You are right: sin will ever be present. The Bible teaches that sin will ever be present as long as we live on this earth, for we have a sinful nature. The teaching of the Bible — I did not say of most churches, for unfortunately this is no longer true — is that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), but that the gift of God is eternal life through the death of Jesus Christ for mankind’s sins, and His resurrection from the dead (Romans 6:23 and I Corinthians 15:1-4). It is also the teaching of the Bible that God has given all those Who believe on His Son the indwelling of His Holy Spirit (John 13-16, Galatians 5) so we can indeed walk in righteousness… but unfortunately, we still sometimes walk in our sinful nature instead (Galatians 5). Now, what I have written here is not taught in many churches; white people in the main did not know it when they came to enslave us, though they called themselves Christians, and so we could not have learned it from them. But God has not left Himself without the ability to minister to His people, of all shades, through the Spirit and the Word…

That same Bible, however, does not teach that better teaching, although we need it desperately, is going to change our sinful nature. We CAN modify our behavior, but God’s standard is revealed as perfection, and that we cannot attain. But, the proclamation of the Gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, and died a substitutionary death for our sins — for those who believe, God counts Christ’s righteousness to them, and counts their sins as paid for in full by Christ. AND, in addition, those who believe in Christ and His Work are given both a new nature and His Holy Spirit, Who leads them into Godly behavior in keeping with the righteousness of Christ.

TEACHING is important so we can know what God wants — hence, there is much Biblical doctrine that we need to know in order that the Spirit can lead us to obey. But without the leading of the Spirit, Who only comes after we believe in Jesus Christ, none of our obedience can meet God’s standard — for He counts our good behavior only by grace, in Christ.

About honesty with ourselves: yes. I am as much a sinner as anybody out there; I would be doing what anybody else is doing but for the grace of God. As a Christian, I know that I need the forgiveness of my sins as much as anybody out there… and if we as Christians could remember that, we would be better representatives of our Lord in all His forgiving, saving grace. But according to the Scriptures, the goal would not be just to help people change their behavior, but to lead them to Christ, Who can save them from their sin and raise them to life in Him.

For the record: it is true that many, many cultures lived in good harmony before Christianity was introduced. But Romans 1 explains that; the Bible does not describe a world in which there was no knowledge of God before Christ came, but a world in which the founders of all cultures had the knowledge of the true and living God as revealed as Creator — but turned away from that knowledge, making up worship practices of their own. Some cultures retained more knowledge of civilization, of how to act out right and wrong, longer than others. But that is a dangerous argument. Greco-Roman society was very orderly and harmonious in its heyday (more than 200 years, if one counts the Pax Romana), though it was built on conquest and enslavement of all those outside the paradigm. Sin may manifest itself in different ways in different cultures, but the issue is that no culture, despite its civilized externals, measures up to God’s standard. Thus, as the Bible itself says, God concluded all are lost in sin so that Christ could be the Savior of all, without regard to cultural differences.

Ps I’m a new reader of this wedsite. I may not agree with all that I read or even like it alot of times. Honestly though, I like this website. It helps me to open myself to other view. I can appreciate this website. (23Yr old YBM)