Confronting Our Sin Nature (and Learning How to Be Less Judgmental)

By Lauren Rose Correa, June 13, 2025

Confronting Our Sin Nature: Woman Blocking Face with Hand

As Christians, something that’s easy for us to gloss over is that fact that we have a sin nature. Confronting our sin nature can be a challenge. You may believe that you are a good person, or that people are innately good. But if you read scripture, it’s simply not the case.

“As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one.” Romans 3:10 NIV

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Jeremiah 17:9 KJV

If you grew up a believer, or even if you just grew up with a good sense of morality, you may not be aware of what your sin nature is capable of.

Confronting Our Sin Nature – Is Sin on a Scale?

Perhaps you view sin on a scale. You might think that the type of infractions you commit, such as being impatient in traffic, getting into a fight with your partner, or losing your cool with your children, are not as bad as someone who has committed murder or assaulted someone else.

There are some sins that have more immediate and more severe consequences. But in Gods eyes, sin is sin. Perhaps you losing your cool regularly with your children and being hypocritical is pushing them away from God. The eternal consequences of this is just as bad as murder.

And what about the sins that you want to commit but hold back from because you don’t want to get in trouble? The desire to do something at all is evidence that you have a sin nature. You may feel like a good person for not acting on something you really desire to do, but is wanting to commit a sin and holding back because of consequences truly evidence of a good person?

We often look at others who commit crimes much worse than ours and judge them as being more evil than we are. But how do we know we are not capable of the same, given the right circumstances? If we had a challenging upbringing, or experienced poverty, or were trapped in a desperate situation, how do we know this would not cause us to struggle with a different type of sin?

Confronting Our Sin Nature: Our Sin Condemns Us

We are not innately good. We are innately sinful. And even before we commit an action that is sinful, our sinful nature and its desires condemn us. It’s important as Christians that we are aware of this and rely on Christ for our righteousness, rather than on our own good deeds. Up close, and without God, our good deeds are riddled with selfish motives and imperfections.

“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” Isaiah 64:6 NIV

This shouldn’t dissuade us from doing good things, and it shouldn’t cause us to give in to our sin nature and commit atrocities. Rather, we need to recognize that we cannot be good apart from God.

Not Perfect, But Still Loved

If we are sinners, what then is our solution? We need to experience God’s grace, his love, and his compassion for us in our sinful state. Even though we are not perfect, we are still immensely loved. God decided that we are still worth loving, and he wants to restore us rather than toss us aside. When we admit our sin and allow God to love us in it, it changes us. It should cause us to be more compassionate, less judgmental people. When we see someone else struggling with sin, we won’t look down on them or condescend to them. We will recognize that we are equal to them and offer them the same compassion that Christ offers us in our sin.

When we fail to offer that compassion and instead offer criticism and judgment, it is often because we have not had the experience of seeing our sin clearly and confessing it to the Lord. Perhaps you are resisting because you don’t want to admit the depth of your sin. Perhaps looking at your sin makes you feel ashamed of yourself, and so you avoid it. Or perhaps deep down, you don’t believe that he loves you. Maybe you feel your sin has made you unworthy of love.

If you feel this way, here are some things to remember:

You are not alone. You are literally surrounded by people who are also sinners. Maybe you don’t feel that way because of how you’re being treated. If that’s the case, know that people who judge you have likely not realized the depth of their own sin. Find a group of people who don’t think they are perfect.

You are worthy of love. Jesus determined your value at the cross. He decided you were worth dying for. God is in charge of determining your value, and he says you are worth it. It doesn’t matter what you think about yourself or what others think of you. Only Gods opinion matters.

When you repent of your sin, God cleanses you! Recognizing your sin is just a step in the process. You aren’t meant to dwell in that sin and shame forever. Confess it to God, ask him to help you change, and then watch as he changes you from the inside out. But never forget who you are without God. When you see someone else struggling, offer them the love you have received.

Confronting Our Sin Nature – For the Unbeliever

This post was written mainly with believers in mind. But for the unbeliever, confronting our sin nature is of utmost importance. Here’s the truth. We are all born sinners because we have chosen to rebel against God. Because of this, we deserve to be separated from him forever.

But he loved us so much that he came to earth in human form, as Jesus. He died a painful death to pay the price for what we did. If we believe that Jesus is God, believe he died for our sin, and accept his gift of salvation, we will be spared from the eternal consequences of our sin.

We will one day be made perfect and will live forever with God. If you have questions about salvation, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I am always open to talking. If you’re interested, I also share my testimony of freedom from mental illness in another post on this blog.