The most dangerous theft in today’s church is not financial scandal or political compromise. It is identity theft. Across pulpits from Kogi to London, believers are repeatedly told, _“We are still bunch of sinners; we sin every day.” It sounds humble, but it quietly contradicts the core of the Gospel. When a child is constantly told they are worthless, they often grow into that script. In the same way, when Christians are trained to confess and see themselves primarily as sinners, they internalize defeat. Jesus warned that the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. A lie about who you are in Christ is one of his most effective tools.
The New Testament presents salvation not as moral coaching but as purification and transformation. Paul writes that God chose us to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Sanctification means cleansing at the root. John the Baptist declared that Jesus takes away the sin of the world. Paul explains in Romans 6 that the old man is crucified, the body of sin is destroyed, and the believer is dead to sin and alive to God. This language is decisive, not symbolic. The cross was not cosmetic; it was judicial and transformative.
Yet many Christians accept forgiveness while resisting transformation. They believe Christ paid for sin but hesitate to affirm that He broke its dominion. Paul commands believers to reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God. Reckon is an accounting term. It means to accept as fact. Identity in Christ is not based on feeling but on finished work. Growth in grace follows this new identity; it does not create it. A believer may stumble, but failure does not redefine their nature any more than a child’s fall cancels their humanity.
When churches continually emphasize “we are sinners,” they may think they are guarding humility. Instead, they risk shaping expectation. If a person believes sin defines them, temptation feels consistent with who they are. Jesus said the truth makes free. Freedom is not theoretical; it is ontological. If the Son makes you free, you are free indeed. Paul declares that anyone in Christ is a new creature. Not an improved sinner, but a new creation. Language matters because identity directs behavior.
This does not remove responsibility or the call to holiness. The New Testament repeatedly commands believers to walk worthy, resist temptation, and grow in knowledge. But commands to walk holy assume a holy foundation. God does not command spiritual corpses to behave; He commands living sons and daughters to live according to the life already given. Grace does not excuse sin; it empowers righteousness by changing the inner man.
The church must therefore guard its vocabulary. Gratitude is right, but permanent self-identification as a sinner undermines redemption. Christ did not die merely to manage sin but to destroy its rule and create a new humanity. Believers are not what accusation says; they are what Christ accomplished. To reject that truth is to reopen the door to bondage. To believe it is to walk in the freedom the Gospel boldly proclaims.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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