If I have a new heart, why do I still sin?

Hey, thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. As you probably know, we’re continuing our series through Jeremiah. And this last week we talked about God’s law, how it is necessary uh for us to understand good and true versus right and wrong, but also how it is insufficient to really change our wants, to change our hearts, to um to make us desire to follow.

External rules are critical, but they can’t change what’s on the inside. And so in Jeremiah, we also see God promise to give us a new heart, to write the law on our hearts in his new covenant, which we said is instituted when Jesus comes, dies on the cross, raises to life again. Uh the new covenant is one in his blood, Jesus says when he gives communion. So we know it is his death that institutes this new covenant. His work on our behalf, him taking our sin, our guilt, our shame uh on himself on

the cross, um and rising in victory over it to give us new life. Now we walk in newness of life of him. We said, when we see someone do this for us, it really does shift things in our hearts. It makes us want to follow him, makes us want more of him. So the question this week is, if we have a new heart, I mean, we are certainly living post Jesus. Um if we’re Christians, we put our faith in him, we believe we have received the new covenant, we have a new heart.

The law is written on our hearts. So the question is, why do I still sin? Why do I still go astray if I have this new heart? Isn’t that the whole point of the new heart is I now want to follow? That’s a great question. Um Paul really addresses it in Romans 7. Um he says, I he’s like, I don’t understand what I do. Um I don’t do what I want to do, and what I don’t want to do, that’s what I keep on doing.

Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to Christ. Um um what Paul’s getting at is when we receive Christ, um we get we get a new set of wants. Um now we don’t always do what we want to do, but uh we do want then to follow him. Before you were a Christian, I’d say you probably didn’t really care too much about following Christ, but you become a Christian, then what you want um is to follow him. Um and so that doesn’t mean that we always do what we want to do on our deepest, basest level, most

foundation, most foundational level. We don’t always do exactly what we want in the, you know, most core of our heart, but the most core of our heart has now changed so that our wants are different. Paul describes it as even though this kind of foundational level has changed, he still has sin in him.

Redemption is an uh is not complete yet. God has not restored all things. Um and so while we have a new heart, sin does still dwell in us, in our members, and we live in a fallen world, and sometimes we give in to that. Um so that’s why we continue to sin, um because there’s still sin in us, there’s still sin around us.

We still stray that. But what’s most foundational to our heart has changed. Um the Holy Spirit has come to reside in us. This is 1 John 3:9. If God’s seed is in us, we cannot go on sinning. Um he who was born of God will not continue to sin because God’s seed remains in him. And so even though we’ll we will stray here and there, it’s like with Christ in us, we are now anchored to him. Um and so we’ll we’ll sway this way and we’ll sway that way, but we will come back to where our anchor um has us

eventually. Um and that’s if if you have experienced that as a Christian, if you’ve experienced starting to stray but then being pulled back, that’s actually confidence that you are saved, that God does have you. Um and so uh it should should give us great hope that he’s not done with us, that he will always help us to return, um and that one day, Philippians 1:6, he will complete the work that he began in us.

One day sin will be completely eradicated uh from us. We’re given new bodies, live in a glorified state with him. The world will be without sin. There will not be this temptation to fall away, um and we will live forever uh with him without sin forever. Until then, it is still part of us. It is still part of our world, even though we have new hearts. Uh so we hope that’s helpful.

We’ll see you next time.