THE CR0SS AND OVERCOMING SIN

How many of you have heard a preacher call out sins in the body of Christ, demand repentance, tell you that you are not a Christian if you sin, challenge you to go hard after holiness, to hate sin, and to walk in victory. You leave church convicted and fired up. You resolve that you are going to live a holy, righteous, and godly life. you want victory. You want to glorify Jesus in your motives, speech, and conduct. you pray hard with tears. What happens after all of this? Do you still sin after all this? Do you get discouraged and feel as if you are a carnal or sub-christian, if even a christian at all? Do you wonder what is wrong with you and how come you can't have victory like that preacher claims to have? Do you wonder why there are areas you are strong in and other areas that you are weak? Are you feeling free? How do you feel about God, you, and sin? Is there any hope to be truly victorious over sin?

When I became a Christian there were sins that were instantly delivered from my life by the power of the cross and the indwelling spirit such as profanity from my tongue. no doubt about it!It was a complete supernatural, instant, passive miracle on my part, a total sovereign act of God.  I wish it were that way for all my sins. I wish I could pray for God to come and instantly deliver me from every sin so that I never sin again. Oh for it to be that easy to overcome sin! If that was the case, all any of us would need to do is find someone who could pray over us and break the desires and the behaviors and none of us would never sin again. This exactly the error that I find in some fellow Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. But in the 38 years I have been a Christian it has been both relief and heartache to know that I and all true believers have sin remaining in them in this life.  The apostle Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:12).  In another place he said, "I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members" (Romans 7:23).  And Jesus taught us to pray daily, "Forgive us our sins" (Matthew 6:12).

So because of this, I know that I should never become complacent about sin. We cannot be passive thinking we do nothing and God does it all without us involved. It means I must fight it daily.  We are commanded to constantly kill the sin that remains in our lives: "If you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you Will live.... Put to death therefore what is earthly in you" (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5).  This is not optional.  This is mortal combat: Sin dies or we die.  The Puritan John Owen said it well,"kill sin before it kills you!"  We all know by our experience that is exactly what happens in our life; Not that we ever become perfect in this age, but we go on killing sins as they attack us from day to day.  We do not settle in with sin.  We fight daily and we kill. But, how do we kill sin? 

The problem for many of us is that we try to kill it by will power, strategies, determination, resolve, our own strength. in short, we think we are solely responsible for this sin killing. As a result, we fail miserably and end up utterly defeated, discouraged, doubting God's word about victory, and we end up failing miserably.  So if God has called us to actively do certain things in order to overcome sin, how has He planned for us to succeed? How does this sin killing work in our lives?

THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OVERCOMING SIN IS TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND WHAT JESUS CHRIST HAS DONE UPON THE CROSS FOR US IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO OVERCOME OUR SINS

3 things have happened in regards to your spiritual victory:

1. In the death of Christ we died.

“We have been united with him in a death like his” (Romans 6:5; see also Romans 7:4; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:3).

Therefore:

“You also must consider yourselves dead to sin” (Romans 6:11).

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,” (Romans 6:12).

2. In the death of Christ we were bought.

“You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20).

Therefore:

“Glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20).

3. In the death of Christ we were forgiven.

“God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

Therefore:

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another” (Ephesians 4:32).

So in every case, the decisive impulse for my holiness and my sin-killing is the death of Christ. Which means that the decisive power for our conquering sin is Christ’s cross canceling sin.
But don’t miss this: In each of these three cases (in the death of Christ I died, I was bought, and I was forgiven), the link between the cross and my conquered sin is my empowered will. My will, engaged to fight sin with blood-bought power. I say that because in each of these three cases the statement of my death, my purchase, and my forgiveness was made the cause of a command addressed to my will. “Let not sin reign in your body.” “Glorify God in your body.” And “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another.” Those commands are addressed to me. They engage my will.

And the power that engages and enlivens and carries my will, so that it will be clear that my willing is a cross-exalting willing, is the power of the Holy Spirit, which is given to me precisely because of the death of Christ for me. The Holy Spirit is a blood-bought, new covenant gift of God (Romans 8:3­5; 7:4; Galatians 2:20).

