Imagine your heart as a circle. Before your conversion that circle is dark, enslaved to the power of sin and the flesh (Rom. 6:20). When you’re converted something changes (Rom. 6:1-11). But what exactly? Most Christians understand that we receive a “new nature,” but what that is and how it relates to our every day experiences and sanctification (becoming holy like Christ) is unclear.
For example, many Christians envision conversion as the emergence a single white dot of holiness in the darkness. Over time, that dot of holiness expands to eclipse the darkness in their hearts.
The problem with this view is that it doesn’t take seriously the “newness” of converted believers. Not much changes after conversion. We remain primarily sinful. We only hope the sprinkle of holiness grows.
When you read Paul and Peter, it’s clear that in Christ we receive a new nature, and the old nature (the big black dot) is put to death.
“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.” (Rom. 6:6)
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Cor. 5:17)
“You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23).
Their teaching came from Jesus, who said “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 3:6). Jesus taught that those who are born of the Spirit are definitively different than their old fleshly self. A new birth has occurred by the power of the Spirit. That’s the strongest possible language to express change.
Jesus wants us to ourselves as new! Thus Paul commands, “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11). When we become Christians we do not receive a small white dot of holiness to expand. No, we die to sin and become a new creature alive to God. Our new nature is united to Christ, and is perfectly holy.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:14-15)
Paul wants us to see that our true identity is not our sin! Yes, it may influence me, but I am not my flesh. Who am I? A child of God. This breaks the feedback loop of shame, and promotes sanctification. When we sin, we think, “What I did was wrong, but that’s not who I am; I am a son; Father, I repent; Father, thank you for loving me and claiming me; to obey you is my pleasure.”
When we’re freed from a false self-image to see ourselves as sons, everything changes. Love and desire for the father empowers us to be who we are in Christ and resist the influence of the flesh. Love and assurance from the father allows us to see that, although we sin, we are not, in our core, our sin. These truths set us free.