I’m feeling impressed to write this counsel for any Christian out there who is struggling with sin.
This is my counsel:
Next time God convicts you OF SIN, agree with Him! Yes, indeed!
Say, “Yes Lord, I CONDEMN THAT SIN right along with You!” Both of you condemn it together. It’s so much easier to just agree with God instead of hiding from Him.
Don’t justify the sin…
Don’t hide from God…
Just condemn that sin as God does.
Get on the “same page” as God in regard to it.
You see, God does condemn SIN in you…
Romans 8:3-4 has within it this truth:
“…God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
When you sin, as a Believer who has already received salvation in Christ, it is not YOU God is hating when you feel his conviction come, yet the SIN that is resident within you IS being condemned. He will convict you and his love will remain with you, even while condemning the sin, and the way out of that conviction is “always” agreeing with God about it.
He came to FREE you, by becoming SIN and nailing THAT to the cross, so you can then receive Christ’s righteousness in exchange. This is grace. And this was Jesus’s role as the Lamb of God. Your sin was put upon Him. His blood cleansed it away. “Without the shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22)
In essence, in Christ, sin no longer has a rightful place in you. You are free of it, and can remain free, if you walk after the Spirit, realizing your freedom is “a process”. Some call it, “working out your salvation”.
Phil 2:12-13 puts it this way:
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”
Ask the Lord to cover any sin with his blood and to help you to overcome it and not do it again! Hate the sin just as much as God does and do not “condemn yourself”. It wastes so much time and energy and the accuser torments you through fear. It will be a miserable life. You’re always trying to make up for it, atone for it somehow, always feeling like a failure or worthless, doing penance, a mental rollercoaster for sure. The Lord Jesus doesn’t want you attacking yourself and hating yourself when you sin! He wants you BOTH TOGETHER to be attacking the sin He’s convicted you of. He’s working with you to do this “process”. God’s condemnation of SIN is actually what brings YOU freedom and peace. Yes, He’s condemning The Sin, because he loves YOU. God is like an earthly parent who wants their child to do the right thing for the child’s “own good” because of their love for that child.
The good news is that In Christ the propensity to sin will become less and less as the Spirit of God works freedom within you, but yet DO HATE your sin, for it destroys YOU. This is why your Heavenly Father wants it out of your life. He loves you too much to not give you “conviction”, meaning a knowing you’ve just sinned and need to take care of that situation by the “privilege of repentance”. I’m not wanting you to become sin conscious. Just the opposite. The Devil wants you so sin conscious you can’t be of any good to God. So don’t think about it until the Spirit brings conviction of it. Yet when He does, deal with it, quickly.
Trust in God’s forgiveness through his blood, and then go toward God… not away from him…by abiding in Christ.
Continuously rely on his blood to wipe away sin’s stains, while determining to have an obedient and repentant heart and to listen to the Spirit. Romans 8:1 indeed tells us:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. “
Joy will come if you get this straight, and you’ll see it is not a license to sin at all, but a hope that freedom from sin is yours to embrace, as grace works in you to overcome with the Spirit’s help.
Let me give you now a practical application:
Let’s imagine I as a young mother lost my temper with my child, so much so that it scared me. Instead of negative self-talk, condemning myself, and believing I’m a bad and terrible mom, I say to God, “God I recognize that my temper outburst was a sin. I agree with you and your conviction of my heart. I hate my temper and flareups too! Please forgive me, cover my sin with your blood, and please help me to overcome. I love my child. I release this evil conscience now knowing you have forgiven me and will help me next time to be aware of my negative reactions and wrong use of my tongue. Also, reveal to me what is causing me to be so short-fused. Reveal any underlying anxiety or fears I have God”. Then move on…after apologizing to your child and loving on them.
Simple.
Peace then comes. His great grace can undo so much damage. Trust me on this. “I will fear no evil” declared from scripture also means you can’t be afraid that you will sin again and again. That is torment. And it usually comes from condemnation.
I knew in my own life the Spirit of God scolded me years ago with these words: “Beth, you have more faith in the Devil to take you down and into sin than you have in Me to keep you from sin!” Ouch! It was true at that time. I really needed the scolding. Where was my faith in what God could do for and in me? I saw my stinking thinking after his rebuke. So don’t be afraid of the Spirit’s rebukes either. It will, in the end, if heeded, bring great freedom.
