“Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey Him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. (Ephesians 5:6-9 NLT)
Our goal as a believer is to live above sin, to be as much like Jesus as we can be WITH THE SPIRIT’S EMPOWERMENT! We can never be good enough to earn our salvation. We can never overcome sin, death, and the grave except by the Spirit’s enabling. It’s only and always by the Spirit of God, by the empowerment of God’s Spirit, not ours.
That being said, to believe we can sin without thought of consequence and still go to heaven is a lie from Satan. It is absolutely not what the Bible teaches. Paul clearly instructs in the verses above: “for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey Him.” God does not take our habitual sin lightly.
We must change our mindset to understand that every sin is willful and must be forgiven. Yes, of course, the forgiveness of every sin we will ever commit has been appropriated on the Cross, but there is no forgiveness for a sin that isn’t acknowledged and for which forgiveness has not been asked. John reminds us in 1 John 1:9: “But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all wickedness.”
In Romans 7 Paul was describing His inability to walk without sin without the empowerment of the Spirit, He was not making an excuse for a believer to live like the devil. Sin may be habitual because we haven’t learned how to allow the Spirit to free us from it, but the Cross breaks the back of every sin when we confess and choose to forsake it. But how?
Sin is a choice, a decision we make. Sin is not a reflex or involuntary act. It may seem that way when we allow sin to rule and control us, but that’s Satan, not God. The Spirit of God within every believer is our resource of strength to break the power of sin and Satan and to walk in the light of our new life in Christ. But here’s the truth: the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will not force us against our will to obey Him. He is available and will help us when we ask for His help, but we must ask.
What might that look like? It looks like asking, as the Psalmist asked in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” If you’ll ask in faith He will answer, but you must be willing to submit to the Lord’s authority in your life, obey His directives, and seek with all that is within you to walk in confidence the Holy Spirit WILL enable you to change.
We CANNOT AND WILL NOT accomplish long term results in the energy of the flesh. We cannot live a sin free life without the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. But understand, this is not a one-and-done proposition. It’s a life-long battle that each of us will fight as long as we have air in our lungs. Yes, it gets easier, but we can never let our guard down.
We can’t relax in our self-sufficiency. There is no such thing in the Christian Faith, only God-sufficiency and God-dependency. It’s all about trust and confidence in HIM, not in ourselves. The fact is, the “Christian” Paul was describing in Romans 7 isn’t a Christian at all, I believe that was his point. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian, they are contradictory terms. To be carnal minded is to NOT be a Christian and to be a Christian is to NOT be carnal minded.
Food for thought
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 