Am I Condemned By God Justly For My Besetting Sins?
Question: Greetings! I am sick of a besetting sin, which is masturbation and lust of the eyes which accompanies together with it that had led me in to severe condemnation recently, do you think God has allowed such times of condemnation justly because I have sinned against Him knowingly as the Word of God reveals that "judgment must begin, with God's own people who are the first to be judged by God" (1 Peter 4:17)? By the way I want to tell you that I do not love this sin, but when the moment of temptation comes I enjoy the sin and fail the Lord again and again. Please let me know the actual reality of what is happening in my life and what should I do to either stop it or overcome it?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
You are not the only one who is tempted and is suffering in your life because of the poison that sin spits in to us every time it bites us when we give space to it, the Bible says, "13 But remember this--the wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear up patiently against it." (1 Cor 10:13, LB).
I understand according to the above verse you may have failed in your pursuit of holiness again and again, but never give up because no temptation is irresistible and you have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin, so the process under the safe hands of the Lord you are going through, may be a clear chastening of the Lord because of His love for you that He wants you to overcome the sin which easily ensnares you for a long long time which is why we call such thing as a besetting sins (Heb 12:1, 4-5).
When we are in pursuit of God and know the truth of the law in our lives, there is a effects of the law that comes and applies to us when we sin. And just because we see the effect of the law causing negative attitude of condemnation due to guilt doesn't mean that the law is bad, but rather we should understand that the good law has been used by our sin nature with in us in a wrong way to condemn us, and this is the work of the evil one.
Guilt is a natural mechanism, that God has put within the conscience of our spirit within to guide us with the light of heaven, but the problem with it is, when we allow sin's deceit within us, the light within can become dimmed up because of the ash soot of sin that gets settled over the clean and clear glass of our spirit (Prov 20:27). The only way to keep it clean and clear is to wash it properly and daily through the blood of Jesus by confessing our sins to the Lord, which will keep our conscience very sharp, clear and full of the light of the Lord to control our soul, and be happy in knowing our right position of justification before the Lord (1 John 1:7, 9; Rom 5:1; 8:30-32; Gal 2:16). This is the way even apostle Paul lived before the Lord and was able to say "3 As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don't even trust my own judgment on this point. 4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn't prove I'm right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide." (1 Cor 4:3, 4, NLT, NIV).
The devil condemn us, when we are sincere follower of the Lord Jesus, Jesus our Christ actually prays for us when we are self-condemned under the evil influence and work of Satan and his demons so that our faith may not fail in the day of trial and temptation that comes to us (Luke 22:31-32; Rom 8:34). If your faith fail, we have altogether failed in our spiritual lives, as God validates and seals up only our faith at the end of every trials and temptations to reward us, so our faith is our victory and none of us should ever lose our faith which keeps us alive and well in the spiritual race of faith no matter what intensity of trials come to us (Heb 11:6; 1 John 5:4). Jesus our Lord graciously quickens us when we do not know what to pray for and how to pray, therefore He makes the Holy Spirit to make prayers from within our spirit on behalf of us which are prayers of the Spirit which are done in know languages, unknown tongues and groans through us which then starts to empower us supernaturally with the hedge of fire all around us to protect us supernaturally from temptations that are real and dangerous to our spiritual lives of faith (Rom 8:26-27; Heb 7:25; 9:24, 11-12; Job 1:10). The reason God allows us to fail again and again and again a million times is to make us dry and empty, so that we may stop trusting and trying to overcome with our limited strength and learn to supplicate in to the bosom of omnipotent God's love where we come to attain a peaceful rest in our soul within, where God fills us with a heavenly stream of Himself and His Holy Spirit to pour within us the heavenly water which always seeks and fills the lower places first as in the natural, so that no matter what storm rages outside of us, a supernatural calm of heaven will remain in our lives as we sincerely seek to do God's will for our lives and fulfill it in His time (Php 4:6-7).
