Sin does not change the identity of the born again believer -it does not take away salvation- but it can affect the life experience of a believer and the soul, which is the mind, will, and emotions of a person. Our spirit is one with Christ -made perfect as Christ is perfect- but our soul is being renewed throughout our journey of life. The consequences of sin are mostly experienced in our soul. So how do we experience these consequences?

1. It clouds our mind. It changes our perspective of ourselves. We stop seeing ourselves the way that God sees us and start to view ourselves as a Sinner that can’t seem to get it right or do things right, that we are a bad person, that we have made God mad at us, and etc. It makes it difficult to see that we are righteous in God’s eyes, that we are accepted and loved just as we are, and that we are forgiven and redeemed by God.
2. Sin weakens our will our self control, our ability to make right choices, to do what we know is best for us to do. Sin is missing out on what God has for us. It is missing out on the best that God has to offer us. The best way to deal with temptation is to remember who we are, remember who we are in Christ and who we were created by God to be. By doing so we are reminding ourselves that we don’t have to give in to the temptation, that it is not what is best for us, and that we deserve and were created for better.
3. Sin wounds the emotions. Emotions are inward feelings that can move you in a outward direction. When emotions are negative or not aligning with God they will move you in a direction away from God’s will or what is best for you. When we sin we have emotions of guilt, shame, regret, condemnation, failure, or rejection. Those feelings lead us to make poor choices and sin even more. Because we have negative feelings we make negative decisions. Or we may desire to escape from the negative emotions so we do a sin that will cause a temporary positive feeling. But as soon as the temporary positive feeling subsides we are left with the same negative emotions that we wanted to escape and they could possibly be even more intensive. The wounded emotions that sin has caused has changed our view of ourselves which has caused us to lose sight of our true identity. It has caused us to lose our worth and value and base it on what we do or have done instead of who we are as a person and what is in our hearts.
4. Sin Harden’s the Conscience, ignoring truth dulls spiritual sensitivity. Hebrews 3: 13 says sin hardens the heart. The heart becomes hardened to the truth and can’t hear from God. Sin opens the door to destructive patterns. James 1:14-15 says Sin cheats you out of what God has allotted for your life because you become hardened to your spirit and cannot be guided by it. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away from his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has been conceived it brings forth sin and when it is finished it brings forth death. So sin starts with a desire or a thought. And that desire or thought entices us. It makes us yearn for it. And that leads us away in order to trap us into forgetfulness of what is right, good, and true. That leads to living in the darkness that conceived or birthed the desire or thought in the first place. It is a vicious cycle. The death that it brings is loss of peace, joy, confidence, or relationship. It brings emotional turmoil into your life and that feeds destructive behaviors.

But Gods’s grace is what helps us be renewed and restored. It gives us the desire and power to change. The more that we think about God’s forgiveness the more we will feel forgiven and accepted and loved. That will lead to breaking the sinful thought patterns and help us think more about the truth of where we stand with God, which brings about the peace, joy, love, and freedom that we need to live fulfilled lives. The soul does not become by stopping sin. It becomes whole by believing in Christ and the truth of our new identity. It becomes whole by allowing the Holy Spirit to renew our mind, allowing our mind and our will and our emotions to align with our new spirit. It is a lifelong learning process. Do not expect yourself to become perfect or to be able to always make the right choice and decision because we do have the human nature that lies within us. Our sin nature will always be a part of us, but the more that we think in alignment with God’s word and the truth of how he views us as he views Christ, the better that we can get at at being who God created us to be and enjoy life to the fullest being the best version of ourselves that we can be at any given time.