I had a friend once who was a chain smoker. She felt God convicting her own heart about it. This was her testimony told to me: Every time she had a cigarette she’d say, “God I hate this sin just as much as you do, Please free me from it” (yes, she claims even as she was taking a puff…i.e. in the process of her sin, for she was most certainly “bound“, and she realized it. Part of her wanted it, part of her hated it. She had tried for years to quit, to no avail.) But, she tells me, she kept agreeing with God and hating her sin and she condemned it, right along with Him. Well, soon she found herself having 5 instead of 10, 3 instead of 5, 1 instead of 3, making it through a bowling match without one, being able to drive in a car without one, etc, until the Spirit of God DID FREE HER…TOTALLY! At the time of her telling me, she hadn’t had a smoke in years. It was “a process” of hating the sin, agreeing with God, not trying to “self-will” it away…or condemning herself, which previously was her torment, when she failed. God knew she really did agree with Him and that she hated it and knew it was a sin for her. He then freed her by HIS POWER and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, for the Spirit and her TOGETHER “condemned the sin” she was bound by. It was HER will to be free and it was HIS will for her to be free. And she WAS free in the end. Hallelujah!
Friend, if you have taken the first step, and have accepted Christ Jesus as your Savior from Sin, then the Devil has no right to torment you as you live in Christ. His temptations will get fewer and fewer as you resist him and stay close to God by condemning your sin right along with Him. Not attacking yourself… but agreeing with God… that your sins need “covered quickly” with his blood and forgiveness. The Word says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed!” (John 8:36)
It is a process as the Spirit works within your spirit to remove sin from your life. Embrace your wonderful transition! You are a new creation in Christ, and need not live miserably when you realize the power of the LOVE of God and the BLOOD of Christ. Amen!!
This scripture will help you realize something amazing!
Hebrews 10:14
“For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. “
Our receiving Jesus’s blood sacrifice has made every Believer in Christ PERFECT FOREVER. This is Our Standing with God. It’s DONE! Our position is secure. God sees us as perfect, forever, because He sees us “In Christ”.
And yet, at the same time, we are being made Holy! This is The Process we are in! …The process of aligning ourselves with God’s perfect will, obeying His Word, doing His works, being made holy as He is, and why we are given the Holy Spirit! Through the Spirit, God works in us to both will and to do of his good pleasure. Phil 2:13
Can you see that you ARE perfect TO GOD, while you are BEING MADE HOLY? Re-read the verse until you get it deep into your understanding, for truly it is “a key” to victory in your Christian walk. You are reading this book or article right now as you are “being made holy” in walking out your faith. The Spirit is working in you to understand Hebrews 10:14 so that you may have peace in knowing your standing with God is secure, even as He deals with sin that He desires to be rooted out of your life. You need not be tormented by condemnation from the enemy, for Satan doesn’t want you realizing this amazing “status” that Believers in Jesus Christ have! Once you know… you can intimidate Satan, and not he, you! (smile) You can stand in your true identity! Hallelujah!
Hope this helps someone.
Through Christ, God not only forgives sin, but God frees each and every one of us from sin. We can joyfully embrace “the process” and cooperate with Holy Spirit. As he exposes our sin, we can deal with it TOGETHER! JOYFULLY! Yes, it is indeed possible, to be completely joyful as God reveals a dark place or sin in our life! …Once we know what he is doing and the LOVE he has for us in doing it!! (smile) Romans 8:29 tells us God’s intent is that we are to be “conformed to the image of his Son”.
The Father desires to see Christ in us.
Colossians 1:27 says God has made known unto us the “glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Many of us still continue to ponder this mystery, and the glorious riches of Christ dwelling in us. I’m sure it will be a life-long enjoyable discovery process.
I Cor 15:49 tells us of the ultimate in God’s intent! “And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” In context, God is saying that as we resemble Adam, a living soul, so shall we resemble Christ, who’s a quickening spirit, and one day our bodies will be changed to resemble his, for flesh and blood will not inherit the Kingdom of God, nor corruption inherit incorruption! We have an incredibly awesome future awaiting us as believers! We will one day leave this world behind, have new bodies like our Lord’s glorified body, and Glory indeed awaits us, for we will be with the Godhead forever!
In closing, always remember, our greatest ability, as Believers in Jesus, is the ability to repent.
1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
May you go forward knowing you CAN overcome sin. God has made the way!
Hallelujah!