Does The Gospel Promise A Sin Free Life Instantly After Becoming A Believer?
Question : "Faith in Christ kills the sinful nature of our flesh and births the righteous nature of the spirit of Christ in our life, and by His Spirit we live righteous and stop committing any sin. If you are born again in Christ you stop committing Sin. If you are continuing to commit sin then you are not born again. That is the truth of the Gospel of Christ and everything else is a lie of Satan." Is the above statement true?
Answer : What do you say about this Brother : "18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." (Rom 8:18-20). Here apostle Paul is saying that he is sinning and even cannot stop it in his own strength. Was he saved according to what you believe?
Apostle John said, "8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8). In other words if we say that we never sin after we have become a believer, we deceive ourselves. We all sin in some way or the other in our hidden attitudes, thoughts and actions to some degree even after we are born again, but God in His infinite mercies forgives it all when we confess it to Him and gives grace to overcome it progressively more and more as we humble ourselves as a sinner in need of deliverance (1 John 1:7, 9; James 4:6-10). God cleanses us and makes us overcomers from all ungodly attitudes that is hidden in our soul once we realize our need for Him (Psa 19:12-13). So all saints are not sin-free but all are grace-empowered to be overcomers (Rom 6:14). The term overcomers are used for those who believe Jesus' victory over sin and declare it as their victory by faith (1 John 5:5).
There is a difference between saints who sin and sinners who sin, saints cannot continue to sin without being convicted by the Holy Spirit who is the seed of God dwelling within them, and also if they continue in it in spite of God's warning signal, they will be chastised by God even to death sometimes (1 John 3:9; Heb 12:6; 1 Cor 11:28-32), the ungodly sinner will have no conviction as their conscience will have already been darkened in their unregenerate condition by their repeated resistance against the conviction of the conscience that God has given within all human beings (Eph 4:18; Rom 1:21; 2:15). All saints who choose to co-operate with God are promised a overcoming life, but not a sinless life (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). The only human who ever lived a sinless life from birth to death as a human is the Son of God Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21). We as God's children can live a blessed overcoming life as we are being transformed from the fleshly character of our forefather Adam to the character of our Heavenly Father in the Last Adam Jesus Christ in whom we have been born newly to live as a new race of people and grow spiritually powerful over sin, sickness and death from "glory to glory" (2 Cor 3:17-18; 1 Cor 15:47, 49).
Yes we are born again in our spirit within a day in a moment from above, by our faith, and the new nature of Christ becomes our inheritance as God's children in an instant within our spirit (2 Cor 6:2; 5:17; John 3:8), but we are transformed by faith for a lifetime through the work of the Holy Spirit by our obedience to God and His command in our day to day lives (Heb 10:14; Acts 15:9; 1 Peter 1:22). Our spirit man is born again in the likeness of Christ and needs no improvement in character except to increase in the power to rule over the soul which is the grace of Jesus we all acquire by growing in humility towards God (Eph 4:24; Titus 3:15; Philemon 25). Spiritual formation of the inner man to live by the power of the Spirit takes a lifetime of co-operation with God and this is a process that cannot be self-driven by human effort at all, for every Christian it is a Spirit-driven process of forming a natural dependence on God to help them be overcomer by His grace through receiving it in acknowledging one's sinfulness in humility, and by faith accepting the power of God's invincibility over sin (2 Cor 15:10). Paul the Apostle, who perhaps understood grace as none other, remarks on his own efforts with Christ's strength which overcame all spiritual obstacles, he did it through a co-operation and willingness within him to live as overcomer : "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (2 Cor. 15:10). When in humility a saint uses God's grace in co-operating with God, he becomes an overcomer over sin, sickness and death for the glory of God.
We are expected by God to agree with Him when he convicts us about our sin, and then expect God to graciously give us the grace to overcome sin in our lives (John 16:7-15). We should ask God to help us search wrong sinful attitudes that are hidden within our heart until we die physically and lose the sinful nature that stays within us (Psa 139:23-24). When Jesus told the woman who was caught in the adultery to "go and sin no more", He was at that time giving her an unusual grace to overcome that particular adulterous sin, and therefore advised her to humbly follow Him to be an over-comer, but no way Jesus was commanding and demanding a sin free life on her own after rescuing her from imminent death in the hands of religious Pharisees who wanted to stone her according to the law of Moses because of her sinful past. Just because she received grace to overcome her adulterous way of life does not mean that she will live sin free in all other areas of her spiritual life, but in other areas she still had to keep asking again for God's help to overcome sin as all children of the first Adam, born of woman will have sin nature until they die physically on earth and go on to be with the Lord in heaven (Rom 6:6; 7:24-25; 8:3; John 8:10-12). In other words, our sinful nature of the flesh will never die until we die physically.
The truth of the gospel is that all children of God are spiritually entitled and empowered by God, and the power over sin is already within the reach of their positive life giving decision that they make to humble themselves before God to receive grace to live as overcomers over sin and reign in this life itself (Eph 1:3; 1 Peter 5:5-6; Rom 5:17). We can choose to grow spiritually strong over recurring sins through living an overcoming life over sin by faith in Christ Jesus, but until we die we cannot be sin free in our Christian life totally. To some degree we will keep overcoming sin that we were weak in through being empowered by God's grace (2 Cor 2:14), still some secret faults of sinful attitude will keep coming up within us as we have a deceitful heart of sin (Jer 17:9-10), but as we ask God help in Christ Jesus, we will victoriously march through to victory from besetting life of sin in to life of perfection that God has planned through His grace for us (Matt 6:48).
