Day 18 - "The Sin Nature is Dead and Gone"

Day 18 - "The Sin Nature is Dead and Gone"

For a long time, when I read Paul’s words in Romans, “you are dead to sin,” I was confused. I thought he was saying I was somehow dead to sinful actions. And I’d think, But I still mess up, so how does that make sense?

Everything changed for me when I studied the Greek words Paul uses for sin.

In Romans, Paul uses two different words:
-Hamartia — a noun, referring to sin as a power or nature
-Hamartano — a verb, referring to acts of sin

When Paul says we are dead to sin, he is not saying we are dead to the ability to ever commit a sinful act. He is saying that through the new birth we have died to hamartia, the sin nature, the inner propensity to sin we inherited from Adam.

Through Christ, a radical change took place.

Scripture describes it as a circumcision of the heart, a cutting away of the old and the giving of a new one. The old identity that was enslaved to sin was removed, a new heart was given, and we were joined to the Lord. That means sin is no longer automatic, inevitable, or who we are at our core. We are now the righteousness of God in Christ.

What transformed my walk wasn’t striving harder to avoid acts of sin or fearing sin more, but recognizing what was actually true about me. Believing I was truly dead to the Adamic nature and genuinely alive to Christ changed how I lived.

I stopped relating to sin as something flowing from who I am and began seeing it as something foreign to my new identity. From that place, the Spirit began leading me from the inside out, not through pressure, but through truth.

We are not trying to manage a sinful nature anymore. That nature is gone. We may choose to walk according to the flesh or to be carnally minded, but a born-again believer is no longer IN the flesh. A permanent change took place at the new birth.

Our journey now is learning to live from the new heart we’ve already been given, led by the Spirit, grounded in truth, and rooted in our true identity in Christ.


Prayer - “God, help me to realize who I truly am in Christ. I take on this identity of being dead to sin. I am a new creation. I am no longer fearing every move I make but now I allow the Spirit to lead me in my daily walk. Though I make mistakes, I take on a new life that you have given me. Amen.”