GospelNotes.life

Tag: Sin

  • How to Turn from Sin (not for salvation)

    The first thing to understand is why we turn from sin: the goal of life is a life of true joy and peace, operating in love for others, which brings more joy and peace. Turning from sin brings the joy, peace and love into our lives.

    The next thing to understand is that turning from our sins is not what saves us. Believing that Christ died to pay for all our sins is what saves us.

    The next thing to understand is the truth behind sin: it promises to bring joy and peace, but in actuality, when you really sit down and meditate upon your life, it’s the source of all our depression, anxiety, stress, fear, panic, worry, bitterness, anger, hatred, and sadness. Sin is like walking through a tar pit with a 500 lb weight on your back. The Bible likens it to being caught in a spider web, where every move you make makes the situation worse.

    Satan tells you that true freedom is to be able to do whatever you want. But the truth is that true freedom is freedom from sin and the negative emotional and physical consequences that sin produces.

    When you’re free from sin, you feel just that: light, airy and free! Take it from someone who knows a thing or two about sin: being free from it feels really, really good. Life changing. There’s nothing like the feelings of freedom and godly joy, peace and love.

    Coming back around, so the goal of life is true joy and peace, which is found in our loving relationships with God our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, our family and friends, and in our lifestyle that’s free from sin. The key is understanding that sin is not freedom – it’s slavery to all sorts of negative emotions and sometimes physical problems.

    It’s really hard for most people to stop certain sins. The key here is developing one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23): self-control. Most people these days don’t have any, and neither did I to start.

    The Bible tells us we need to exercise ourself in godliness. Godliness is becoming more Christlike in character/personality and conduct. What is Christ’s character? It is found in the definitions of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and love (1 Corinthians 13:4-7): joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness (doing good), faithfulness (doing what you say), gentleness, self-control, not envious, humble, not rude, not self-seeking (seeking the benefit of others over oneself – selflessness), not provoked to anger, thinks no evil, does not find joy in iniquity, but rather finds joy in what’s good, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

    And what is becoming more Christlike in conduct? Abstaining from sin: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like.

    The Bible tells us in Galatians 5:16 that the key to abstaining from sin is to walk in the Spirit, which is to become more Christlike in character (as defined above).

    The Bible tells us that we need to exercise ourselves in godliness (becoming more Christlike in conduct and character – 1 Timothy 4:7). You have to take action and exercise yourself (your inner man/soul) – the transformation doesn’t just happen miraculously without any effort. Take an example from the physical body (the flesh/outward man). Say you want to build muscle. Someone gives you the weights, but if you don’t exercise yourself with them, you’re not going to gain any muscle. Such is with the inner man, you as a soul. If you don’t take action and force yourself to produce the fruit of the Spirit to become more Christlike, you’re never going to grow. Take it from someone who sat on his butt for 10 years as a saved Christian, living in sin, praying to be transformed in conduct and character miraculously. It never came, until one day the Lord told me I’m being worthless and it lit a fire under me to do as the Bible says – “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2)” and “exercise yourself in godliness (1 Timothy 4:7)”: meaning, take action. You have the Holy Spirit as a believer to help and enable you to become more Christlike, but you have to practice. Holy Spirit will help you, but He’s not going to override you – He’s very subtle and gentle. And just like any form of physical exercise, it’s really hard at first. Feels really unnatural and sometimes painful. But the more you exercise, the more natural, easier and more enjoyable it becomes, and the more you abstain from sin and grow in the character of Christ, the more true joy, peace and love you will feel, and it’s addicting, and it’s a good, safe addiction.

    The next thing to know: know your enemy. Sin is way, way beyond just personal desire to do something wrong. The desire for sin truly comes from sin that dwells in the flesh (Romans 7) and the influence of demonic entities, whispering in your ear night and day enticing you to sin (Ephesians 6:11, 1 Peter 5:8-9).

    Now back to how to overcome sin by developing self-control and patience. When you first go to overcome a sin, the enemy is going to ride you hard. I mean – hard. It’s going to be mentally painful at first, but the more you resist temptation, the stronger you become, the more easier it becomes. The Bible tells us in James 4:7 to “resist the devil and he will flee from you.” There is also great reward from God at the bema seat for resisting temptation (James 1:12). Think of it like this when you’re in the midst of a temptation: “I’m being trained by God, being exercised in self-control and patience, becoming stronger little-by-little.” It may take many days (if not a couple weeks) to develop self-control and overcome the temptations, but the urges will taper off near the end, and the feeling of joy that you get when you’ve developed enough self-control to resist a bout of temptation is truly rewarding.

    So to recap: your journey to a joyful and peaceful sin-free life filled with love begins with developing self-control and patience, in which God will allow you to be tempted by the enemy in order to give you a chance to exercise yourself in resisting temptation that builds self-control and patience. Sin is not freedom like Satan says – it’s slavery to all the negative emotions like depression, anxiety, stress, fear, worry, panic, hatred, anger, bitterness and sadness. True freedom is being free from sin: feeling light, airy and free. Self-control and patience is a fruit of the Spirit (Christ’s character), and to become more Christlike, you must exercise yourself in godliness (becoming more Christlike in conduct and character) by starting out to force yourself to produce the fruits of the Spirit: joy, peace, kindness, patience, goodness (doing good), faithfulness (doing what you say), gentleness, self-control, not envious, humble, not rude, not self-seeking (seeking the benefit of others over oneself – selflessness), not provoked to anger, thinks no evil, does not find joy in iniquity, but rather finds joy in what’s good, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It’s hard at first and can feel fake and unnatural, but it becomes more natural the more you exercise, and brings nothing but true joy, peace and love in your life.