Much Blessings....
Answer : What do you say about this Brother : "18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me." (Rom 8:18-20). Here apostle Paul is saying that he is sinning and even cannot stop it in his own strength. Was he saved according to what you believe?
Apostle John said, "8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8). In other words if we say that we never sin after we have become a believer, we deceive ourselves. We all sin in some way or the other in our hidden attitudes, thoughts and actions to some degree even after we are born again, but God in His infinite mercies forgives it all when we confess it to Him and gives grace to overcome it progressively more and more as we humble ourselves as a sinner in need of deliverance (1 John 1:7, 9; James 4:6-10). God cleanses us and makes us overcomers from all ungodly attitudes that is hidden in our soul once we realize our need for Him (Psa 19:12-13). So all saints are not sin-free but all are grace-empowered to be overcomers (Rom 6:14). The term overcomers are used for those who believe Jesus' victory over sin and declare it as their victory by faith (1 John 5:5).
There is a difference between saints who sin and sinners who sin, saints cannot continue to sin without being convicted by the Holy Spirit who is the seed of God dwelling within them, and also if they continue in it in spite of God's warning signal, they will be chastised by God even to death sometimes (1 John 3:9; Heb 12:6; 1 Cor 11:28-32), the ungodly sinner will have no conviction as their conscience will have already been darkened in their unregenerate condition by their repeated resistance against the conviction of the conscience that God has given within all human beings (Eph 4:18; Rom 1:21; 2:15). All saints who choose to co-operate with God are promised a overcoming life, but not a sinless life (Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). The only human who ever lived a sinless life from birth to death as a human is the Son of God Jesus Christ (2 Cor 5:21). We as God's children can live a blessed overcoming life as we are being transformed from the fleshly character of our forefather Adam to the character of our Heavenly Father in the Last Adam Jesus Christ in whom we have been born newly to live as a new race of people and grow spiritually powerful over sin, sickness and death from "glory to glory" (2 Cor 3:17-18; 1 Cor 15:47, 49).
Yes we are born again in our spirit within a day in a moment from above, by our faith, and the new nature of Christ becomes our inheritance as God's children in an instant within our spirit (2 Cor 6:2; 5:17; John 3:8), but we are transformed by faith for a lifetime through the work of the Holy Spirit by our obedience to God and His command in our day to day lives (Heb 10:14; Acts 15:9; 1 Peter 1:22). Our spirit man is born again in the likeness of Christ and needs no improvement in character except to increase in the power to rule over the soul which is the grace of Jesus we all acquire by growing in humility towards God (Eph 4:24; Titus 3:15; Philemon 25). Spiritual formation of the inner man to live by the power of the Spirit takes a lifetime of co-operation with God and this is a process that cannot be self-driven by human effort at all, for every Christian it is a Spirit-driven process of forming a natural dependence on God to help them be overcomer by His grace through receiving it in acknowledging one's sinfulness in humility, and by faith accepting the power of God's invincibility over sin (2 Cor 15:10). Paul the Apostle, who perhaps understood grace as none other, remarks on his own efforts with Christ's strength which overcame all spiritual obstacles, he did it through a co-operation and willingness within him to live as overcomer : "By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me." (2 Cor. 15:10). When in humility a saint uses God's grace in co-operating with God, he becomes an overcomer over sin, sickness and death for the glory of God.
We are expected by God to agree with Him when he convicts us about our sin, and then expect God to graciously give us the grace to overcome sin in our lives (John 16:7-15). We should ask God to help us search wrong sinful attitudes that are hidden within our heart until we die physically and lose the sinful nature that stays within us (Psa 139:23-24). When Jesus told the woman who was caught in the adultery to "go and sin no more", He was at that time giving her an unusual grace to overcome that particular adulterous sin, and therefore advised her to humbly follow Him to be an over-comer, but no way Jesus was commanding and demanding a sin free life on her own after rescuing her from imminent death in the hands of religious Pharisees who wanted to stone her according to the law of Moses because of her sinful past. Just because she received grace to overcome her adulterous way of life does not mean that she will live sin free in all other areas of her spiritual life, but in other areas she still had to keep asking again for God's help to overcome sin as all children of the first Adam, born of woman will have sin nature until they die physically on earth and go on to be with the Lord in heaven (Rom 6:6; 7:24-25; 8:3; John 8:10-12). In other words, our sinful nature of the flesh will never die until we die physically.
The truth of the gospel is that all children of God are spiritually entitled and empowered by God, and the power over sin is already within the reach of their positive life giving decision that they make to humble themselves before God to receive grace to live as overcomers over sin and reign in this life itself (Eph 1:3; 1 Peter 5:5-6; Rom 5:17). We can choose to grow spiritually strong over recurring sins through living an overcoming life over sin by faith in Christ Jesus, but until we die we cannot be sin free in our Christian life totally. To some degree we will keep overcoming sin that we were weak in through being empowered by God's grace (2 Cor 2:14), still some secret faults of sinful attitude will keep coming up within us as we have a deceitful heart of sin (Jer 17:9-10), but as we ask God help in Christ Jesus, we will victoriously march through to victory from besetting life of sin in to life of perfection that God has planned through His grace for us (Matt 6:48).
Much Blessings....
Share:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment