Text – 1 John 3:9 – “Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning, because they are children of God.”
As we discussed yesterday, before salvation, personal sin is of no significance. This is because a man did not become a sinner because he committed personal sins, rather committed those personal sins because he was a sinner by nature.
Since personal sin is a product of the sinful nature, when a man comes to Christ and the sinful nature is removed, the born again person is expected to live in newness of life – having the evidence of a changed and a changing life. However, believers find that the struggle with temptation and sin is real, even after salvation.
1 Peter 2:2 says, “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation”. This implies that salvation places the responsibility of growth, development and maturity on the believer. God’s contribution to this process is the grace that gives the believer power over sin.
The writer of Romans has this to say in Romans 6:12-14, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
Now to the big question, what happens if you make a mistake by yielding to the flesh as a believer? First, you must disallow the devil from using self-condemnation to drive you away from God.
John the beloved wrote in I John 2:1, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”. He also said in 1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. These imply that if a believer falls into sin, he is expected to repent immediately without hesitation, and continue in fellowship with God.
Truly, whenever you sin, you grieve the Holy Spirit, because you have yielded to your flesh, rather than to the Holy Spirit, and as such, you compromise your fellowship with God. However, when the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin, you are expected to repent immediately and ask for forgiveness. When conviction is not immediately followed by repentance, then you become a backslidden Christian.
Beyond asking for forgiveness, a believer who makes a mistake must repent with resolute determination to please the Lord when next he is tempted to sin.
I’ll round off with this quote, “if you think that Christianity is easy; that faith is uncomplicated; that truth is not odd; that the Sermon on the Mount is not demanding, then you can be sure you're not doing it right. Christianity is not only not easy, it is quite impossible. That’s why God gave us His enabling grace (through Christ) and His enabling presence (the Holy Spirit)”
PRAYERS
1. Lord, I ask for you enabling grace to overcome temptation and to live in your blood-bought victory over the power of sin.
2. Holy Spirit, you are my guide. Please teach me wisdom steps to take every day in order to get stronger and go in the right direction.
3. Lord, help me to always bask in your unfailing love, and help me never to allow self-condemnation to drive me away from you.
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