Five Operations of the Holy Spirit Part 15
However there are at least two problems with the viewpoint that believers in Christ are obligated to sin while they are living in the world. First, such a viewpoint is contrary to what the Scripture claims to be true of the new covenant.
Second, the necessity for sinning is a human concept and its effect is to turn the disciples away from the fervent, daily, overcoming walk of victory and point them toward waiting for the solution to come with the return of Christ from Heaven. Meanwhile the bondages of sin compel the believers to do the will of Satan and the Church remains weak, divided, and helpless against the attacks of the enemy.
When the Christian yields to sin he is giving in to death, to separation from God. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? (Romans 6:16)
When we as a Christian serve sin, we move toward spiritual death.
The good news we wish to bring is that sin is not the invincible Goliath we had supposed. Sin is nothing more than a collection of unclean desires that keep us in misery. There is abundant power in the Lord Jesus Christ to demolish every one of these chains as we follow the Holy Spirit into battle.
We are not debtors to the flesh that we must serve its dictates. We are under no obligation to serve Satan. We cannot be forced to serve sin in this world or in any other world if we are members of the Body of Christ.
It is not wise to view life in Heaven as the solution to the sin problem, because sin began in Heaven. Sin is obedience to the will of Satan. We can obey Satan in the earth if we so choose or we can decide to accept the redemptive power of the Lord Jesus Christ and break away from sin. The decision is ours.
Christ is not limited. It is His will that we be redeemed from the hand of the enemy. The spiritual Jubilee (Leviticus, Chapter 25), the thousand-year Kingdom Age, is near and is casting its shadow before, as it were. God has chosen to set the captives of sin free in Christ. The ancient landlord is being forced to let his slaves go. Would you like to be set free from the power and effects of sin?
Let us turn now to the Scripture. We shall attempt to explain, as the Holy Spirit gives us wisdom and ability, the complete provisions for our redemption from sin's yoke that God has set forth in Christ.
God has given three parts of grace that are battering rams able to demolish every stronghold of the enemy: His Word to our mind that explains to us God's attitude toward sin and His provisions concerning sin—exactly what constitutes sin and practical steps we can take to overcome sin.
The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. The blood is an atonement for our sin. Also, the body and blood enter us and create in us the Divine Nature.
The wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit as the source of guidance and energy sufficient to break the chains of sin. By these three aspects of grace, these three battering rams, God is prepared to tear down all the defences of the enemy and remove every trace of sin and its effects from our life. Will we believe Him? Will we cooperate with Him so He can do it?
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? (Romans 6:1,2)
The doctrine that God's grace is an excuse for our sins is swept away in the above passage from the Book of Romans. But Christians of all ages have had a great amount of trouble discovering how the grace of God operates so they can possess not only forgiveness of the guilt of their sins but deliverance from sin's power as well.
Even the early churches, as we can tell from the writings of the apostles, experienced difficulty overcoming sin. So we should not feel we are the only ones who have had trouble understanding how grace is intended to operate in our lives.
Chapters Six and Seven of Romans are not the easiest passages of the Scripture to understand, but in them we find deliverance from sin discussed. Our viewpoint as to the meaning of these chapters follows.
When we are baptized in water we are taking a step of faith (as well as obeying the Lord). We are testifying to the heavens and the earth that we now by faith are entering the crucifixion of Christ and His resurrection. Our old nature is dead with Christ and our new man—he who is born when we receive Christ—is eternally alive in Christ.
It is as simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less. The first personality is dead and the new creation is alive and at the right hand of the Father in Christ.
Now we come to the problem of our daily sins of hating, lying, stealing, lusting, sorcery, adultery, and so forth, as well as the problem of our self-will (which we will discuss under the topic of conquest ).
Sin in the Christian disciple is the subject of many passages of the New Testament, including the Book of First John. The answer as to how we are to regard our sinful actions can be given clearly, but living the answer is quite difficult.
This is because of the resistance to righteous, holy, and obedient behaviour that is exerted by our fleshly nature, by the spirit of the world in which we live, and by Satan and his accomplices.