Take a look at Romans 6,7, &8. You will see why we still have a sin problem, and what to do about it. The reality is that we do not have to sin, but because of our particular carnal influences prior yo our coming to Christ,we are still programmed in our minds a certain way, each being diferent based on their own experiences and circumstnaces. That is why we daily, by faith, declare our dependence on Christ, our position in Him(we are crucified with Christ), and the reality that Christ actually lives in us.Instead of trying hard not to do wrong things, we yield ourselves to Him, allowing Him to live through us. That is what being crucified with Christ means--we are dead to sin, but alive to God.He also says to yield our members of our body to become instraments of righteousness, as opposed to yielding to our carnal influence that remains with us until it is fully transformed by the renewing of the mind, or the process of sanctificstion.Paul said in Romans 12, that we are to have our minds renewed,so as to be able to discern His ways, and to prove the good and acceptable will of God. And our mind--thought patterns, attitudes, beliefs, values-- will change, then our behaviour follows behind it. We are free not to choose to sin now--something that we did not have a choice about prior to our salvation in Christ.
Have you ever noticed though that we can wake up in the morning and take time for the Lord but by the end of the day we are tired and crabby and more likely to make poor choices. It is good to have devotions, but it does help to stretch them through the day. Think of memory verses, pray in the car, read at lunch, listen to Christian music, and so on, that's what helps me. I am glad that I feel bad when I sin because that means I care about my walk, and that I want to submit myself to God.
I have noticed that in the mornings I am better. I think in the morning why did I do those things I did the night before.
Fred
I agree 100 %. Fred you will have all different kinds of answers on here reflecting their different theological persusions..YOu my frend will have ot "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." NO one on here realy knows Fred's heart like you and God..There are 2 extreme views here on sin..
A. One is you are saved no matter what..you are God's child .You should be striving to resist sin..but in the long haul//you will be saved anyway.
B.God requires you to be obedient . to walk in a faith and love that produces godly works. "Many are called and few are chosen." These folks are making sure of their salvation..
There has been many hurtful post and replies regarding this area Fred in th epast.NO ONE can persuade you either way...You will have to interpret the Word the way you see it..I for one am an extreme B. Certainly God gives us abundant life BUT He is not mocked.Whatsoever a man shall sow..He shall reap..When sin begins ot control me Fred like you are talking about...you simply cometo God as a child and ask Him to deliver you.
This is called the fear of God. A good healthy fear of God will cause you to have a strong relationship with God..instead of running from Him..you run to Him ...
I have noticed that in the mornings I am better. I think in the morning why did I do those things I did the night before.
Fred
I agree 100 %. Fred you will have all different kinds of answers on here reflecting their different theological persusions..YOu my frend will have ot "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." Continue the context of that verse--'for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.' You or I alone cannot and will not do anything apart form His already having come to live within us , which is the true sign of salvation. You are t work out your salvation that you have recieved, not work for it, so that you can receive it.NO one on here realy knows Fred's heart like you and God..There are 2 extreme views here on sin..
A. One is you are saved no matter what..you are God's child .You should be striving to resist sin..but in the long haul//you will be saved anyway. That is a total distortion of what I posted now and have posted in the past. If you are saved, then it is by grace, not by works,lest any man should boast. There has never even been an insinuation that you are saved regardless. Read Romans 6, it clarifies this very well.Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound--God forbid! That is never the issue. The issue is how do we please God, and receive His righteousness--, by grace through faith and repentance--it is the gift of God. Salvation is received, not achieved. It is a gift, not earned. It is based on the righteousness of Christ, not the inconsistencies in our lives, and is inspite of these inconsistencies. We are born again by the Spirit, not by the will of men. 2 Peter 1:5-11 makes it clear how we make our calling and election sure. After having faith, then, and only then, do we make every effort to grow in grace. Verses 3,4 clarify that we achieve this by the promises of God, and participating in the divine nature--which is Christ in us--His Spirit indwelling us--because we are saved, not attempting to achieve salvation. Verse 11 tells us that if we do not continue to do so, we will forget that we have been cleansed--nothing about maintaining or obtaining salvation. It is because we are partakers of the divine nature that we can operate spiritually in thefirst place.Galatians 3:1-1-3: You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now pefected by the flesh?
