“…every seemingly unimportant omission in our spiritual practices produces some injury.” Thomas a Kempis – Imitation of Christ – p. 24
One of the most loved verses in all of Scripture is probably Romans 8:28, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” What a great promise for those who truly love God! But what is this “purpose” that He speaks of at the end of the verse? Well if we go on to vs. 29, Paul explains, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;”. From before the beginning of time, God has purposed that those whom He would save would day after day become ever more conformed to the image of His Son - - that we would be increasingly like Him in every way - - that He would be increasingly able to live His very life through ours (see Galatians 2:20).
One of the ways we participate in this glorious process is by learning to effectively and decisively deal with sin on a daily basis. It is my contention that we believers are often not near as sober and alert as we ought to be about the reality of the “…law of sin which is in (our) my members.” Romans 7:23. This law or principle or reality is that sin never sleeps. It is alive and well in every believer until we are with Jesus and finally delivered from these mortal bodies. It is always working and is highly deceitful (see Romans 7:11 & Hebrews 3:12,13). It is like a cancer that we can never totally get rid of. And we dare not take it lightly for its intent is to bring spiritual and even physical death.
So I want to continue in this post a short discussion on two more principles that are crucial to help us learn to overcome sin in all its forms. And the first one is this: We must embrace the truth about ourselves, which in short is we have a dual identity. King Solomon wisely said regarding the pursuit of righteousness in this earthly life, “It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other, for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.” Ecclesiastes 7:18 I fear that many believers have been quick to embrace their new life and identity in Christ, but have been slow to embrace the reality that their flesh or sinful nature is still alive and well.
The apostle Paul has probably written more about our new life and identity in Christ than any other Biblical writer. Anne and I have greatly profited from those wonderful truths in Ephesians ch. 1 and Colossians ch. 1, 2, Romans chps. 6 & 8, etc. But Paul also speaks of the other side of the coin. For instance in Romans ch. 7, which is a chapter about our sanctification, Paul affirms the law of sin that I mentioned above. And he is quick to confess that at some point in his journey with Christ he experienced a great struggle in his spirit – often finding himself not doing what he in Christ wanted to do; and often doing what he in Christ did not want to do (see vs. 15-24). I do believe he eventually overcame this bondage to sin, the victory which he alludes to in vs. 25.
Also in this passage he affirms two sobering realities about himself that will always be true this side of heaven. First, he confesses, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.” (7:18). Then he confesses “I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.” (7:21) If these truths are not truths that you readily agree to and accept as true of yourself, then you might want to ask the Holy Spirit to make it real to you - to help you see it as He does and as it truly is. As one old sage has warned, “God will either show you the greatness of your sin or He will show others the greatness of your sin.” It is much better that He makes this very clear to you directly than you continue to ignore it or stuff it and then at some point later on it becomes evident to those around you because of its damaging effect on you and those close to you.
If you want to brush up on both your identity as an adopted son or daughter in Christ with all the spiritual blessings that come with that and your identity as a sinner with all the sobering realities that come with that - the post below was designed for that purpose. https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/a-primer-on-our-sin-nature-vs-our-new-nature-identity-in-christ
My next principle for helping us overcome sin in all its forms is: We must learn to kill sin, not bandaid it or merely manage it. Paul is very clear and unapologetic about this in two critical passages. First in Romans 8:12, 13, Paul writes, “So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” What does it take for we believers to actually live out our life in Christ? Daily “putting to death the deeds of the body” – that is the sinful deeds of the body or the deeds of the flesh. They cannot be played around with. Decisive action by the power and leading of the Holy Spirit as vs. 13 states is crucial.
Paul also speaks to this in Colossians 3:5. But sadly the translators of the New American Standard Version and the Updated New American Standard Version (the version I use) chose to not translate it literally, eventhough the K.J, NKJ, NLT, NIV, ESV and others translated it literally. The Updated NASV chose to translate it this way, (which I believe shows some theological bias), “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to Idolatry.” They chose to replace the word kill or put to death, which is the accurate translation of the Greek word “nekrosate”, with “consider”, which is a more passive action, and while a necessary action per Romans ch. 6, it is not the action demanded here in the Greek or that Paul had in mind.
