Sinful Self vs. True Self

I just finished the book Wild at Heart by John Eldridge. In his book he writes that we aren’t evil, that sin is outside of us and we give into it- it’s not our “true selves”. He uses Romans to back up his point. Paul writes “I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate…But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it” (Romans 7:15 and 20). What does this mean? We’re not responsible for our sin because it’s not actually us sinning? That’s what it sounds like to me. As a teacher of Life Skills classes, I want to say to Paul, “You are responsible for the choices you make, blaming something or someone else is not going to change that responsibility.” Am I right?

If we go back to the way beginning, Adam and Eve, they were perfect without sin, but with the ability to choose. Satan, who was not in them but outside of them, comes along and tempts them, and they give in. From that moment forward, mankind was born with a sinful nature and that’s who they were. In that very simplified story, we see man as God created him to be, or as John Eldridge would say, man in his “true self.” Temptation and sin were outside of him. In making the choice to eat the apple Adam and Even invited the sin inside themselves (and us). But, “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord…for the power of the life-giving Spirit us freed [us] from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 7:25, 8:2). I think this is what Paul meant when he wrote that he is not the one sinning, that the sin is something outside of his true self. 

So are we responsible for our sin? Absolutely. Adam and Eve were responsible. I am also responsible, but sin can no longer control me, not if the Spirit of God is living in me. I am no longer who I was under the sinful nature. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice I am made new. That is who I am. So Am I perfect? No, just as Adam and Eve were tempted, so I am and because I live in a fallen world I may (or will) give into temptation, but my true self is redeemed by the blood of Christ and that is who I am.