Salvation: Are you still being “yourself”?

Have you ever heard someone apologize for the actions of someone? Sometimes they’ll say, “He’s just not himself today.” Other times they may say, “That’s not like him to do something like that.” However it may be said, the point is being made that the person truly is acting like someone other than the way they usually are.  We might even say that what they’re doing is out of character.  Do saved believers ever do such as this? YES!!! They ALL do! In fact, you can hardly name a sin that believers in the churches with whom the apostle Paul ministered weren’t committing.  Probably the worst of these were the “saints” in the first church of Corinth.  Please note how the apostle Paul begins his first letter to them. 

1 Corinthians 1:1-4

¹ Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,

² Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s:

³ Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then please notice how appreciative Paul was of these people even though they were failing spiritually in so many ways.

⁴ I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ; [Emphasis added]

But notice that right from the beginning of his letter to them he eases into his gentle correction of them for how carnal and divided they were in so many areas of life.  And this is just the beginning of it.

1 Corinthians 1:10-11

¹⁰ Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

Many years ago, I heard someone say a hypocrite is someone who’s not quite himself on Sundays.  Many, and probably most, of these beloved Corinthian “saints” were acting that way.  They were Christians but their day-to-day way of life surely didn’t show it.

¹¹ For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. [Emphasis added]

Note that he doesn’t just say these things shouldn’t ever happen; he rebukes them because they WERE THEN happening. But please notice that he calls these people brethren, meaning they are all fellow members of the family of God.  They had become members of the family of God the way anyone can.

Galatians 3:26

²⁶ For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. [Emphasis added]

Also, you’ll notice that obviously they had not become “saints” and “brethren” because they’d stopped sinning. To completely stop sinning is something NO believer can do. The Corinthians believers were one of many examples of that.

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

¹ And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

² I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.

This tells us that even as he wrote this letter so many of these people were often living under the influence of their flesh, that is, their sinful nature.

³ For ye ARE yet carnal [SARKIOKOS = having the nature of flesh]: for whereas there IS among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

When Paul speaks of their “walk as men” he’s saying they’re living like unbelievers.

⁴ For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? [Emphasis added]

These people, like us today, were only saved because at some point they’d accepted Christ as their Savior.  It wasn’t because they had stopped committing sins.

Again, Galatians 3:26

²⁶ For ye are all the children of God BY FAITH in Christ Jesus. [Emphasis added]

These people weren’t saved because they’d cleaned up their behavior.  Their salvation rested entirely upon God’s grace, not their works of righteousness to somehow earn it.

Titus 3:5

⁵ Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration [PALINGENESIA = (a compound noun) PALIN = again & GENESIA = born], and renewing [ANAKAINOO = made new] of the Holy Ghost; [Emphasis added]

Salvation and being born again only comes by grace through faith alone.

Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

⁹ NOT of works, lest any man should boast. [Emphasis added]

Always realize that when you let your sin nature get the best of you, you’re not living in accordance with who you are as a “saint” and as a member of the family of God.  We see more on this in the third chapter of Corinthians.  There, too, Paul is commenting about their carnality and all the division that existed among these believers, these saints.  When he said these people were “carnal” and “walk as men” he was saying their actions are like those who are unbelievers.  There was no difference at all. They were thinking and acting just like people who were not saved.  Notice what he says to them.

1 Corinthians 4:14-15

¹⁴ I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you.

¹⁵ For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. [Emphasis added]

To say that they were “begotten” is to says that they’d become family of God “through the gospel” message they’d accepted by faith alone. Again, they weren’t saved because they had stopped sinning.  They were saved because at some point they had put their faith in the One who had paid the penalty for all their sins—past, present, and future. Yes, even their future sins were at that time in the future just as so many of ours are.

2 Corinthians 5:21

²¹ For he [God the Father] hath made him [Jesus Christ] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. [Emphasis added]

Paul is simply rebuking them for their sins.

1 Corinthians 6:5

⁵ I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren? [Emphasis added]

1 Corinthians 15:34

³⁴ Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. [Emphasis added]

Paul doesn’t say this because of the possibility that they might sin.  He says this because they were then committing these sins.

I know I’ve heard people try to counter this by quoting Scripture that speaks of how we’ll know people by their fruit, by their works.  That’s true, but not how one shows whether they’re saved or not.  By their fruit we’ll know of their obedience or disobedience to God’s Word.  Furthermore, that warning in the book of James was not addressed to us as believers today but to believers of Israel who lived in a time in the past and even to some who’ll live in the future time called The Tribulation.

James 2:20

²⁰ But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? [Emphasis added]

James 1:1

¹ James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, TO the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. [Emphasis added]

For more information about this principle of faith without works, please see my articles about it—

Works: What about verses that seem to demand them for salvation?

Works: How important are they?

Again, what you’ll learn about people from their actions and by their fruit is something about their carnality or spirituality, not their salvation.  Again, right here in the 1 Corinthians 3 passage we see that these “brethren,” these who were “saints,” were acting just like unbelievers.  By their actions you would never know they were saved.  As a part of trying to motivate these people to live otherwise, among other things Paul speaks to them about their need to live so as to be rewarded at the Judgment Seat of Christ.  Shouldn’t this incentive help motivate us all to right thinking and right conduct?

1 Corinthians 3:13-15

¹³ Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

¹⁴ If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

¹⁵ If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. [Emphasis added]

Question:  What is there about your life that would merit rewards from Christ on this coming occasion? I have a whole article about that subject on this website—

Rewards: For what will God wish to reward you in eternity?

Are you being faithful to learn His Word to develop a life of obedience that would be worthy of reward? Are you living in accordance with who you are as a member of God’s family of believers? The other option is to live as these Corinthian believers were doing.  What will your decision be about that?

