What is your Primary Indentity— Sinner or Saint? — by Pastor Larry Hoskins — CMF Board of Directors

Pastor Larry Hoskins
CMF Board of Directors

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re you being mastered, or are you mastering? At the beginning of human history, two brothers presented their offerings to the Lord. Cain was a farmer, and he offered fruit from the ground. Abel was a keeper of the flocks, and he offered from the firstlings of his flock. The Scripture tells us that God had regard only for Abel’s offering, and the author of Hebrews tells us why: “By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain,” (Hebrews11:4 – emphasis mine). No law had been given that required a sacrifice. For some reason, however, Cain’s offering fell short. The implication of the text is that Cain’s act of worship was merely an act that was never connected to faith in the living God. He was just going through ritual observance without any connection from his heart and mind to that of God. Such a fact warrants our consideration. How connected are our hearts and minds to the heart and mind of God?

The story continues by noting that when God did not value Cain’s offering, Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. I can just imagine his hanging head, furrowed brows, and drooping shoulders. Sin was spreading its ugly tentacles, and God gives Cain the opportunity to turn in the direction of faith. God asks him why he was angry and why his countenance had fallen. God was giving Cain the opportunity to do some reflective introspection. An opportunity for insight and re-direction was at hand.

How do we know this? God continued by saying, “If you do well (i.e., to turn from anger and to the Lord in faith), will not your countenance be lifted up (due to a totally different perspective and relationship with God)? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”

The picture of sin crouching is like that of a cat dropping its belly as it stealthily draws near to pounce upon its prey. Sin wanted to dominate Cain’s thinking and actions. The next thing we see is Cain murdering his brother ─ a kind of sin that had never been done before. Sin has mastered him, when God had told Cain that he must master sin. What a tragedy!

Why did Cain find himself under the dominion of sin? The fact is that he really did not want to “do well,” as God had described it. Cain’s actions led us to the inevitable conclusion that he liked sin and that he was more interested in pleasing himself than he was in pleasing God. He was a sinner who liked to sin, so he presented himself to sin as his master. I sometimes wonder what it was like for Cain to have to spend the rest of his life with the knowledge that he had killed his brother. Did he really enjoy the “benefits” of being mastered by sin?

When we trusted Christ to save us from our sin, God gave us a new identity. I call it a “primary” identity. Throughout the Scriptures, believers are called saints. The moment we placed our faith in Christ, our former primary identity of sinner was changed.

Now do not misunderstand me. In the generic sense of the term in which a “sinner” is “one who sins,” yes, we are all sinners. The Apostle John tells us that to think otherwise is to deceive oneself. I am not talking, though, about the “generic” sense of the word. I am talking about the specific, life-directing sense of the word sinner – our being “in Adam,” under God’s wrath, spiritually dead, without hope, without God, even being his enemies. If being a “sinner” is our identity, then is it any wonder that we would find ourselves constantly giving in to sin and allowing it to master us?

A new and better identity has been provided for us. Rather than being “in Adam,” we are now “in Christ.” We have been given His righteousness, and thus we can truly be called “saints.” A saint is one who has God-imputed holiness. The righteousness we have is not of our own making. The Scriptures clearly say that if we keep the whole law but break it only in just one point, that we are guilty of all. They also teach that all of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags. Whether we have done one sin or a million, we fall equally short of God’s standard of holy perfection. The only way a “sinner” becomes a “saint” is for God to give the righteousness of Christ to the sinner, and that is done only when a sinner turns to Christ in faith – trusting Christ’s death and resurrection to save him or her from his or her sin.

So how does a “saint” master sin? Romans 6 tells us that we master sin by “considering ourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 5 tells us that we do that, not by trying harder, but by walking or living by the power of the Holy Spirit. We do not master sin by mere human effort, by simply trying harder. As Christians, we must make a clear distinction between our former manner of life (being “in Adam”) and our new manner of life (being “in Christ.”) When sin tries to master us by tempting us to sin (even those we have battled with for a long time) we must claim, in the power of the Spirit:

When we remember these principles and when we live them out in our thoughts, words, and actions, sin does not master us anymore; by God’s grace and power, we master it.

Which seems to be truer of you these days? Does sin master you, or do you master it? Yes, we all fall from time to time, failing to live in our new identity and in the power of the Spirit. We fall prey to those three enemies of the believer ─ the devil, to the world system, and to our own fleshly desires. In that sense, we are all sinners. But is that our primary identity? As was the case with Cain, sin is crouching at our door, too. It wants to master us, but we must master it.

Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Has your mind been renewed? If so, which is your primary identity? Sinner? Or Saint? Our actions may speak louder than our words.

Editor Notes: Larry Hoskins is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary and has been the Senior Pastor of Grace Church Aurora for sixteen years. He also serves on the CMF Board of Directors.