B.God requires you to be obedient . to walk in a faith and love that produces godly works. "Many are called and few are chosen." These folks are making sure of their salvation.. 1 John 2:3-5--And by this we know that we have come to know Him,if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him,"and does not keep His commandments , is a liar, and the truth is not in Him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know we are in Him. John says, as does Paul, and the rest of scripture, that once we come to know Him, then the evidence of this is our obedience, and our walking in love. It will be produced in us, not something that we do to make ourselves presentable to Him. It is the fruit that is produced by walking in the Spirit, which is impossible before salvation, and impossible to do as a matter of self effort. That is why he said, by this(obedience) we know that we have come to know Him, not trying to achiev it.
There has been many hurtful post and replies regarding this area Fred in th epast.NO ONE can persuade you either way...You will have to interpret the Word the way you see it..I for one am an extreme B.No Chuck, it is how you have percieved what was said,and your perception was completelywrong. I have said to you repeatedly that I have spoken to you out of concern for your struggles, that you have been forthright about, and that we all share in,to one degree or another.No one struggles any more tha I do.I have asked you how your approach has been working for you, not to hurt you, but to get you to ask yourself ,honestly, how helpful your 'extreme B" approach has been inovercoming your fleshly struggles--again, that we all share in. In the OT, when the battle of Jericho took place, what was the command of God? He told them to shout, for He had promised to give them the city. They acted in faith, and the walls fell down. They believed His promise and received His powerful intervention. In concerning our daily struggles with sin, we are promised that sin shall no longer have dominion over us, becasue we are under grace and not the law.(Rom 6:14)We lay claim of this by faith, and continue to shout it out, and we will experience thesame power of God to overcome, receiving the promise that sin, indeed, will no longer have dominion over us.Over and again Paulsays toyield ourselves to HIm. Yielding involves surrender--not self effort, but a reliance on His provisions.It also involves trust or faith, just as it involves faith to surrender ourselves or yield to the care of a doctor. We accept his diagnosis, and yield to his treatmat process. God's treatment process for sin is to yiel dto Him, so that He can turn us from instraments of sin to instraments of righteousness.Combine this with Galatians, when Paul declares, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I , but Christ lives in me, and the life that I now liveI live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me(not out of obligation, but a love given long before we evercared anything about Him) and gave Himself for me.I have never experienced any significant degree nor do I now experience any degree of victory over my own fleshly struggles by self effort, but I have known and experienced it when I cried out to Him, and He showed me, over and over again, that the key is walking by faith in His promises, and in His actual indwelling presence, and literally verbally claiming it out loud each andevery day, and relying on Him to live it out through me, rather than for me to attempt to live it out inself effort. I ahve also learned that this is very humbling, since I can't do it on my own,and thatwe are to have a gentle spirit towards others who are 'overtaken in a fault',bearing in mind my own inadequacies, and that it is thegrace of God, not my ownself effort that can and does deliver me from my own burdens. If any man thinks himself to be something,when he is nothing, he deceives himself.We all are nothing--apart form Christ in us , the hope of glory, and we are to have this attitude of humility, and to 'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.' I am extending a helping hand to you, out of my own struggles, and from what I have learned through them--your perception that it is somehow hurtful is completely wrong.Certainly God gives us abundant life BUT He is not mocked.Whatsoever a man shall sow..He shall reap..When sin begins ot control me Fred like you are talking about...you simply cometo God as a child and ask Him to deliver you.
This is called the fear of God. A good healthy fear of God will cause you to have a strong relationship with God..instead of running from Him..you run to Him ...
This kind of 'fear' you refer to is the beginning of wisdom, not the end ofour relationship with God. He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of adoption, where we cry, Abba, Father--which literally measn 'daddy' in Aramaic. Now we keep in mind that He commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. He has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind. Do we continue to have a healthy respect, and an air of awe before Him, always keeping in mind the extremely highprice of our forgiveness--yes. Do we cower in His presence--no, because of that payment in full. We are to come boldly unto the throne of grace--because of Christ, who bore our sins in Himself. Are we to have a cavalier, 'so what' attitude towards sin,no--because it is sin in which we are saved from, and it is sin that we are now dead to. Our old self was crucified with Him, so that the body of sin may be done away with.(Rom 6:6)
why must i sin