God judged Jesus who was sinless to become sin for us as a substitute, so that we might become as righteous as God is in the present time in heaven and start to live for His righteousness by seeking after it to fulfill it in our lives as God makes opportunity for us to practice it in our day to day lives (2 Cor 5:21; 1 Pet 2:22, 24; Matt 6:33). One thing we must understand very clearly is, Satan and his demons are the accuser's. Then why will such a loving Father God in heaven who has given us His own Son for us, to die on the Cross for our sins, want to change his mind to condemn us again for our besetting sins? The Bible declares that God is not man to change his mind (Num 23:19; Mal 3:6; Jam 1:17), but the real truth we find is that Satan who is the tempter has become the prime accuser of the brethren who always condemns us before God and also within us to make us become self-condemned and live ineffective lives for the kingdom of God (Rev 12:10). The meaning for the word 'condemn' means 'to strongly criticize or denounce; to excoriate the perpetrators of, to judicially pronounce someone guilty, to confer eternal Divine punishment upon, to adjudge as being unfit for habitation, to adjudge a building or construction work as of unsatisfactory quality, requiring the work to be redone, to adjudge a food or drink as being unfit for human consumption, to declare a vessel to be unfit for service, to declare and pronounce something as a public property and not private and set apart.' Satan uses guilt to make us self-condemned, and thus become ineffective for the service of the Kingdom of God, of whose Ambassadors we are in Christ Jesus (2 Cor 5:20). Thus Satan strongly criticizes us and strongly denounces our life in Christ as fake and humbug, He tries to makes us guilty again by our sins and pronounce us as condemned because of our weaknesses within us, then Satan makes us believe that we only deserve hell fire for our sins and failure to please God and takes our eyes of the blood of Jesus and its worthiness that makes us worthy, then Satan tells us that we are unclean vessel because of our besetting sins and therefore it is not a fit place for a holy God to live within, even when he knows that we are the temple of God in whom the Holy Spirit lives. Satan then projects our spiritual life as a building or construction work that is weak and full of sins, and therefore he tries to convince us that it is of unsatisfactory quality when he knows that we have been made perfect in Christ Jesus. Satan also tries to make us always remain in the basic level of faith towards God, repentance from dead works, of the doctrine of baptisms, of the laying on of hands, of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment, and doesn't want us to move on to perfection of maturity in knowing the Word of God and come to experience and know Him and be known by Him personally to carry His Glory which will make us a blessing to all the families of the earth (Heb 6:1-2; 1 John 2:12-14). Satan is making people to repent a thousand times and be saved a ten thousand times because he knows that if the believer starts to love the Presence of God, he becomes deadly dangerous to their kingdom of darkness as they can't hide in the Presence of God which they will carry. Then Satan makes people of God believe that abiding in the Word of God and the Holy Spirit filling them are a story that the Church fables promotes for its own survival, this makes them unfit for the service of God as they do not drawn and store any power of the Word or the Spirit who works through it, thus they live as defeated and powerless Christians. O what a pity to see powerlessness in the power house of the Church! Satan promotes worldliness in the Church to make it unholy and as common as public, so that their exclusive separation of holiness may not become magnified and glorified before the world in darkness to shine as the light of the world (John 8:12; Matt 5:14). In short, in all the different ways we have seen above and more, it all leads to one thing named as condemnation, thus condemnation or feeling condemned is a technique the devil uses to permanently tie people to their past mistakes in order to prevent them from enjoying their present and moving towards their future joyously!
God has fulfilled his promise to make his Son a priest forever which He fulfilled when Jesus was raised from the dead (Rom 8:11), and God will not change His mind forever and ever (Psalm 110:4; Heb 5:5-6; Acts 13:32-38). Now our responsibility is to approach boldly the throne of grace in heaven where Jesus sits at the right hand of God (Rom 8:34), that we may obtain mercy and find grace in the time of need when we become self-condemned within us, so that we may arise in faith again to live supernaturally to overcome besetting sins of commission and omission (Jam 4:17; Rom 7:23; Heb 4:16). Jesus when he was on earth, he was in all point tempted just like us and suffered in the flesh, so that now He can sympathize with our weaknesses that comes at the time of temptation. Remember, Jesus was in all points tempted just as we are, yet was without sin, that is why as we hold fast our confession of who we are in Christ Jesus, we will receive abundant mercy and grace of God as often as we go before the throne of Jesus our High Priest in heaven who is interceding to God for us (Heb 10:23; Rom 8:34).
