You didn’t know any better then, but you do now. So, why? Why do you keep slipping back? Why do you keep choosing sin? Why do you return to that from which Christ saved you?
You may offer a few different reasons as answers to these questions. Perhaps, because the sin is familiar—you feel a certain level of comfort in the sin regardless of its known repercussions. Maybe the sin is too easy as you’ve not learned to place the proper boundaries or sought the necessary accountability to safeguard from pursuing such disastrous activities. Or, if you were completely honest, deep down, you still desire the sin; you still find it pleasurable because you’ve yet to crucify the nature of your flesh.
I believe, however, that there is yet another reason that could be the most dangerous for a follower of Christ. This is a belief that you have grown immune to a particular sin. Somehow you’ve become convinced that your previous lifestyle no longer affects you. Therefore, you watch the same movies, listen to the same music, and engage in the same behaviors while believing that it doesn’t impact your life in any way. But this is not so.
Immunity to sin is thinking one can engage in sin without it affecting them. In such a case, we would treat Christ’s death as a type of spiritual vaccine, thus preventing sin’s nature from destroying us. While not, as some would claim, a “license to sin,” it is perhaps viewed as a preventative treatment.
The believer, however, is not called to be immune to sin; they are called to be dead to it (Romans 6:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:17). There is an enormous and magnificent difference. Immunity only offers subversion of penalty, but Christ offers total freedom. Christ did not die so that we would escape the effects of our sin. He died to set us free from it altogether. What real hope do we have—what Good News is it—if we are no longer sick but still live in spiritual cages, held captive by our sin? This only leads to future death (Proverbs 5:22-23). In the end, we’re only living to die. Christ’s death and resurrection offer us much more than this. We have hope and a promise that we are not only healed from our sin but also set free from it. In other words, we are no longer tempted by the sin. As a person who is physically dead and will not respond when someone calls their name, we, too, are to be unresponsive when sin calls ours. If this is the case, then stop slipping back. Stop returning to your wicked ways. You’re dead to it; walk in that truth.
Christ did not suffer so that you would be immune to sin. He was sacrificed so that you would be dead to it.