How Can a Christian Be an Addict?
The question presses hard against both our theology and our experience. If a Christian is saved by grace, sealed with the Spirit, and set free from sin, how can that same person remain enslaved to an addiction?
“If you are fighting sin, you are alive. Take heart.
But if sin holds sway unopposed, you are dead no matter how lively this sin makes you feel.
Take heart, embattled saint.
– John Owen
What It Means to Be a Christian
The usual evangelical route is clear: salvation comes by faith alone in Christ alone. This is justification—the once-for-all declaration of righteousness because of Christ’s finished work on the cross. But salvation is also an ongoing process. Paul urges us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13). This is sanctification—the Spirit’s daily work of transforming us into the likeness of Christ.
For the person who brings an addiction into their faith, recovery becomes part of sanctification.
Why Addiction Is So Stubborn
Addiction touches the whole person. It hijacks the brain and nervous system, dulls the conscience, warps desires, and damages relationships. Good intentions are often swept aside by cravings that feel more like commands. And today’s addictions are more virulent than ever—pornography on a phone, gambling apps in your pocket, substances more potent than in previous generations.
Paul described this tension in Romans 7. I believe he was writing as a Christian to Christians, confessing the reality of indwelling sin: “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19). The struggle is real, and it is not outside the experience of a true believer.
What Kind of Problem Is Addiction?
Is addiction spiritual, psychological, behavioral, neurological, or social? The answer is yes—all of the above. But at the foundation, addiction is spiritual. It grows out of our natural rebellion, our attempt to relate independently from God.
That means recovery is not merely about behavior management, brain chemistry, or willpower. It’s about surrender—the whole person (heart, soul, mind, and body) in a social context, bowing again and again before God.
Walking in Recovery as Sanctification
For the addict who belongs to Christ, sanctification will look like recovery. The same four goals given to every believer take on particular urgency:
- Guarding the heart – Protecting desires from counterfeit gods.
- Renewing the mind – Replacing distorted thoughts with truth from God’s Word.
- Honoring Christ in the body – Treating the body not as an instrument of indulgence, but as a temple of the Spirit.
- Loving others like Christ – Healing relational wreckage through repentance, amends, and service.
These are not quick fixes, but lifelong practices. For the addict, they must be embraced in both repentance and recovery—naming sin honestly and depending on grace daily.
Hope for the Addict in Christ
Addiction does not disqualify someone from being a Christian. It does not cancel justification. But it does make sanctification messy. The good news is that the Spirit is not intimidated by addiction. Where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more (Romans 5:20).
A Christian can be an addict, but no Christian has to stay defined by addiction. In Christ, our identity is not addict but beloved child of God, called to walk by the Spirit, one day at a time.
And one day, the struggle itself will end. Glorification occurs when a believer passes from this life into the next and is freed forever from the sin nature. In the resurrected body, fully aligned with God, there will be no cravings, no compulsions, and no shame—only the joy of perfect communion with Christ.