Apostle Paul explains the phenomenon in the following way, "7 Well then, am I suggesting that these laws of God are evil? Of course not! No, the law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known the sin in my heart--the evil desires that are hidden there—if the law had not said, "You must not have evil desires in your heart." 8 But sin used this law against evil desires by reminding me that such desires are wrong, and arousing all kinds of forbidden desires within me! Only if there were no laws to break would there be no sinning. 9 That is why I felt fine so long as I did not understand what the law really demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized that I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die. 10 So as far as I was concerned, the good law which was supposed to show me the way of life resulted instead in my being given the death penalty. 11 Sin fooled me by taking the good laws of God and using them to make me guilty of death. 12 But still, you see, the law itself was wholly right and good. 13 But how can that be? Didn't the law cause my doom? How then can it be good? No, it was sin, devilish stuff that it is, that used what was good to bring about my condemnation. So you can see how cunning and deadly and damnable it is. For it uses God's good laws for its own evil purposes. 14 The law is good, then, and the trouble is not there but with me because I am sold into slavery with Sin as my owner. 15 I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I don't want to--what I hate." (Rom 7:8-14).
You are not alone in this path fighting against sin, but the great apostle Paul who was inspired to write one third of the entire New Testament was so frank to tell his struggle against sin and even bewailed against such defeats at a certain point of his life too, which he further expressed in his Book of Romans 7:16-23, "16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. 17 But I can't help myself because I'm no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things. 18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. 19 When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20 Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp. 21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; 23 but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God's willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free." (Living Bible).
So according to the above Scripture seen, you are not the only one who struggles with the lower nature of sin that makes you a slave if you allow even an inch of it, even though your higher nature of new life of Christ, love to do God's will and be God's willing servant. Have you come to the conclusion you are rotten through and through so far as your old sinful nature is concerned, just like Paul the apostle expressed? God is bringing you to this place where He wants you to understand that you cannot improve your old nature and walk a better life than before, because the old nature is a slave of sin, and the old I am within you is sold into slavery, with Sin as your old owner when our forefather Adam disobeyed God and fell in to rebellion against Him out of His free voluntary will (Rom 5:12). As a result of our old nature and giving in to sinful momentary lure through temptation, we do what we don't want to and end up doing what we hate. We try not to do wrong, but end up doing it anyway. Now you need to understand and accept the fact that if you are doing what you don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has you in its evil grasp. In other words, we have no bolts and bars that can keep out the devil and that, wherever we go, we carry the root of all evil, our own soulish hearts. So to become a monk or a nun or to join a 'house of mercy' to practice a life of asceticism cannot help us to be holy, and is not for sure the right road to sanctification. The more you try to fulfill the law with your strength, you will end up loving sin momentarily and end up being dead and condemned by the very law you stand on, because there is something else deep within you, in your lower nature, that is at war with your mind and wins the fight and makes you a slave to the sin that is still within you. So never be discouraged when you are defeated by the lower natures power over you, but realize one thing, if you receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in it, sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law but under grace (Rom 6:14). Jesus Christ our Master has set us free from the law of sin and death through the law of the Spirit of life which operated and worked within Him, now that He has condemned sin in the flesh by becoming like us in the likeness of the sinful flesh after he took baptism from John the Baptist, the same law of the Spirit of life can also operate in us to give us supernatural victory over sin moment by moment as we trust the Lord (Matt 3:15). So even though we may not see a continual freedom until God stops leading us in to temptation and delivers us from the certain evil one Satan who is the tempter who brings all temptation in to our lives (Matt 6:13), we will see the victory and resurrection power of Jesus through His cleansing blood to cleanse our conscience from our dead works to make us serve the living God continually without any hindrance by sin and its evil effects of it in our lives (Heb 9:14).
