The Christian is not sinless, but they most certainly sin less. Anyone who expects to have sin removed from them in this life expects something that God has not promised for this world. It is excellent to desire to be without sin, but to actually expect to be sinless in this life will eventually make your Christian walk a very miserable one. It is a burden you cannot bear, and it will leave you in a downcast situation after you realize over and over again that you still fall.
God will not remove sin out of our mortal bodies in this life. God has not promised glory in this life, He has promised Grace that is sufficient. God has not removed sin out of our mortal bodies now, because He intends to show the power of His grace even in the weakest of all believers. The grace God gives us now is in order to stir us up and have us long for Glory.
God’s mighty grace has purifying effects while we are in this world, but it does not perfect us while we are in this world. Grace does not make sin disappear, it makes it so sin doesn’t reign. Grace helps repel sin, not expel sin. The most mature Christian on Earth right now still battles the sin that remains in their mortal body, and they will do so until the day their soul departs from their body.
Sin is left in us in order to make us watchful of our intentions. We must be watchful at all times, because sin is still in us like a most miserable grouch, and the slightest thing that pokes at it or wakes it up sends it into a rage. It doesn’t take much for it to rage in us. Sin is like the mud at the bottom of a clear puddle. The drop of a small rock in it will stir up and scatter all of the muck from the bottom, and cloud the whole puddle. Sin is in our bodies like a bed of hot coals, and anything put on the bed of coals that sin can burn will ignite it into a flame with the slightest gust of a wind of temptation.
But thanks be to our God and Savior Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd. He has purchased grace for us, and He will see to it that His people will be prepared for Glory. He will lead us through this wilderness to Glory, and what He does not subdue on the way there, He will pardon.- Joshua Arnold