Bad Kids

I became a Christian when I was eight years old. You may have had a similar experience. It is so amazing to grow up in a family full of people that love and follow God, but I think there's one drawback.

When we become Christians at an early age, we often don't have a great understanding of our sin. We're pretty good kids, and there sometimes isn't a drastic change in our behavior after placing our faith in Jesus. At least that's what we think.

If you grew up in an environment like mine, you might have been kept in line by your teachers, parents, and grandparents. There were people in your life who lovingly kept you from straying too far into sin. Because of this, we didn't have many chances to creatively apply our sin natures before we became Christians. As we began to mature in our faith, our eyes opened wider to the world around us. Even today, it feels like the more we desire to live for Jesus, the more opportunities there are for us to fall.

We become excellent hiders – pulling off our sin within the context of Christianity.

But aren’t we supposed to be changed? What happened? Not that we’re supposed to be perfect, but why do we find ourselves ten years down the road into a relationship with Christ and carrying around the same load of sin? What’s the deal?

Paul asks the same question in Romans 6:1:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Sometimes we think we're pretty good people, but the truth is that we are all bad kids. Whether or not you met Jesus when you were young, you struggle with sin. We all do. We have strayed from God and continue to choose our way over His way. When we place our faith in Jesus, we are not just accepting His forgiveness and life, but we are putting to death our old selves – the ones who made all the choices for our own pleasure.

Our struggle with sin is a struggle for us to accept our new identity in Christ: forgiven, raised from the dead to live a new life for God!