Identity Series Part 1
As a believer in Jesus, have you ever heard a Christian say, “I’m a sinner.” or “I’m just a sinner, saved by grace.” or, “Don’t follow your heart, it’s desperately wicked,” citing Jeremiah 17:9? These and other statements like them are all indicating that even when we’re saved, we’re still sinners.
But is this view correct?
Weren’t we saved FROM sin? Aren’t we free from the power of sin? Aren’t our hearts transformed? Aren’t we dead to sin and alive to God? (Rom 6)
So what’s the deal? In Christ, am I a sinner or saint? Is my heart still desperately wicked? Or, Is there hope for my desperately wicked heart?
Jeremiah 17:9 says,
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can understand it?”
But what’s the context of this verse? – Let’s take a look…
Jeremiah was a prophet of God to the people of Jerusalem. He spent forty years calling them out on their sin, and yet they refused to repent. In Chapter 17, Jeremiah is detailing the sin of Judah, yet also at the same time sharing that restoration and escape are still possible.
If they turn back to the Lord and walk forward in obedience they will be spared from the destruction that is coming from the hands of the Babylonians. As history tells us, they did not repent and indeed fell to the Babylonians (again) in the year 586 BC and the city was burned with fire.
So, the context of this verse is a prophet, Jeremiah, calling out a specific people, Judah, for disobeying specific instructions, The Law, at a specific time period, 580s BC.
We have one more question though – is this passage applicable for believers today? I think so. But first, let’s see if there’s a theme in the Bible of humans choosing wickedness and evil and walking in deceit.
We see one of the first references to wicked hearts in the book of Genesis.
Genesis 6:5:
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
We see also in the following verses men choosing evil and wickedness and disobeying God.
Isaiah 32:6
“For fools speak folly, their hearts are bent on evil: They practice ungodliness and spread error concerning the LORD; the hungry they leave empty and from the thirsty they withhold water.
Judges 2:19
“But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.”
It’s clear from these verses that the people they describe had desperately wicked hearts, as that’s all they chose. Is there a difference between people of the Old Testament and people living today? Of course not, people are people. We have the same basic needs and motivations throughout time. And when given the choice people often reject God and choose sin.
“But God…”
Ephesians 2:1-7 (NASB)
“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
So, what about Jesus? What about what He accomplished on the cross?
If we are in Christ and have been saved, redeemed, restored, and healed… are we still sinners? If we are new creatures because of Christ, have we really kept our old and wicked hearts? Or do we believe as it says in 1 Corinthians 5:17?
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
1 Corinthians 5:17
We have to look at our hearts and minds through the lens of what Jesus finished on the cross. To do anything but this is to scoff at His love and sacrifice.
Another aspect to consider is that the Old Testament verses are describing man ‘pre-Christ,’ we can see that they did not have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament typically came upon a person or a group of people for a time or task and then departed, we also see the Spirit dwelling in the tablenacle or temple, and in the New Testament, we see the Holy Spirit dwelling in a new temple, which is the people of God.
When we get saved and receive the Holy Spirit, we don’t magically change. There are old ways of thinking and old habits that must be “put off” and we must “put on” Christ. Ephesians 4:22-24, “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.”
We must be alert, take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:3-5), and renew our minds daily. (Romans 12:1-2).
So yes, it’s true that we once all had desperately wicked hearts. But it’s also true that there’s hope for any desperately wicked heart. And if there was hope for my heart, then there’s hope for your heart too.
That hope is Jesus Christ.
In Jesus, we are new creations (1 Cor. 5:17), we’re given a new identity. We are no longer sinners. We are saints. Paul only ever addresses his letters to ‘the Saints of God,” and never to “the sinners of God.” Our Identity has been changed and our actions should be in accordance with this change.
So what does that new creation life and identity actually look like?
Hang on, because we’re deep-diving into what it means to be a new creation in Christ on the blog over the next three weeks.
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Sarah Louise 