Through your faithful intake of God’s Word, He wants to develop in you a whole new way of thinking.  But we all must make the decision to do this and then take the initiative to work at getting this done. We’ll never reach sinless perfection in this life, but we should certainly work at it.  It is by our diligence to study God’s Word that this godly thinking can be developed in us.

2 Timothy 2:15

¹⁵ Study [SPOUDAZO = be diligent] to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. [Emphasis added]

Some of the apostle Peter’s last words were along the same line.

2 Peter 3:18

¹⁸ But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever. Amen. [Emphasis added]

So much of what you’ll find in the apostle Paul’s letters is a rebuke of the conduct of those to whom he was writing.  Can people change their ways, their conduct? Of course! We all have free will even though false teaching like that of Calvinism tries to tell us that we don’t.  If we didn’t have free will what would be the point of these commands? One of my all-time favorites is one that was given to the people of Israel in a former time.

Joshua 24:14-15

¹⁴ Now therefore fear the Lord, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord.

¹⁵ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. [Emphasis added]

Did Joshua follow through on this? Not perfectly! No one ever has—and anyone who says they have is lying.  Yes! Lying! How do I know that? I know that because until a person gets a resurrection body like our Lord’s, sin will always be something they’ll be challenged to deal with.  Please note how the apostle Paul’s words tell us how things were even for him.

Romans 7:24-25

²⁴ O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Can’t we all rightly utter such a cry?

²⁵ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. [Emphasis added]

Every growing or progressing believer can identify with this statement.  But we can make changes.  Yes, we can come to have a different and much better attitude about all this. What is your thinking about this now? Note what even a great man like the apostle Paul said about himself.

Romans 7:18-19

¹⁸ For I know that in me [the apostle Paul](that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will [THELO = desire] is present with me; but how to perform [ongoing—with perfect consistency] that which is good I find not.

¹⁹ For the good that I would [THELO = desire] I do not: but the evil which I would [THELO = desire] not, that I do. [Emphasis added]

Again, can you identify with all this? Every Christian can! That’s true of all of us even if some self-righteous types deny it.

Many years ago, I heard it taught that Romans 7 is about unbelievers and Romans 8 is about believers.  Such is not true!  BOTH “chapters” are to believers.  There were no chapter divisions in the original letter.  Chapters and divisions were added by translators many years after these things were written to help us find things in the Bible today.  But it wasn’t originally written with such.  Always know that even every mature believer still sins to some extent.  Not just some but ALL of them! If it was true about a man like Paul, it has always been true about all God’s people.  Even the apostle John makes a clear statement about this situation.

1 John 1:7-10

⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Even personal confession of one’s sins is not necessary for forgiveness today.  For more information about that, please see my articles about it on this website—

Confession: Do we need to confess our sins for forgiveness?

Confession: Is this the means to the filling of the Holy Spirit?

¹⁰ If we [as believers] say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. [Emphasis Added]

It is in the apostle Paul’s writings that we get the right and complete understanding of this since we now have through him the full revelation about what Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary.

Ephesians 1:7

⁷ In whom WE HAVE redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; [Emphasis Added]

Colossians 1:14

¹⁴ In whom WE HAVE redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: [Emphasis added]

It is justification and our resultant salvation that comes by faith, not forgiveness.  But even though we’re saved, we’re not suddenly incapable of sin.  A main reason we study Scripture is to help us understand the way God wants us to think and live so as to work at avoiding sin. 

2 Timothy 2:15

¹⁵ Study [SPOUDAZO = be diligent] to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. [Emphasis added]

When we’re faithful to do this we’re then in a position to become the people God wants us to be.  It is then that we’re able to learn to think and act like the “new creation” we are now since we gained salvation.

2 Corinthians 5:17

¹⁷ Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [KTISIS = creation]: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. [Emphasis added]

That’s a statement about our new position, not about our present condition.  Our position never changes but our condition certainly does.

The attributes of growing and mature believers are given to us in Scripture.  The apostle Paul fully addresses this in his writings.  Ephesians 4 is but one of many examples of this.  There he mentions numerous areas of life where we can become the people God wants us to be.  He wants our practice to line up with this new position every believer now holds.  However, we’ll never in this life be able to do that perfectly, but we need to put forth our best effort to do so every day.

Conclusion—

Even though we’ll have a sinful nature that leads us to sin at times till the day we die, or the Rapture occurs, we’re exhorted to make a consistent effort to live the life God intends for us.

Romans 12:1-2

¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

² And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. [Emphasis added]

But no one ever comes to know the will of God apart from learning the Word of God. As we choose to know and live God’s way, we’re then living in accordance with who we are in Christ.  This is what God wants of all of us.  As we learn to do this, we become imitators of Christ.

Ephesians 5:1

¹ Be ye therefore followers [MIMEOMAI – Mimickers or imitators] of God, as dear children; [Emphasis added]

Today this also means to be followers of the apostle Paul’s teachings.

I Corinthians 11:1

¹ Be ye followers [MIMEOMAI – Mimickers or imitators] of me, even as I also am of Christ. [Emphasis added]

We’re to beware of and avoid people who would tell us otherwise.

Philippians 3:17-18

¹⁷ Brethren, be followers together of me ,[SUMMETES = fellow-imitator] and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.

¹⁸ (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: [Emphasis added]

Altogether this is how we represent Christ as His ambassadors.  We’re to represent Him in both our thoughts and our actions.

2 Corinthians 5:20

²⁰ Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. [Emphasis added]

I now end this article with a statement which was given to Isarel but some of which has a general application for us today.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

²⁰ That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. [Emphasis added]