As I have mentioned in previous messages, when we are in Christ, the sin-issue ceases to be an issue. To drive that point home, let me state emphatically that Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins – past, present and future – at Calvary! This is clearly and succinctly stated in Romans 8:1-2; “…there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”
So does that mean we no longer have to be concerned about how we live our life? Or does it mean that since we are saved, we can continue living the way we did before we were saved without consequence? I’ll let Apostle Paul answer those same questions; “Of course not!” (Rom. 6:15) In fact, as a new Christian we have to be very intentional about how we live, because there is more to God’s gift of grace than forgiveness of sin. Now that we are “a new creation in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17), meaning that at conversion our sin-nature was replaced with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we are faced with the challenge of living the Christian life in this fallen world. To meet that challenge our focus must shift from who we were as “sinners” to who we are today as “Saints”. (explanation below)
Unfortunately, many Christians still live the same lifestyle after conversion, seemingly unaware of their new identity in Christ. Here are the common reasons people get stymied. We still live in these fleshly bodies and are tempted to yield to our carnal passions and desires; we are still living in a fallen world that espouses standards quite contrary to God’s standards; and Satan, the great liar and manipulator, is hard at work in each of us trying to sabotage the new Christian life we have chosen to pursue. Remember, before you decided to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you were a slave (not my word, but Apostle Paul’s in Rom. 6:17) to your sin-nature. Satan had you right where he wanted you; in his grasp. The devil does not give up without a fight, and as Christians, we’re vulnerable to his tactics. (Reference Ephesians.6:10-18) This tells us to put on “the whole armor of God (the foundation of scriptural truth) so that we will be able to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of the devil.” Then we will be able to defeat Satan the same way Jesus did when He was tempted in the wilderness; with the TRUTH of God’s Word!
One of Satan’s most effective tactics is to try to convince us we are unworthy of God’s gift of grace. Since there is no mental delete button to push after conversion, if we keep focused on who we were before we accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, we can get mired in guilt, shame and remorse. We all have a past; we all lived in sin, and like it or not, we are still going to continue to fall short during our new walk with Christ. But take solace in the truth of this mini-gospel found in Rom. 3-21-25: “We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us NOT GUILTY! He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.” And did God wait until we cleaned-up our act to step in on our behalf? No!!
Rom. 5-6 tells us, “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.” God provided a savior to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. He did this because he is a God who loves us beyond our ability to comprehend, and he wants a relationship with us – an eternal relationship. Rom. 8:38 tells us, “nothing can separate us from the love of God.” So now when we fall short -, and we all will – it’s not about continuing to plead for forgiveness, because that issue has already been solved. Now it’s about asking the Holy Spirit to empower us to become the person God created us to be. Our goal now is to become more Christ-like each day.
What we have been talking about is who we were before salvation. After salvation (accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior) we are a new creation in Christ. We also have a new identity. Rom.1:7 refers to those of us in Christ as Saints, meaning holy…without sin; set aside as acceptable to God. Now we can come boldly before God without any fear of condemnation; not because of anything we did to make ourselves acceptable to God, but because of what Jesus Christ did for us 2015 years ago. Now when God looks at us he no longer sees a sinner, but instead he sees a Saint because we are covered with the blood of Jesus. That, my friends, is why the sin issue is no longer an issue! It was laid to rest at the cross.
But as we pursue our new journey, we know that satan will go into warp speed to try to derail our best effort to change. Therefore we should be prepared for an onslaught of his lies and temptation. But rather than fret, we can gain courage from our new identity in Christ: we’re a Saint, loved unconditionally; we’re forgiven; we’re worthy and acceptable to God. And our gift from God for this very purpose is the indwelling Holy Spirit, who empowers us to step out and meet these challenges with boldness and confidence. Now we can confidently stand on the truth of John 4:4; “He that is in me (The Holy Spirit) is greater than he (Satan) that is in this world. That is a promise from God!
We are told in Galatians 5:17-18, “The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just the opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict.” But as we learned from the scripture above, we are already promised victory because the Holy Spirit will empower us to make the right choices and live a life that brings honor and glory to God.
When we realize the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, we are confident that we can become the “masterpiece” referred to in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” Now we are capable of becoming the person God created us to be. Once we begin experiencing our new identity in Christ… we become keenly aware that we are no longer in bondage to our sin nature.
Before I close, I want to be very clear about the role of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowers us to do the necessary work to be pleasing to God. The Holy Spirit does not do the work for us, then tap us on the shoulder and say, “problem solved, now enjoy your life.” No! He empowers us to do the work.
So whenever we are facing our personal mountain – whether it is a mean person, an unkind boss, loss of a job, an embarrassing situation, or satan’s lies,etc. – we call on the Holy Spirit to give us the wisdom, patience, strength, courage, perseverance… whatever we need, to cast that mountain into the sea. Whenever our motivation is to bring honor and glory to God, His promise is to help us succeed.
My question to you today is…do you allow the Holy Spirit to empower you to be victorious? If not, why?
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May God bless ya,
Dan Presgrave(a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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