Text – 1John 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.”
We know, according to scriptures that by putting our faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we receive a new legal standing before God. No longer as guilty, we become the riotousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 2:16 makes it crystal clear that our right standing (that is, righteousness) before God is by solely faith, without the works of the law.
So by implication, before salvation, personal sin is of no significance. This is because a man did not become a sinner because he committed personal sins, rather he committed those personal sins because he was a sinner by nature.
It’s after salvation that we begin to address the subject of personal sin.
At salvation, what needs to be dealt with is the imputed sin. At salvation, the sinful nature is dealt with, so all the evil tendencies, desires, and dispositions that come with it is no longer supposed to remain as a lifestyle for the believer.
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. How are we supposed to reconcile this with the reality of our 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. Pail asked in Romans 6:1, “What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”
Bible says 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.”
PRAYER
Lord, I ask for you enabling grace to overcome temptation and to live in your blood-bought victory over the power of sin in Jesus Name.
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