salvation looks like by looking at me.
And that’s where the problem begins – looking at me.
Bringing folks into the Kingdom of God was never meant to be accomplished by lost people looking at my life and thinking, “If only I could be like him!” No. It was meant to be accomplished by me (and other Christians) pointing people to Jesus Christ for the example of how to live. When people look at you and me, all they see is a sinner (the part they don’t see is that we are saved by grace).
Now that is truly a wonderful thing and only a Christian can understand that. Non-believers just see hypocrites. They hear us talking about the standards of God and His righteousness and that we follow him, but what they actually see are fallen people sometimes winning and sometimes losing the battle for goodness, and then trying to make the case that if they will only take Jesus into their heart, they can be like us! And we wonder why some of them laugh at us and keep on the same path they were on when we met them.
Well, there’s a lot of things that can be discussed in this article and I can’t cover them all, because then it would be a book! And I’m pretty sure I’m not ready to write a book yet. But let’s see if I can stay focused long enough to unpack the title of this article, which is my main goal: Why do I keep on sinning?

1. The Nature of the “Old Man”
When trying to figure out why we never stop sinning on this side of heaven, we need to understand who we are at the moment we get saved (and who we remain until the Lord takes us home).
In Romans 7:18-20 we read Paul’s summation of our predicament: “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (ESV).
We want to do good, but sin still resides within us and we have to fight it. Yes, we are told that sin no longer has us bound in its power but somehow we can never totally eradicate it from us. However, we must still fight.
In another of Paul’s writings, we read, “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24).
This is not a promise that somehow we wiggle our nose like Bewitched or I Dream of Jeannie, and the old sinning self goes away. Rather, we are to make a concerted daily effort to renew our minds through the strength of the Holy Spirit by changing our thoughts, focusing on the pure and good things.
We find it in Philippians 4:8: “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” We can make great progress as we fight to defeat sin through God’s indwelling Spirit.
In case some of you are saying, well the old man is dead, Paul will disagree with you. In Colossians 3:9-10 we are reminded that there is an “old man” – the flesh to deal with: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”
Here Paul tells us that we have put off the old man already, though that is not necessarily a fact. It is true in as much as the moment we are saved, the Spirit indwells us and we start living a new life, a new self, but sanctification has only started. We will not see it completed on this side of heaven. We will fight the flesh daily. If you are honest with yourself, you don’t need to read it in a book, you know it’s true.
But the good news is at the heart of the matter, Christ has defeated sin and it cannot control us if we fight back. Romans 6: says: “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” Christ died for all who would believe (I’ll unpack this in another article), and in his death the old man, the flesh is buried with him.
The power of sin was broken for all who would believe when Christ died. What is the power of sin? Death! Because if you die in your sins without Christ, Hell is your eternal home. If you die as a child of God, saved by Jesus Christ, eternal joy in heaven in the presence of Jesus is your reward – your undeserved reward. Call it grace!
So what do we call “getting better day by day?”

2. The Process of Sanctification
The definition of sanctification can be seen in its simplest form to mean – “to make holy”. It is a process. Consider the text of 2 Corinthians 3:18:
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
It is a step-by-step one day at a time process. We don’t control it. The text tells us “this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” That is another great conversation for another day.
But, as with most other things in the Bible, you can’t just lay your slow progress at the feet of Jesus and say, “it’s all your fault. Paul said it!” No, Paul also says this: Philippians 2:12-13:
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” So, here we still see God sovereignly working in our lives but we are still involved.
And though we aren’t sure who wrote the Book of Hebrews, that author is also encouraging us to take part in our sanctification:
Hebrews 12:1-2: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We are to “lay aside” the heavy weight of sin that burdens us, put our nose to the grindstone (as the old saying goes), and looking to Jesus for help, run the race set before us until the Lord takes us home. The race lasts our entire life – it never ends until death. That’s why we are encouraged in another place to “count the cost” of becoming a Christian. In Luke 14:28-30, in the context of becoming a believer, we read: “”For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’”
3. Why Do We Keep Sinning?

I just want to remind us again, that this is a battle. We can count on Paul to continue to teach us from both sides of the coin. Galatians 5:16-17
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”
We want to stop sinning if we are born-again believers, but there is a real battle going on in our minds, a real fight for control of who we will follow. We’ve been told that we can muster some power of our own and rely on the Holy Spirit, but nonetheless, we will be sinning. That is why we point to Christ as the example to follow, and not ourselves. If we could save ourselves, there would’ve been no reason for Christ to die on the cross.
4. The Hope We Have as Believers
Does this mean we throw our hands up in the air and surrender to sin? It is tempting. Why? Because sin seems appealing at first. “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (James 1:14-15). Yes, our sinful desires tempt us and make us believe – for a moment – that the sin is worth it. But we know it leads to death; it is not worth it.

So, where’s our hope? In Romans 8:1-2: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” It is the work of Christ, not anything we have done that has set us free from the bondage of sinning and allows us hope. More than hope, it is a guarantee: there is no condemnation for those that have placed their hope and trust in the saving work of the Son of God on the cross.
Christ has conquered sin and death and his righteousness is applied to our lives that we can be saved. It is not an inherent righteousness that is found in us, but is applied to us, imputed to us. It is a legal term. The same way that Adam sinned in Eden and his sin was counted against every person born after him (except Christ), the righteousness of Christ is applied to all those who will believe (John 3:16).
5. Practical Steps to Fight Sin
So how do we work out our salvation as James tells us (no, he doesn’t mean that we earn our salvation. He’s telling us how we should walk or live after we are saved, because we are saved).
- Rely on the Holy Spirit – Romans 8:26-27. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
- Spend time in God’s word daily. Meditate on his word to help fight your indwelling sin.
- Confess your sin and repent.
- Be sure that you have a faithful, loving church family that is in the word of God and sees the word of God as the most important thing in their lives.
- Never give up. Run the race. Sanctification is a lifelong process and you will reach the end, because God has promised it. “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
Blessings in Christ Jesus,
Wally
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