Matthew Henry in commenting on this passage says we must learn to kill sin or sin will kill us. It is not an optional part of our spiritual life. John Owen in his book, “The Nature, Power, Deceit and Prevalency of the Remainders of Indwelling Sin in Believers” wrote, “…the giving way to the law of sin in the least is the giving strength unto it. To let it alone, is to let it grow, not to conquer it, is to be conquered by it.” (p. 20).
Is this not what Jesus had in mind when in Matthew 5: 27-30 He declared, “You have heard that it was said, YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. If your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”
Obtaining forgiveness for our sins from God is a wonderful thing. (I recently wrote on the blessing of such. You can find it here: https://www.kingdomstreams.net/post/the-great-blessing-and-practice-of-coming-to-god-for-forgiveness-as-a-way-of-life ). But Jesus expects His disciples to not stop there. When we find we are sinning in some recurring way, we are to go to whatever seeming extreme is necessary to get to the root of this sin pattern and stop it in its tracks. We have found the Holy Spirit will be as specific as we will let Him be on what this should look like. Obviously Jesus does not mean for us to literally cut off our hand or gouge out our eye. But He used those two metaphors to communicate to us how “radical” we must be to truly overcome sin or kill sin and not just band aid it.
The context of this discussion is Jesus had begun His ministry and everywhere He went He found the standard of righteousness had been greatly lowered and corrupted by the religious leaders and authorities of His day, most of whom were oblivious to their own personal sin issues. Jesus therefore is found in chapter five of Matthew and beyond incrementally raising the standard of righteousness. He probably shocked his listeners when He declared,“For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” 5:20
When we get to chapter seven of Matthew, we are introduced to a practice that is crucial for His disciples to attain to His standard of righteousness, and that is daily giving our utmost attention to the log or beam in our own eye rather than the splinter in someone else’s (7:1-5). If the sins of others around us are our greatest concern, then we clearly are not ready to put to death our own sins. It is only as Jesus said when we make the putting to death of our own sins our daily greatest focus and concern that we can be used by Him to help others with their sin issues.
Well I need to bring this to a close. Some of you readers may be readily receiving the basic principles I have been discussing in this post and the previous one. And you may be wishing others you know and love would see the need to give more focused attention to their own sins. There are many reasons why we believers can go for months or years and not do so. For the prophet Isaiah, it took a powerful encounter with our Holy God and His seraphim before his sins became front and center (see Isaiah ch. 6). For Peter the abundant goodness of God as seen in Jesus telling him & his companions where to cast their nets and then immediately catching so many fish two boats were filled and started to sink with the weight of them – this caused Peter to see how unworthy he was of such goodness (see Luke 5:1-9). Paul in Romans 2:4 says “…the kindness of God leads you to repentance”. It doesn’t always with everyone. But sometimes coming into a fresh awareness of His goodness and kindness causes us to see how great a sinner we are and how unworthy we are of such goodness. Another work of God that is often necessary especially for we leaders and ministers in the church to come to grips with our own sin is for God to help us see our gifts and anointings have little if anything to do with our godliness. As Paul says in a discussion about God’s covenant dealings with Israel, “….the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” (Romans 11:29). It is very easy for leaders and ministers in the body of Christ to ride on our anointing and gifts and think because God is using us He is therefore pleased with us. Often He is indeed using someone but is not at all pleased with them. I can’t fully explain it. But I’ve walked in it and I’ve seen so many others walk in it. One reason it is so easy to do so is because we have created a church culture that is enamored with gifts and anointings and crowds and healings and miracles, and numbers, etc., and that gives little attention to what I’ve been talking about.
God will sooner or later get our attention. And one way I’ve seen Him do that beyond what I’ve mentioned above is by seeing the impact our sins have had on someone we love and care for. Peter’s crumbling in tears when he had denied Jesus three times and Jesus looked over at him and Peter saw His disappointment is a biblical example of such.
May the Holy Spirit become ever more your personal spiritual trainer and personal spiritual therapist and may He lead you into the practices by His power and enabling that are necessary for you to overcome all sin for His glory in Jesus’s name, Amen. Faithful is He who calls you and He will bring it to pass my dear reader.
Comments