So above all you need to understand, that your new life in Christ Jesus tells you to do right (2 Cor 5:17), but the old nature that is still inside you loves to sin, and thus this war between the old and the new that is bringing a great and terrible predicament which you are in that has made you to write to me for an answer! So in other words, you are crying out through your letter written saying, 'Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set you free.' Understand this truth and let it sink in to you and stay deep within you to keep you spiritually stable in faith.
The truth set us free. Jesus said, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, to that I ask who on earth lives without committing sin except our Lord Jesus who had no sin and did no sin until the end of His life (1 Pet 2:22; 2 Cor 5:21; Eccl 7:20)? And a slave of sin does not abide in the house of the Father in heaven after his death, but we who have believed in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior have become children of God, and thus call God as our 'Abba Father' by the help of the Holy Spirit who quickens the word of our mouth within us to bear witness that we are already the children of God now (John 1:12; Rom 8:15-16), we abide now in this house of God our body and with God in His in palatial house in heaven after we die and leave our body after which our lower nature will no more follow us to heaven (1 Cor 6:19; John 8:35; 14:2-3; 2 Cor 5:4). Now we who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of our sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there in Him, as we consider it to be a real fact of life and truth within us, that we start to live our life as our spiritual nature directs us. Then we will never follow through on what our corrupt nature wants to do through us which always leads to sin and death which is separation from the Presence of God (Gal 5:16, 24), but choose to live Christ life which the Holy Spirit will let loose within us as we start to enjoy His life.
We as the sons of God through faith (Gal 3:26), thus have been made free from sin and death, truly we are free by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that has come to us through our salvation experience (John 8:36; Rom 6:23)! Hallelujah! This is the truth of Jesus Christ that sets us free from sin consciousness to make us live in Christ consciousness of heaven and the Presence of God.
So accept the fact that you might sin as long as you are alive in this body of sin, but at the same time rejoice in the fact that sin cannot have dominion over you continually because you know the truth and are under the grace of the Lord Jesus and not under the law that have come through Moses which the lower nature of sin use it to bring more evil desires to do more sin instead of helping live life better (Rom 6:14; John 1:17). So rejoice even if you sin, Jesus the advocate with the Father is seated at His right hand for you to speak about the fact of how you are righteous in Him when you confess your sins to Him personally and hold on to the confession of your faith in Christ Jesus (1 John 2:1; Acts 17:28; John 14:20). Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! In other words, to truly accept the Biblical fact that we are a slave of sin in the lower nature, and we cannot stop sinning completely in one way or the other until we die to the lower nature completely which happens only when we die physically (1 John 1:8, 10), this truth truly sets us free to serve God and know that in our weaknesses His power will be revealed through our lives because of His grace (2 Cor 12:9-10). Christians do not plan to sin, but we sin because of our lower nature. Thank God we have choice to make moment by moment to consider ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God (Rom 6:11), that form of doctrine which emphasizes that we have been set free from sin, and have become slave of God which gives us the freedom and liberty without fear to give our bodily members as slaves of righteousness for holiness towards God (Rom 6:17, 19). So now we know continuing in sin leads to death which is the lack of God's Presence and assurance in our lives, but obedience to the Word of God and Spirit's prompting leads to fulfilling God's righteousness which bring His favor more and more in to our lives (Rom 6:16). From time to time, it is up to us to stand in faith and see the victory of the Lord in our lives. God wants us to be always victorious in Christ Jesus and want us to succeed in every area of our lives and always be pleasing to Him by our faith (2 Cor 2:14; Eph 5:1; John 8:29; Php 2:13; Col 1:10), will we dare to fulfill God's desire who has given His best which is God's Son for us? God will give to us more and more, if we are faithful in the least which is obedience to Him to fulfill His righteousness (Luke 16:10-11; Rom 8:32)!
