The "We're Such Sinners" Syndrome

Ron Block is a musician with Alison Krauss and Union Station. He wrote the following words on a false self syndrome that affects much of the body of Christ today:

"That’s where most of us live for years; some never escape it; not living in the Power. The church for so long has focused on 'We’re such sinners' that she is missing out on the real Facts--that we are saints, holy, one spirit with the Lord, kings, priests, overcomers, all because Christ within us is our Overcomer.

"We speak of 'the not yet.' But the Bible says we are complete in Him, holy, having everything we need for life and godliness.

"Many of God’s people haven’t even gotten over beating themselves up for their past sins, and that self-condemnation, independence, and self-effort keep them in a sub-Christian state.

"C. S. Lewis said, 'Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as he does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has--by what I call "good infection". Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.'

"But there many of us sit. 'We’re such sinners. Awful. Lord, I did it again. Forgive me.' And we think going forward and 'rededicating our lives to Christ' is going to do the job.

"The only thing that will do the job is to move into faith, which sees the promises, grabs hold of them, relies on them as the only Reality, and takes action in that reliance."