(upbeat music) George in Cologne, Germany writes in, "Pastor John, if a Christian is born anew "and has died to sin, why is sin in the heart "so decisive, the same for the flesh? "Why must it be killed every day? "My status in Christ and my daily work, "this mortification seems and feels so contradictory." What would you say to George, Pastor John?

- Yes, it does. (laughs) I totally resonate. Let's try to do two things in answer to George's question. First, let's show from the New Testament what actually happens in the new birth, especially as it relates to a Christian's ongoing sinning. And then second, let's see if we can answer, at least partly, why does God do it this way?

'Cause that's really the heart of his question. But in order to get to that, I think we need to start with what happens in the new creation or the new birth. So my answer to this first question is, what God creates in the new birth is not a sinless Christian.

What he creates is an embattled, not yet perfect, spirit-empowered, persevering, Christ-treasuring, sin-hating, new being, new creation in Christ. And don't miss those words, embattled and sin-hating. The new creation in Christ is a fighter. Paul said at the end of his life that I have fought the good fight. And he tells Timothy, "Fight the good fight." And he means the fight for holiness and the fight for faith, the good fight of faith.

So notice these four paradoxical pairs of verses to see how the event of new birth relates to this ongoing battle. So here's the first pair. 1 John 3, 9, "No one born of God "makes a practice of sinning." 1 John 1, 8, "If we say we have no sin, "we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." So new birth creates a DNA, as it were, in this new person, like a divine DNA that cannot be content with ongoing sinning, though in this life, if we say we have no sin, we have a misunderstanding of how it's working.

So that's the first pair. Second pair, Romans 6, 6, "We know that our old self "was crucified with him in order that the body of sin "might be brought to nothing, "so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." Wow, what an event. And then verse 11, "So you must reckon yourself dead to sin." Well, why?

If you're dead, you're dead. No, "Reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus. "Let not sin reign." This is an imperative. Get about the business of killing sin, reckoning yourself dead to sin, and bringing yourself under the reign of Christ, not the reign of your mortal body.

So the indicative statement, you have died, and the imperative statement, now consider yourself dead and live in the power of it. That's the second pair. Here's the third pair. Colossians 3, 3, "You have died, "and your life is hidden with Christ in God." Verse five, "Put to death, therefore, "what is earthly in you." So the death that we died makes us a fighter, a fighter against what we've died to, put to death.

And the last pair is 1 Peter 1, 23, "You have been born again, not of perishable seed, "but of imperishable through the living, "abiding word of God." Second half of the pair, 1 Peter 2, 1 to 2, "So put away all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, "envy, slander, like newborn infants, "long for the pure spiritual milk, "so that by it, by it you grow up into salvation." So what I infer from those four pairs of verses is that what the new birth, the new creation brings into being is an embattled, not yet perfect, spirit-empowered, persevering, Christ-treasuring, sin-hating, new being in Christ.

And the outcome is guaranteed, but the battle is real. And so the last question is, why does God do it this way? I mean, He has the power to snap His finger and make us sinless. And we know that He does because He's gonna do that in the twinkling of an eye, at the resurrection, or in the moment of death, and we won't be made into robots when He does it.

He will make us sinless without in any way making us less human or less free. We will never, ever sin again in heaven. Why doesn't He do it now? That's the question. And I think there is at least one clear macro answer to that question and some less clear micro answers to that.

Question that flow from the macro. The macro answer is, God does it this way because He intends for the process of sanctification to maximize the praise of His glory, especially the praise of the glory of His grace. And I say that because of numerous places where this is the express intended outcome of sanctification, like Philippians 1:11, where the outcome is supposed to be that we are, quote, "filled with the fruit of righteousness "that comes through Jesus Christ "to the glory and the praise of God." So He's gonna bring about a fullness of fruits of righteousness because He means to be praised.

That's the design in why He does it the way He does it. Or 2 Thessalonians 1:11, where the outcome of our sanctification is, quote, "So that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you "and you in Him according to the grace of our God "and of the Lord Jesus Christ." So whether we can see at the micro level why this is the case, it is clear at the macro level God has chosen to sanctify us through this painful, slow, progressive, embattled way because it glorifies Christ and the grace of God more than if He snapped His finger and made us perfect and sinless at the point of new birth.

Now, are there any micro sub reasons that we can see that might explain why is that the case? And I'll just mention three. One, through this slow, painful, embattled process, we are reminded, John Piper is reminded every day how dreadfully depraved and sinful and helpless I am and would be if left to myself.

And so God intends for me to know this, to feel this by my constant need for warfare to overcome my bent to sinning. Number two, flowing from that reminder, we are made, John Piper is made to feel the wonder of God's patience and grace in holding onto me and returning to me again and again and reviving me and fighting for me and bringing me safely to glory, at least for 70 years now.

It is no wonder that the book of Jude closes with a stunning doxology to God's persevering, keeping power in the embattled Christian life. Now unto him who's able to keep you from stumbling and falling and present you blameless before his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ, be glory and majesty and dominion and authority.

Isn't that amazing that he would, what is he giving glory to God for? He is giving glory and majesty and dominion and authority to God for one simple reason, God patiently keeps working with us until the end. That's just astonishing to me. And I don't think I would feel that nearly to the level that I do without God doing it the way he's doing it.

And the last, the third thing I would say is that since true holiness is the reflex of seeing the superior beauty and value of Christ, the nature of the daily battle keeps this reality in front of me so that Christ and his beauty and his value remain central in my life.

So it becomes clear that Satan is defeated not by the mere finger-snapping raw power of God, but by the supreme beauty of Jesus Christ that I have to get clear every day from scripture so that I'm more attracted to Jesus than to unholiness. So I think the main thing that I would say to George is that whatever the reasons are that God has chosen to sanctify us in this slow, painful, and battled way, this choice of his is because he gets greater glory when we fight the battle every day with the weapons he has appointed and the way he has ordained.

So let's get on with the good fight. - Amen, such a great reminder of God's plan in our sanctification. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you, George. We are getting a lot of questions of late from our friends in Germany, my fatherland, and for more details about this podcast, to catch up on past episodes or to subscribe to the audio feed, and even send us a question from Germany, go to our home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

Tomorrow, we talk about tragedy, overload in the digital age. How can we navigate all the bad news and the legitimate needs we see in our social media feeds without getting locked up and paralyzed by inactivity? Ooh, that's a big one. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with longtime author, theologian, and pastor, John Piper.

I'm your host, Tony Aranka. We'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)