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YOU ARE NOT YOUR BODY YOU ARE NOT A SINNER. The Christian is a saint, a new creature in Christ, and he has been perfected forever (Heb. 10:14). His flesh has been cut away and put off via an "operation of God" called a "circumcision made without hands" (Col. 2:11). He is not his body, because the body is a body of DEATH (Rom. 7:24). He is commanded to reckon (account, acknowledge) the body to be dead so that he, the new man, the perfected spiritual man, might walk in the spirit and fulfill the will of God. That is, the believer is specifically told in the scriptures to NOT IDENTIFY WITH THE FLESH, but rather with the new man in Christ that he truly is and will be for all eternity. That's basic Christian doctrine 101, yet so many are so determined to identify as flesh, rather than spirit, that they will actually ARGUE about the matter and insist that they most certainly ARE sinners, even though the scriptures clearly declare that sinners are lost people and saints are saved people. Unlike many brethren, I do not enjoy arguing doctrinal technicalities. My concern is the fact that Christians will not hate sin as they should as long as they think they are sinners. Sinning will be considered normal since "we are just sinners saved by grace." No, you are not. There's no such thing as a sinner saved by grace or a "saved sinner." You are either saved, or you are a sinner. "Oh, but I still have a sin nature." Yes, but YOU are not the sin nature. That's the flesh, the body of death that you were told to mortify and reckon dead. Sure, you HAVE it, but it isn't YOU. It isn't your identity in Christ, and you'll never amount to much for God as long as you think it is. Someone argues, "But Paul said he was chief of sinners" in I Timothy 1:15! Seriously? That's your defense? You're going to run to a passage and ignore the entire PAST TENSE context (Verses 11-16) and pretend that his emphasis is present tense just so you can call yourself a sinner, even though the New Testament calls you a saint over forty times?!!! WOW! And I don't say "WOW" very often. But WOW! "But I still sin!" Well, maybe you should try REPENTING instead of getting all cozy with your sin by identifying yourself as a sinner. "But doesn't my ability to sin make me a sinner?" No, it makes you a saint who falls short and sins be you still HAVE a sin nature, but YOU are not the sin nature. You might change the battery on your car, but that doesn't make you a mechanic. You might apply a Band Aid to a cut, but that doesn't make you a doctor. Doing bad as a Christian doesn't make you a sinner any more than doing good as a sinner makes you a Christian. Just as the sinner's "good" doesn't identify him as a saint (Rom. 3:10), the saint's sin doesn't identify him as a sinner. He is IN a body of sin, but his identity is that he is a new born-again man who has been perfected forever. A Christian who identifies as a sinner is like Dr. Jekyll choosing to identify as the monstrous Mr. Hyde instead of the respectable doctor that he really is. "Well, I still think I'm a sinner. I'm saved, but I sin sometimes, so that makes me a sinner." Ok, let's see about that. By that logic, lying makes you a liar. If you're a liar, then you're headed for the lake of fire, because ". . . all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire . . ." (Rev. 21:8) You might want to re-think that and get a better grip on your true identity. If you are born again through faith in Jesus Christ, then you are NOT a liar and you are NOT a sinner. You are a SAINT who is trapped IN a body of sin and death. A prisoner is trapped IN jail, but he is not the jail. You live IN a house, but you are not the house (II Cor. 5:1). God says that you are IN your body, but YOU are not your body, so YOU are not a sinner, unless you are still lost and going to hell. That's sound doctrine, and those who disagree are guilty of not enduring sound doctrine (II Tim. 4:3), even if it's your favorite camp meeting preacher.