Yes you are right, "judgment must begin, with God's own people who are the first to be judged by God" (1 Peter 4:17), this does mean that when we continue to sin and are losing the fear of God, God steps in to influence our wayward life which doesn't please Him and therefore chastens us because of His love towards us so that we will inherit the temporal and eternal blessings of God which He has for us, which we will receive only by yielding the peaceable fruit of righteousness as we are trained by overcoming sin through which many temptations that come to us (Heb 12:6, 11). It is for our eternal profit that God chastens us when we chose to sin by our bad choice, that we may become partakers of His holiness which is His nature that will bless us for eternity ahead with His Glory (Heb 12:10; 2 Peter 1:4). At the same time, understand forever that when we judge ourselves, God will let us go scot-free when the time for our judgment comes against us which the enemy brings by His accusation to the Lord (1 Cor 11:31-32; Luke 12:57-59). Therefore in judging ourselves, we are also agreeing to the enemies accusation that we have failed and sinned, but we release our faith in the blood of Jesus as a word of our testimony to Satan and his demons of how it has cleansed our sins and have made us pure to serve the living God our Father and our Master Jesus Christ on earth (Heb 9:14; Rev 12:10-11). This faith releasing is our victory over sin (1 John 5:4)!
I tell you even as you are growing day by day in the Lord, your outer lower man is perishing day by day, but the inner man of your spirit is renewing and making your soul grow more and more in the Lord, so that you will be able to progressively overcome more and more sin whether besetting or any other by the grace of God that comes to rule over your life, even as your are trained by His righteousness more and more in your life (Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16). You become the every increasing greater sized vessel and pot which holds the glory of God on earth and will be a blessing to many many in the coming days (Col 1:27; 2 Tim 2:19-21). I appreciate your honesty in discussing your struggle with sin and blessing the saints in all the world.
Hurrah! VICTORY unto the BLOOD OF JESUS!
Much Blessings....
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
You are not the only one who is tempted and is suffering in your life because of the poison that sin spits in to us every time it bites us when we give space to it, the Bible says, "13 But remember this--the wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different. Many others have faced exactly the same problems before you. And no temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation's power so that you can bear up patiently against it." (1 Cor 10:13, LB).
I understand according to the above verse you may have failed in your pursuit of holiness again and again, but never give up because no temptation is irresistible and you have not yet resisted to bloodshed striving against sin, so the process under the safe hands of the Lord you are going through, may be a clear chastening of the Lord because of His love for you that He wants you to overcome the sin which easily ensnares you for a long long time which is why we call such thing as a besetting sins (Heb 12:1, 4-5).
When we are in pursuit of God and know the truth of the law in our lives, there is a effects of the law that comes and applies to us when we sin. And just because we see the effect of the law causing negative attitude of condemnation due to guilt doesn't mean that the law is bad, but rather we should understand that the good law has been used by our sin nature with in us in a wrong way to condemn us, and this is the work of the evil one.
Guilt is a natural mechanism, that God has put within the conscience of our spirit within to guide us with the light of heaven, but the problem with it is, when we allow sin's deceit within us, the light within can become dimmed up because of the ash soot of sin that gets settled over the clean and clear glass of our spirit (Prov 20:27). The only way to keep it clean and clear is to wash it properly and daily through the blood of Jesus by confessing our sins to the Lord, which will keep our conscience very sharp, clear and full of the light of the Lord to control our soul, and be happy in knowing our right position of justification before the Lord (1 John 1:7, 9; Rom 5:1; 8:30-32; Gal 2:16). This is the way even apostle Paul lived before the Lord and was able to say "3 As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don't even trust my own judgment on this point. 4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn't prove I'm right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide." (1 Cor 4:3, 4, NLT, NIV).