  • Freed From the Law and Sin (Romans, chapters 3-8)

    This note explains the somewhat confusing and complicated chapters of Romans 3-8.

    The first thing to understand is the dichotomy of the inner man vs the outward man. A brief overview: we are actually a soul, that has a spirit, and lives inside our fleshly body. For more details, see the note: The Inner Man vs the Outward Man (opens in a new window)

    The next thing to understand is that “sin” is not just some abstract concept or idea. It’s a literal living thing that lives in our fleshly bodies:

    • Sin “entered” the world when Adam ate of the forbidden fruit. (Romans 5:12)
    • Sin “lives” in our fleshly bodies. (Romans 7:17-18; Romans 7:20; Romans 7:21-23)

    What is a law?
    When you’re under a law, you must obey it. If the law says, “You shall not steal”, then you cannot steal. And with laws, there’s consequences for going against it. For the law (the 10 commandments), it’s condemnation and death with eternal hellfire.

    What is a master-slave relationship?
    Likewise, if we were under bondage as a slave to a master, the slave must obey their master. If the master says, “Steal”, then you must steal.

    What is the rule about being under laws?
    The rule that God instantiated about laws is that when you die, you are released from the law you were under.

    The same goes for master-slave relationships. When you die, you are no longer the slave of the master you were owned by.

    We are all born under the law, and sin quickly becomes our master. As slaves of our master (sin) we obey its commands to break the law. And when we break the law, we are condemned to death and eternal hellfire as just punishment.

    So the question is: “If we get freed from laws and masters by death, how do we get freed from the law (the commandments) and our master (sin)?” The answer: we must die, and then we will be released from our master (sin), and from the law that condemns us. Here’s how we “die”:

    For this next part, you must understand the gospel: 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 — that Christ (1) died to pay for all our sins (2) was buried and (3) rose again the third day.

    The next logical question is: “How do we die?” The answer: when we believe the gospel, we are spiritually crucified with Christ. It is like our body/flesh was literally put to death on the cross (the gospel: step 1). So there, we just died (and the sin within us along with us). The moment we believed the gospel, our flesh died and we were released from our former master (sin), and from the law that condemned us when we sinned. Our dead outward bodies and the sin within were then buried (the gospel: step 2), and we as our inner man was spiritually reborn of incorruptible Seed and raised back to life (the final gospel step 3), and now our new selves are now slaves to God and are under His law of grace. All this is what’s meant by being baptized (following Christ) into Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.

    So, Christ redeemed us (freed us) from our master (sin), as well as the law that condemned us when we sinned, when we believed in His death on the cross (for the payment for our sins), His burial and His resurrection. And that believing He did that for us, we are then baptized (following Him) into His death, being set free from sin and the law, and are raised to new life under our new master (God) and His law of grace.

    We are now a slave of our new Master, God, who redeemed (freed) us from our old master, sin. What does God command us to do? He commands us to believe the gospel for salvation, and to “be holy”: “Be holy, for I am holy”. (If I’m saved by faith, why be holy? See note on: The Ways of God vs the Ways of the World [The best note on this site. Opens in a new window])

    And not only are we God’s slave now, we are now also under the law of grace, being set free (redeemed) from the former law that condemned us. What does the law of grace say? It says: “If you do sin and break the other law, you are forgiven instead of condemned.”

    And just because we’re now under the law of grace (forgiveness) instead of the law of condemnation, it doesn’t mean that we should use that as an excuse to let our flesh sin and break the old law. We absolutely could, but we are told not to. Instead of totally disregarding the old law, we uphold it because we agree that its statutes are good (it’s good not to steal, it’s good not to murder, it’s good not to lie, etc.). We’re just not condemned by it when our flesh does break it, because we’re no longer under it, as we’re now under the law of grace.

    Now, there’s the spiritual reality of our flesh being dead, but then there’s also the physical reality: that our flesh is not dead yet and is very much alive and sin still lives in it. But we’re to reckon/consider/pretend our flesh to be dead, which means that we are free from our former master (sin), and since we’re no longer sin’s slave, we no longer obey it when it tells us to sin. We are to act/behave as if our sinful flesh is actually dead and deprive our flesh of its desire to sin. Instead, we obey our new Master (God), who commands us to be holy. And when our flesh overtakes us and we fail to be holy in the flesh, remember, we are no longer under the old law that condemned us for it, we are now under the law of grace that forgives us.

    Does “being dead to sin” mean that we won’t sin anymore? No. Remember, spiritually we’re dead to sin, but the physical reality is that our sinful flesh is still alive and desires to sin. We’re simply to pretend it’s dead and deprive it of its desire to sin to the best of our ability. See this note on how to do this: The Ways of God vs the Ways of the World (The best note on this site. Opens in a new window)

    Even Jesus (God) took on human nature and had a fleshly body with sin in it. But since He was also God within that flesh, He was able to deprive that sin of its desires, thus fulfilling the law (something us humans couldn’t do). (Romans 8:3)

    On the cross, God the Father put all our sin in Christ’s fleshly body. Jesus bore our sin in His flesh on the cross, and God put His body/flesh to death, along with all our sins in it: 1 Peter 2:24 — “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree (the cross), that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes (wounds) you were healed.”

  • Sins: Paid, Forgiven, Removed, Forgotten

    All of our sins were paid for on the cross 2000 years ago, and the nanosecond you believed the gospel, your sins were:

    1. Forgiven
      Ephesians 1:7 — In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
    2. Removed
      Psalm 103:12 — As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
    3. Forgotten
      Hebrews 8:12 — For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

  • The Only Unforgivable Sins

    Unbelief = sin

    Well, and taking the mark of the beast is unforgivable.

  • Sin in the Book of Hebrews

    The sin talked about in Hebrews is the sin of unbelief.