(ThyBlackMan.com) Recently on CNN I heard Franklin Graham say that we all are sinners. His comment reminded me how many people have played into, believed and been deceived by a false doctrine – a doctrine that neither Christ nor the New Covenant nor the New Testament promotes nor supports. That false/flawed doctrine is that “we all are sinners”. Such doctrine is based on faulty reasoning, poor study, misapplication of scripture and a lack of understanding of what makes a born-again Christian who he is (identity).
The idea that you are “a sinner saved by grace” is a man-made deception – not in scripture.
Many people use man’s reasoning and man’s logic to conclude that “we all are sinners”. This is a big problem and a bigger error because scripture teaches God’s ways are not the ways of man and His thoughts are not the thoughts of the carnal or unlearned (Isaiah 55:8-9). A real Christian must have the mind of Christ (I Corinthians 2:16, Philippians 2:5). And praying, going to “church” every week or giving and good works do not make you a child of God (Ephesians 
2:8-9, John 1:12). You must be born again (John3:1-21, 1 Peter 1:22-23).
Pastors, teachers and even seminaries often make the mistake of repeating a lie, deception or error without ever checking to see if it was accurate or not. That is how the lie that “we all are sinners” continues to circulate everywhere. And to say you are “a sinner saved by grace” is very problematic and just plain wrong. Either you are one or the other. If you are saved by grace, you are no longer a sinner. You can no more be both at the same time than you can be a believer and an unbeliever at the same time. As you will see, the differences are so vast that to be both at the same time will not work. Nor is such taught in the Bible. So be very careful of man-made clichés’.
The Bible tells us how to determine who is a real believer and who is not. I John 4:1-5, Matthew 7:15-20, Matthew 13:24-30, Galatians 5:22, Romans 8:14
Man’s reasoning and logic, as he leans to his own understanding, says “if you do something regularly, it must define who you are”. Thus the flawed idea is “if you sin, you must be a sinner” and that “we all sin so we all must be sinners”. But as you will see in this article, God sees, identifies and determines things differently for His children. The New Covenant clearly teaches us that God defines His children by relationship (Psalm 103;14), not by behavior. Furthermore, we must call ourselves what God/Christ calls us (Romans 8:16, Galatians 4:7, II Corinthians 6:18, John 1:12, I Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1:1, Philippians 1:1, Colossians 1:2).
Sinners are judged by behavior but children of God are judged by relationship.
So then what are the differences between a child of God who sins and a sinner? There are many differences. Sinners do not go to Heaven. Saints or children of God do go to Heaven because we have an advocate with the Father, because ALL of our sins have been paid for by Christ (II Corinthians 5:21), because our sins are not held against us (Mica 7:18-19, Psalm 103:12, I John 1:9) and because we accept Christ’s payment and sacrifice of himself via his death in exchange for our receipt of eternal life. And eternal life is not just granted until you sin. If it were, it would by definition never be eternal in the first place and we would lose it every week.
Calling yourself what God calls you is your only real identity.
Sinners have no family relationship with God. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in sinners and they have not been adopted into God’s family through the blood of Christ but this is not true for children of God (I Corinthians 6:19 as Paul speaks to believers (I Thessalonians 2:10) at the church of Corinth and I Corinthians 3:16). Sinners have not accepted the sacrifice Christ made to pay their debt so they have to pay it themselves – a debt that required a death as payment. This is not true of God’s children (Romans 8:2). Sinners are therefore condemned to die a spiritual death but children of God in Christ are redeemed, not condemned (Romans 8:1).
Sinners still have their old nature of sin that dominates, rules and controls them but sin does not have dominion over a child of God (Romans 6:6). Nor does a child of God have the sin nature any longer (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10). Sinners have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Good but children of God have an inheritance (Romans 8:17). A sinner is the same old person they have always been but a child of God is a new person (II Corinthians 5:17). God sees a sinner as blemished and unholy but He sees His children as both holy and unblemished (Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 4:24). And that is how He deals with us. A child of God is a citizen of Heaven but a sinner is destined for Hell (Philippians 3:20). I could go on but you get the point and the proof is undeniable. There are far too many differences between sinners and children of God for them to be one and the same.
If you are a born-again child of God, you are not a sinner. You will slip, make mistakes, fall short and sin. But that is neither your identity nor your nature. You are simply in an imperfect vessel (the human body / the flesh) which gives in to temptation (Galatians 5:17). You are a spirit with a soul living inside a body and having the human experience, including the human disadvantages (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Yet you need to overstand you are very different from a sinner for the reasons mentioned herein and then some. And for these reasons, new believers often look and act like unbelievers. While salvation occurs in an instant, the process of becoming more and more like Christ (sanctification) takes both time and growth. The Bible clearly speaks for itself on all of this without the need for interpretation.
It is most important that you remember Christ (Yeshua) did not come to help you stop sinning. He came because you could not stop. No human being is free from sin but children of God do not practice a life and nature of that sin. And when we fall, we restore each other, we repent and we realize that we have been forgiven.
Staff Writer; Trevo Craw