The devil condemn us, when we are sincere follower of the Lord Jesus, Jesus our Christ actually prays for us when we are self-condemned under the evil influence and work of Satan and his demons so that our faith may not fail in the day of trial and temptation that comes to us (Luke 22:31-32; Rom 8:34). If your faith fail, we have altogether failed in our spiritual lives, as God validates and seals up only our faith at the end of every trials and temptations to reward us, so our faith is our victory and none of us should ever lose our faith which keeps us alive and well in the spiritual race of faith no matter what intensity of trials come to us (Heb 11:6; 1 John 5:4). Jesus our Lord graciously quickens us when we do not know what to pray for and how to pray, therefore He makes the Holy Spirit to make prayers from within our spirit on behalf of us which are prayers of the Spirit which are done in know languages, unknown tongues and groans through us which then starts to empower us supernaturally with the hedge of fire all around us to protect us supernaturally from temptations that are real and dangerous to our spiritual lives of faith (Rom 8:26-27; Heb 7:25; 9:24, 11-12; Job 1:10). The reason God allows us to fail again and again and again a million times is to make us dry and empty, so that we may stop trusting and trying to overcome with our limited strength and learn to supplicate in to the bosom of omnipotent God's love where we come to attain a peaceful rest in our soul within, where God fills us with a heavenly stream of Himself and His Holy Spirit to pour within us the heavenly water which always seeks and fills the lower places first as in the natural, so that no matter what storm rages outside of us, a supernatural calm of heaven will remain in our lives as we sincerely seek to do God's will for our lives and fulfill it in His time (Php 4:6-7).
God has fulfilled his promise to make his Son a priest forever which He fulfilled when Jesus was raised from the dead (Rom 8:11), and God will not change His mind forever and ever (Psalm 110:4; Heb 5:5-6; Acts 13:32-38). Now our responsibility is to approach boldly the throne of grace in heaven where Jesus sits at the right hand of God (Rom 8:34), that we may obtain mercy and find grace in the time of need when we become self-condemned within us, so that we may arise in faith again to live supernaturally to overcome besetting sins of commission and omission (Jam 4:17; Rom 7:23; Heb 4:16). Jesus when he was on earth, he was in all point tempted just like us and suffered in the flesh, so that now He can sympathize with our weaknesses that comes at the time of temptation. Remember, Jesus was in all points tempted just as we are, yet was without sin, that is why as we hold fast our confession of who we are in Christ Jesus, we will receive abundant mercy and grace of God as often as we go before the throne of Jesus our High Priest in heaven who is interceding to God for us (Heb 10:23; Rom 8:34).
Apostle Paul explains the phenomenon in the following way, "7 Well then, am I suggesting that these laws of God are evil? Of course not! No, the law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known the sin in my heart--the evil desires that are hidden there—if the law had not said, "You must not have evil desires in your heart." 8 But sin used this law against evil desires by reminding me that such desires are wrong, and arousing all kinds of forbidden desires within me! Only if there were no laws to break would there be no sinning. 9 That is why I felt fine so long as I did not understand what the law really demanded. But when I learned the truth, I realized that I had broken the law and was a sinner, doomed to die. 10 So as far as I was concerned, the good law which was supposed to show me the way of life resulted instead in my being given the death penalty. 11 Sin fooled me by taking the good laws of God and using them to make me guilty of death. 12 But still, you see, the law itself was wholly right and good. 13 But how can that be? Didn't the law cause my doom? How then can it be good? No, it was sin, devilish stuff that it is, that used what was good to bring about my condemnation. So you can see how cunning and deadly and damnable it is. For it uses God's good laws for its own evil purposes. 14 The law is good, then, and the trouble is not there but with me because I am sold into slavery with Sin as my owner. 15 I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I don't want to--what I hate." (Rom 7:8-14).
You are not alone in this path fighting against sin, but the great apostle Paul who was inspired to write one third of the entire New Testament was so frank to tell his struggle against sin and even bewailed against such defeats at a certain point of his life too, which he further expressed in his Book of Romans 7:16-23, "16 I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience proves that I agree with these laws I am breaking. 17 But I can't help myself because I'm no longer doing it. It is sin inside me that is stronger than I am that makes me do these evil things. 18 I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn I can't make myself do right. I want to but I can't. 19 When I want to do good, I don't; and when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20 Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp. 21 It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; 23 but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind I want to be God's willing servant, but instead I find myself still enslaved to sin. So you see how it is: my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free." (Living Bible).
