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BELIEVERS RESPONSE TO SIN AFTER CONVERSION

EXAMPLES OF VIEWS HELD:

  1. Salvation provides forgiveness of the believers past sins and freedom from the penalty of sin but not the power over sin of the believers present and future sins because I still have an evil nature">

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    BELIEVERS RESPONSE TO SIN AFTER CONVERSION

    EXAMPLES OF VIEWS HELD:

    1. Salvation provides forgiveness of the believers past sins and freedom from the penalty of sin but not the power over sin of the believers present and future sins because I still have an evil nature, therefore I live mostly in defeat and depression in my Christian life.  Walking with God is a constant battle.  I think that it is natural for me to sin and unnatural to obey God.  Everything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening!  I am not very good at resisting temptation because I believe my nature is to sin.  My frequent falls confirm to me that my view is correct: at the core of my being is a sin nature.  I experience a Jekyll and Hyde existence…a never ending cycle of alternate victory and failure!

     

    1. Salvation does not do away with the fact that I have two natures i.e. “New nature & old nature”… “New man & old man”, therefore I have to constantly choose between these two natures thus leading to a “roller-coaster” Christian life.  My life is not just a roller-coaster; it’s a war!  I live as if I have two warring factions inside me.  Again, my experience confirms what I believe about myself.

    1. Salvation provides victory over both the penalty and power of sin and is not about my having an old creature and a new creature but rather that God’s Word says that “I AM a new creature!(II Corinthians 5:17)”  God has changed who we are.  The very core of our being is not sin, but the nature of God.  Jesus said, “Father, I delight to do They will.”  As new creatures, we have been designed to do the will of God and to delight in it.  God’s will is what we are designed for and what we really want.  What happened to our old nature?  God put us in Christ so that what happened to Jesus happened to us.  When Jesus died, our old selves died with Him because we were in Him when He died.  When Jesus was buried, we were buried with Him.  When Jesus was raised, we were raised with Him as new creatures.

    According to I Timothy 6:12, our fight is not with sin but the “good fight of faith!”  We are to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil and he will flee,”  James 4:7.   Ephesians 6:16 states, “Taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”

    We should learn what God’s Word says and must believe God rather than our feelings or experience:(John 8:32 “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”  Psalms 119:11 “Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.  Matthew 4:1-11 “Then(after water baptism)was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  Jesus answered and said, It is written…It is written…It is written”)

    SCRIPTURES

    1. II Corinthians 5:14 “For the love of Christ constraineth(sunecho=to hold together, controls, compels) us; that if One died for all, then WERE all dead:”

     

    1. II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone be in Christ, he IS a new creature:  old things ARE passed away;  behold, all things ARE become new.”

     

    1. Romans 6:3-4 “Know ye not, that so many of us as WERE baptized into Jesus Christ WERE baptized into His death?  Therefore, we ARE buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we HAVE BEEN planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:”

     

    1. Romans 6:6-7 Knowing this, that our old man IS crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  For he that is dead IS freed from sin.  Now, if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:”(Luke 9:23-24 “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.”

     

    1. Romans 6:11 “Likewise RECKON(logizomai=to count, to credit, regard, think of, consider, look upon) ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

     

    1. Romans 6:12-13 “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that ARE alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.”

     

    1. Romans 6:14, 18, 19 “For sin shall NOT have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.  NOW yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.”

     

    1. Romans 6:22 “But NOW being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.”

     

    1. Romans 12:1-2 “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye PRESENT your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”(II Corinthians 2:16 “We HAVE the mind of Christ.”

     

    1. I Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

     

    1. Galatians 2:20 “I AM crucified with Christ: nevertheless I LIVE; yet not I, but Christ LIVETH in me; and the life which I NOW live in the flesh, I LIVE by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

     

    1. Galatians 5:24 “And they that are Christ’s HAVE crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  If we LIVE in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

     

    1. Galatians 6:14 -15 “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world IS crucified unto me, and I unto the world.  For in Christ Jesus we ARE a new creature.”

     

    1. Colossians 2:12-15 “BURIED with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are RISEN with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.  He quickened together with Him, having FORGIVEN you all trespasses…NAILING it to His cross.  And having SPOILED principalities and powers, MADE a shew of them openly, TRIUMPHING over them in it.”

     

    1. II Timothy 1:12 “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”

     

    1. James 1:14-15 “Every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

     

    1. James 5:16 “Confess your faults(paraptoma=a falling aside one to another, and pray for one for another.”

     

    1. I John 1:6-7 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

     

    1. I John 1:8-10 “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess(homologeo=to speak the same thing) our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”

     

    1. I John 2:15-16 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”

     

    1. I John 3:7-10 “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.  He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.  For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.  Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.  In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”

     

    1. Jude 1:24 “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

    ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

    If we rely on our own strength to resist sin, we will never be free from bondage, no matter how hard we try.  God has designed redemption to free us not only from the penalty of sin but also from its power.  To experience our freedom, we must understand both the SUBSTITUTION and INDENTIFICATION truths of salvation.

    In SUBSTITUTION Jesus is punished in our stead.  He takes our place on the cross.  As our substitute, He is punished for our sins.  Understanding SUBSTITUTION frees us from the penalty of sin!  In IDENTIFICATION we are identified with Christ.  God has put us in Christ so that what happened to Jesus happened to us.  We were joined to Him and thus we are participators in what happened to Him.  When Jesus died, we died with him because we were in Him when He died.  When Jesus was buried, we were buried with Him.  When Jesus was raised, we were raised with Him as new creatures.  Understanding IDENTIFICATION frees us from the power of sin!

    All who are “in Christ” are dead to sin, freed from its power.  This is not for super Christians.  This is the normal Christian life!  According to Romans 6:11, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.  This is not a command to die to sin, but to affirm the truth that we are already dead to sin.  God is not asking us to pretend or use positive thinking to brainwash ourselves.  He is saying, “I want you to consider yourself dead to sin because you ARE!”

    God’s power comes on the scene only as we walk in the truth.  As long as I believe that my sin nature is not dead, the bondage will remain in me.  If I believe that I have two natures then I consider myself alive to sin and alive to God.  God commands me to consider myself dead to sin and alive to God!  Because we are in Christ and He has died for our sins, we have already died.  Death is not something that is going to happen to us; it has already happened.  It is not a thing that we must try to achieve in some shape or form; it is something that has already taken place.  Everyone who is a Christian has already been crucified with Christ!  Christ has completed a “finished” work which we could not do for ourselves.  He has already done it for us.  Glory be to His Name!

    PRACTICAL APPLICATION

    1. Hide God’s Word in your heart(Psalms 119:11)
    2. Know that every believer is tempted in like manner as we!(I Corinthians 10:13)
    3. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another!(James 5:16)
    4. Be accountable, submitted, open and truthful!(Ephesians 5:21)
    5. “Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”(James 4:7)”Flee lusts”(II Timothy 2:22; I Corinthians 6:18)
    6. Put on the whole armor of God!(Ephesians 6:11-18)
    7. (II Corinthians 10:4-5) “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of god, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ:”
    8. Be aware of people, places, times, things, that lead to temptation!(II Timothy 2:22; I Corinthians 6:18)
    9. “Faith is our victory”(I John 5:4-5) and “we live by His faith!”(Galatians 2:20)knowing that “Christ in us, is our hope of glory.”(Colossians 1:27)

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