Popular religious teaching suggests that believers need to take up their cross daily in order to follow Jesus. While it’s true that Jesus taught the importance of denying oneself and taking up their cross (Matthew 16:24-26), He was not speaking of an ongoing act after salvation. He was inviting people to follow Him into His death so that they might be raised to newness of life and be saved (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:1-12). This is what happens to every believer at salvation.

Some say believers need to “die to self.” However, the phrase “die to self” does not appear anywhere in the New Testament. Instead, Scripture teaches that our old self has already died – past tense – and we have been raised with Christ as new selves in Him (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:1). Think about it: You don’t need to “die to self” if you’re the new self!

Christians are always referred to as saints in Scripture, not sinners. We believers are not sinners, but saints who sometimes sin. We have been set apart (sanctified – made into saints) by Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 10:10).

Some teach that Christians need to deny themselves as if their “self” is bad. But in Matthew 16:24-26, Jesus is not speaking of an ongoing denial of self. He is talking about a one-time decision to deny our old self (in Adam) and become a new self (in Christ). Now that you are the new self, you should not deny your new self, your new heart, or your new desires. You should instead count yourself dead to sin and alive to God (Romans 6:11).

Scripture is clear that believers (as people) were sanctified – past tense – the moment we were saved (1 Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 10:10). This means we have been fully set apart for God. Our behavior, on the other hand, is being sanctified (set apart) as we learn and grow in our understanding of God’s grace (1 Peter 1:15). We must separate who we are (sanctified children of God) from how we perform (a mix of walking by the flesh and walking by the Spirit) to rightly understand this issue. Unfortunately, the popular idea of “progressive sanctification” conflates these two types of sanctification and practically ignores what has already been done within us.

Two different Greek words are used in Scripture to describe the spirit and the soul. The spirit (Gk. pneuma) speaks of the innermost part of the person, the part that is one with the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:17) and new at salvation (Ezekiel 36:26-27). In contrast, the soul (Gk. psuché) is the psychology (mind, will, and emotions) of a person.

Some point to 1 Timothy 1:15 to make the argument that Christians are called “sinners” in the New Testament. However, Paul only referred to himself as a sinner in the 1 Timothy passage because of his history of persecuting the church (Galatians 1:13). He was referring to his condition before salvation. We believers are not sinners by nature anymore. We are saints who sometime sin.

Some teach that a believer has a wicked heart (Jeremiah 17:9). However, this is not Scriptural. A Christian has a new, righteous and obedient heart (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Hebrews 8:10; Romans 6:17). Jeremiah 17:9 describes an unbeliever before the born-again experience. In contrast, every believer has a new heart, a new spirit, and God’s Spirit.

We often hear we need to become more like Christ. But this isn’t the best way to think of our Christian journey. When we believe in Jesus, we are made like Jesus at the core (1 John 4:17), even though our performance (attitudes and actions) do change over time (Romans 12:2).

Righteousness, in a Biblical context, is to be right with God at the core of your being. It means that on a scale of 1-10, you’re an 11! No human is righteous through their own efforts (Romans 3:19-20). But through Christ, we have been imputed and imparted the very righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:21; Romans 4:25; Romans 6:18).