Overcoming Sin

Faith

You were set free from your old sinful nature and brought into a new nature when you received forgiveness of your sins.

because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:2-4)

If you forget this, you will soon turn to sin. You must remember that the sinful person is no longer you. You have to have faith and confidence and believe that this is true about you. The first step in walking in the new birth is to believe. Everything always begins with faith. Faith is the key to everything. You must believe that you are not the sinful person you have come to know yourself to be. You must believe that God loves you and he’s made you a new person. You must believe that the sinful person you have come to know yourself to be has been taken away. It’s not you any more. If you cry out to God that you have no power to stop sinning but you yield to his power in you to stop sinning, he will hear you. If you cry out to him to cleanse you by his blood and give you the power to live right, he will. It is this point in time or spiritual experience when you believed that you received freedom from God that you then need to continue to stand on in faith.



Renewed mind

Once you have taken your stand in faith, you need your mind renewed because if you’re thinking, "I can’t sin, but I want to," you’re under law.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; (Romans 8:5-6)

When you’re under law, spiritual death will always be the outcome because law has no power in itself to save. You may agree that the sin the Bible is commanding you to repent of is bad. You may see the laws against it as good laws. However, if there is still a part of you that is thinking how good it would be to do that sin anyway, it shows that your mind hasn’t been renewed in that area. In this case, there is a part of your mind that agrees with your renewed spirit that the law is good. However, there is also a part of your mind that agrees with your unfiltered instincts that doing that sin is greatly desirable, appropriate, necessary and those kinds of things. It is that part of your mind that agrees with your unfiltered instincts that you must address if you are to walk in the wonderful freedom that God has for us in Christ Jesus. You must come to the point in your thinking that you don’t want to do that sin even if you could. You must understand, and I mean really understand why it is appropriate for a loving God to not want his children to walk in that thing or those things. This is called the renewing of your mind. Once your mind is renewed, you choose not to do a particular sin because you understand that it is stupid instead of because you know that the law commands it. The law will never produce in you the righteous life that God requires of you. It is the Holy Spirit’s life in you, filtered through a renewed mind, that will accomplish that. You need to free yourself from the law and be transformed from the core of your being.



The flesh

Your unfiltered instincts will never submit to God’s laws as they are incompatible with God’s laws.

For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8 – New American Standard)

We received this nature from the impact of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil on Adam and Eve. Whereas a drug may change somebody for a period of time, this fruit not only changed Adam and Eve permanently, but it changed the core of their being so dramatically that even their children received the changes that had come upon them. Adam and Eve would never be the same again and either would the children that were produced through them. You’re wasting your time trying to become perfect without the Holy Spirit. You cannot become perfect apart from Christ’s power because you are an imperfect being. You cannot truly free yourself from sin apart from Christ’s power because your very being by its nature is a captive to sin. Of course, you can reform yourself and make positive changes, but you cannot be free from sin.



A right spirit is required

As a Christian, you cannot try and walk in God’s power over sin while walking in sin at the same time. It will never work. A good tree produces good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit Jesus taught.

Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matthew 7:17-19)

If you have compromise in your life, there is no power there from the Holy Spirit for you to actually break free from sin. It is foolish and a great deception to think that you can slowly work yourself out of your sin. Certainly, you can make some reforms, but the power of the Holy Spirit will not kick into your life until you are clean before God. The roots of a holy life come from a spirit that is right with God. When your spirit is right with God, you are ready to grow. If your spirit is not right with God, you are not properly ready. Your spirit being right is the power behind a righteous life. This is why the deception that your sin cannot take away your salvation is so dangerous. It not only robs people of going to heaven, but it also robs them of the one way that they can actually get free on the earth. The only way they will ever truly get their lives together here on this earth will be if they have taken the first step of repenting of sin in their lives and have received the Holy Spirit’s power to produce the life that supports their decision. This does not mean however that they can ever sin too many times to be forgiven by God. In fact, they will never be able to walk in the righteousness that God requires if they stop trying to walk in that righteousness because they believe God will not forgive them as they have sinned too many times. The same salvation is available to the struggling drug addict that is available to the respectable community leader.



Don’t give up

It is important to never give up and never surrender to sin. Christ’s patience towards sinners will only end with their death. It’s never too late to be forgiven, and there is never any limit to how many times God will forgive. Remember though, that you are playing with eternal hell while you wait and the life that is really life you are not yet living. Don’t you want to experience love, joy, peace, prosperity and all those other things? Turn to the life that is really life today, and stop playing with your eternal salvation. You cannot comprehend the regret you will feel every moment of the rest of eternity if you play with sin and come out the loser. Pray the following out loud, "Lord Jesus, I let go of all sin in my heart. I choose to deal with all the sinful things in my lifestyle. I look to you to give me strength. Forgive me for sinning so many times against you. I receive your wonderful life and salvation now by faith, Amen".