Which means that...
The link between the cross and my conquered sin is a Holy-Spirit empowered will.

Listen to these texts that describe this reality:

Romans 7:6, “We died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” I serve in the newness of the Spirit.

Romans 8:13, “By the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body.” I put sin to death, by the Spirit."



Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” The life I now live . . . Christ lives in me.”
1 Peter 4:11, “Whoever serves, let him do it as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” I serve, but in the strength that God supplies. And it is a blood-bought supply.."

1 Corinthians 15:10, “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.” I worked. But it was the grace of God that was working in my working.'.

Note that in In every single case, I am working. I am willing. I am serving. I am putting sin to death. My will is engaged. But in every case, my will is empowered by another will, the will of the Spirit, the will of Christ, the will of God, the will of grace.

This is so important for your understanding that I must repeat this again:
The link between the cross and the conquered sin in my life is my Holy-Spirit empowered will. And that empowering by the Spirit is blood-bought. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:5–6).

In other words, God intends that part of our experience of growing into the image of Christ, theologically known as sanctification, is to be the conscious, willed, opposition to specific sins in our lives. I only say “part” of our experience of sanctification because this is not the whole work of sanctification. Like I stated at the beginning, in some areas of sin, God simply takes away the desire and the temptation is gone, and we don’t have to fight that fight any more. But generally speaking this seems not to be the way we overcome most sins.

Think about this dear reader. None of these commands I have referred to (for example, to serve and to put sin to death) would be in the Bible if God did not intend that some sins be defeated by conscious opposition from our wills in the power of the Holy Spirit. What sins do you battle? For me there is fear, depression, lust, worry, anger, self-pity, selfishness, pride,  and withdrawall. I must engage my will head on with my sins. Jesus says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). Nobody spontaneously tears out his eye. That is a ruthless, violent, act of will.

Philippians 2:12­–13 is so important to our understanding in this ruthless and active attack upon sin in our lives:

"Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.".

Why should there be “fear and trembling” as I attack my sin and bring about salvation from my pride, lust, or selfishness? This is so important and has often been so negatively perceived as a threat as if I could lose my salvation if I don't work at it in a fearful sense of dread. The reason given in the text is not a threat at all dear reader.. It’s a gift. Work and will to kill your sin, and do it with fear and trembling, because God Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, redeemer, justifyer, sustainer, Father, lover is so close to you that your working and willing are his working and willing.

Paul commands me to work out my salvation, because God is the one who works this in me. My willing and working is God’s willing and working. It is a miracle. But I do not wait passively, I "act the miracle" as John Piper puts it. Tremble at this breathtaking thought. God Almighty is in you. God is the one in you willing. God is the one in you working. My “continuous, sustained, strenuous” effort is not only being carried out in the very presence of all-holy God, but is the very continuous, sustained, strenuous effort of God himself. I am not waiting for a miracle. I am acting a miracle. My action is God’s action in fighting my sin. My willing is God’s willing. So, when it comes to killing my sin I don’t wait for the miracle, I act the miracle

Acting a miracle is different from working a miracle. When Jesus told a paralyzed man to get up, and he got up, Jesus worked a miracle. But when the paralyzed man Jesus told to get up, and he obeyed and got up, he acted the miracle. When Lazarus was dead and Jesus commanded him to get up, and he obeyed, Jesus worked the miracle, Lazarus acted the miracle. So when it comes to killing my sin, I don’t wait passively for the miracle of sin-killing to be worked on me, I act the miracle.
Sin killing my dear reader is a miraculous act from start to finish. It is rooted in the precious blood bought union with Jesus, His ownership, and His forgiveness and worked out by the ongoing presence of His sin delivering Holy Spirit living within. 

I wish God would just instantly work to miraculously take away every desire, thought, motive, inclination, and act of sin in my life. In my opinion, it would be far better if there did not have to be any war at all. But God has not asked me for my opinion. Yes, He does promise us a day when the battle will cease. But until then, I thank God that he cancels sin at the cross and that he breaks the power of canceled sin and he does it through my Spirit-empowered will that fights with all its might, trembling, because it is God Himself willing in my willing.

Learning to bask in the cross and killing sin by the spirit,
Pastor Bill