When a sinner is "saved," he knows only two things so far as Christian experience is concerned. He knows that he is a wretched sinner, and that Christ died for his sins. Nobody ever was saved until he became aware of his sinfulness before God; and nobody is saved without truly realizing that Christ died for his sins. These two truths are the first things that a person learns so far as his new Christian experience is concerned.

You can't expect a new convert to know much else besides these two things. He knows that he was lost, but now, through the work of Christ, he has the remission of sins. Like the blind man, a new convert can say, "I once was blind, but now I see." He may not be able to quote a single passage of Scripture correctly, but those two facts he knows.

Now, after one is saved — after he has been born into the family of God — he should begin to grow. When a baby comes into this world, it is only natural that he will grow up. No one expects that newborn babe to remain in the cradle all of its life. Well, spiritually speaking, a person who has been born of God should grow spiritually. He should learn more about the Word of God and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. If a person who professes to be a Christian does not grow, then something is wrong somewhere. It may be that the person has not really been saved, or it may be that he has been fed on spiritual pablum and therefore is still a spiritual babe. But if properly fed, every spiritual babe will grow.

Here are a few things that a Christian learns after he is saved. These things evidence the fact that he is growing spiritually.

(1) First, A Christian learns that he is NOT "Sinless."

You know, a great many people think that to be a Christian one must become and remain perfectly sinless. They think that becoming a Christian means you quit your meanness and turn over a new leaf, and they think that to remain a Christian, one must never sin. In other words, they think of salvation in terms of what man does and not what the Lord Jesus has done. They believe if one sins again, they then "lose" their salvation.

But salvation has nothing to do with man's works. Salvation is of the Lord. Jesus lived a perfect life for us, and He died to pay for our sins. His perfect life is counted on our record, and His death takes away all of our sins. That is our salvation. Once we are led to see that truth and believe it, we are Christians. Now we live for God as His grace enables us, not to be saved or to stay saved, but because we love the Lord Jesus for saving us by His own life and death.

But many folk have warped ideas along this line and think they are sinless. However, when a person becomes a Christian, he soon learns that he is still possessed of a wicked, fleshly nature. I remember how I thought that I would not sin again after I was saved. But it wasn't long until I found out that my old flesh had not been changed. I had a new nature, yes; but I still had "old Adam," too. I now had the old sinful nature and the new nature given by God.

Those two natures began to fight against each other, and there has been a civil war within me ever since. It wasn't long after I was saved that I learned this fact as to the two natures. There are some folk who think they only have one of these natures. Well, they are right in one respect: they do have only one nature — the old Adamic nature. If they had the new nature, they would have light so as to be able to see that they are not "sinlessly perfect." [see related article, "The Heresy of Sinlessness in the Flesh, or Sinless Perfection" — CLICK HERE]

Paul, in Galatians 5:17, says: "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

This we see, a Christian has two "natures" and is not sinlessly perfect in the flesh. If you are saved, this is a fact!