So according to the above Scripture seen, you are not the only one who struggles with the lower nature of sin that makes you a slave if you allow even an inch of it, even though your higher nature of new life of Christ, love to do God's will and be God's willing servant. Have you come to the conclusion you are rotten through and through so far as your old sinful nature is concerned, just like Paul the apostle expressed? God is bringing you to this place where He wants you to understand that you cannot improve your old nature and walk a better life than before, because the old nature is a slave of sin, and the old I am within you is sold into slavery, with Sin as your old owner when our forefather Adam disobeyed God and fell in to rebellion against Him out of His free voluntary will (Rom 5:12). As a result of our old nature and giving in to sinful momentary lure through temptation, we do what we don't want to and end up doing what we hate. We try not to do wrong, but end up doing it anyway. Now you need to understand and accept the fact that if you are doing what you don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has you in its evil grasp. In other words, we have no bolts and bars that can keep out the devil and that, wherever we go, we carry the root of all evil, our own soulish hearts. So to become a monk or a nun or to join a 'house of mercy' to practice a life of asceticism cannot help us to be holy, and is not for sure the right road to sanctification. The more you try to fulfill the law with your strength, you will end up loving sin momentarily and end up being dead and condemned by the very law you stand on, because there is something else deep within you, in your lower nature, that is at war with your mind and wins the fight and makes you a slave to the sin that is still within you. So never be discouraged when you are defeated by the lower natures power over you, but realize one thing, if you receive the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in it, sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law but under grace (Rom 6:14). Jesus Christ our Master has set us free from the law of sin and death through the law of the Spirit of life which operated and worked within Him, now that He has condemned sin in the flesh by becoming like us in the likeness of the sinful flesh after he took baptism from John the Baptist, the same law of the Spirit of life can also operate in us to give us supernatural victory over sin moment by moment as we trust the Lord (Matt 3:15). So even though we may not see a continual freedom until God stops leading us in to temptation and delivers us from the certain evil one Satan who is the tempter who brings all temptation in to our lives (Matt 6:13), we will see the victory and resurrection power of Jesus through His cleansing blood to cleanse our conscience from our dead works to make us serve the living God continually without any hindrance by sin and its evil effects of it in our lives (Heb 9:14).
So above all you need to understand, that your new life in Christ Jesus tells you to do right (2 Cor 5:17), but the old nature that is still inside you loves to sin, and thus this war between the old and the new that is bringing a great and terrible predicament which you are in that has made you to write to me for an answer! So in other words, you are crying out through your letter written saying, 'Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set you free.' Understand this truth and let it sink in to you and stay deep within you to keep you spiritually stable in faith.
The truth set us free. Jesus said, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin, to that I ask who on earth lives without committing sin except our Lord Jesus who had no sin and did no sin until the end of His life (1 Pet 2:22; 2 Cor 5:21; Eccl 7:20)? And a slave of sin does not abide in the house of the Father in heaven after his death, but we who have believed in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior have become children of God, and thus call God as our 'Abba Father' by the help of the Holy Spirit who quickens the word of our mouth within us to bear witness that we are already the children of God now (John 1:12; Rom 8:15-16), we abide now in this house of God our body and with God in His in palatial house in heaven after we die and leave our body after which our lower nature will no more follow us to heaven (1 Cor 6:19; John 8:35; 14:2-3; 2 Cor 5:4). Now we who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of our sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there in Him, as we consider it to be a real fact of life and truth within us, that we start to live our life as our spiritual nature directs us. Then we will never follow through on what our corrupt nature wants to do through us which always leads to sin and death which is separation from the Presence of God (Gal 5:16, 24), but choose to live Christ life which the Holy Spirit will let loose within us as we start to enjoy His life.
We as the sons of God through faith (Gal 3:26), thus have been made free from sin and death, truly we are free by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that has come to us through our salvation experience (John 8:36; Rom 6:23)! Hallelujah! This is the truth of Jesus Christ that sets us free from sin consciousness to make us live in Christ consciousness of heaven and the Presence of God.
So accept the fact that you might sin as long as you are alive in this body of sin, but at the same time rejoice in the fact that sin cannot have dominion over you continually because you know the truth and are under the grace of the Lord Jesus and not under the law that have come through Moses which the lower nature of sin use it to bring more evil desires to do more sin instead of helping live life better (Rom 6:14; John 1:17). So rejoice even if you sin, Jesus the advocate with the Father is seated at His right hand for you to speak about the fact of how you are righteous in Him when you confess your sins to Him personally and hold on to the confession of your faith in Christ Jesus (1 John 2:1; Acts 17:28; John 14:20). Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! In other words, to truly accept the Biblical fact that we are a slave of sin in the lower nature, and we cannot stop sinning completely in one way or the other until we die to the lower nature completely which happens only when we die physically (1 John 1:8, 10), this truth truly sets us free to serve God and know that in our weaknesses His power will be revealed through our lives because of His grace (2 Cor 12:9-10). Christians do not plan to sin, but we sin because of our lower nature. Thank God we have choice to make moment by moment to consider ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God (Rom 6:11), that form of doctrine which emphasizes that we have been set free from sin, and have become slave of God which gives us the freedom and liberty without fear to give our bodily members as slaves of righteousness for holiness towards God (Rom 6:17, 19). So now we know continuing in sin leads to death which is the lack of God's Presence and assurance in our lives, but obedience to the Word of God and Spirit's prompting leads to fulfilling God's righteousness which bring His favor more and more in to our lives (Rom 6:16). From time to time, it is up to us to stand in faith and see the victory of the Lord in our lives. God wants us to be always victorious in Christ Jesus and want us to succeed in every area of our lives and always be pleasing to Him by our faith (2 Cor 2:14; Eph 5:1; John 8:29; Php 2:13; Col 1:10), will we dare to fulfill God's desire who has given His best which is God's Son for us? God will give to us more and more, if we are faithful in the least which is obedience to Him to fulfill His righteousness (Luke 16:10-11; Rom 8:32)!
Yes you are right, "judgment must begin, with God's own people who are the first to be judged by God" (1 Peter 4:17), this does mean that when we continue to sin and are losing the fear of God, God steps in to influence our wayward life which doesn't please Him and therefore chastens us because of His love towards us so that we will inherit the temporal and eternal blessings of God which He has for us, which we will receive only by yielding the peaceable fruit of righteousness as we are trained by overcoming sin through which many temptations that come to us (Heb 12:6, 11). It is for our eternal profit that God chastens us when we chose to sin by our bad choice, that we may become partakers of His holiness which is His nature that will bless us for eternity ahead with His Glory (Heb 12:10; 2 Peter 1:4). At the same time, understand forever that when we judge ourselves, God will let us go scot-free when the time for our judgment comes against us which the enemy brings by His accusation to the Lord (1 Cor 11:31-32; Luke 12:57-59). Therefore in judging ourselves, we are also agreeing to the enemies accusation that we have failed and sinned, but we release our faith in the blood of Jesus as a word of our testimony to Satan and his demons of how it has cleansed our sins and have made us pure to serve the living God our Father and our Master Jesus Christ on earth (Heb 9:14; Rev 12:10-11). This faith releasing is our victory over sin (1 John 5:4)!
I tell you even as you are growing day by day in the Lord, your outer lower man is perishing day by day, but the inner man of your spirit is renewing and making your soul grow more and more in the Lord, so that you will be able to progressively overcome more and more sin whether besetting or any other by the grace of God that comes to rule over your life, even as your are trained by His righteousness more and more in your life (Eph 3:16; 2 Cor 4:16). You become the every increasing greater sized vessel and pot which holds the glory of God on earth and will be a blessing to many many in the coming days (Col 1:27; 2 Tim 2:19-21). I appreciate your honesty in discussing your struggle with sin and blessing the saints in all the world.
Hurrah! VICTORY unto the BLOOD OF JESUS!
Much Blessings....
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