ChristMyLife.org - God or My Failings?

I want to look at how we deal with sin as we seek to live a life pleasing to God. I believe how we as believers overcome sin in our lives and grow more and more like Christ should be similar in many ways to how we are saved. Let me briefly summarize the truths concerning our salvation and then show you further what I mean.

We are utterly sinful and completely unable to please our Holy God ourselves (Romans 3:10, 23)
God, in His grace, gave His Son on our behalf (John 3:16), completely satisfying His holiness and justice as Christ died in our place (2 Corinthians 5:21)
We simply accept God's free gift of salvation (Romans 6:23, Ephesians 2:8-9) in order to restore the fellowship with our Holy God.
This salvation is immeasurably wondrous and complete and can never be added to or improved in any way by our efforts (Ephesians 2:4-7)

We as Evangelical believers readily and easily accept these truths about how we are saved, yet we often lose sight of these principles as we move forward to live our day to day Christian lives. We focus our attention on our own efforts to "live a good life" and are frustrated as we see sin still active in our lives. We might think, "How can such evil and sinfulness still be in my heart? I must not be a good Christian." We then might try, by our own willpower, to suppress the sinful nature or maybe put up a false front of righteousness to our Christian friends, knowing full well the evil which lurks within us. We honestly try to "do the right thing", but are frustrated at every turn. What are we to do?

So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?   Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.    (Romans 7:21-25 NIV)

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.    (Romans 8:5 NIV)

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.  For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.    (Galatians 5:17 NIV)

Just as we look to God alone for our salvation from the penalty of sin ("being saved"), so we must look to Him alone for our salvation from the power of sin. We can do nothing but accept God's gift of salvation and so in the same manner we can do nothing but accept God's delivery from the power of sin in our lives. Just as we trust Him fully for our salvation from the penalty of sin, so we simply trust Him for our salvation from the power of sin. Just as sinful man cannot contribute to his salvation, so a sinful man cannot make himself more righteous.

If the focus of our struggle against sin is on "self improvement", we will only be masking the wickedness of our sinful hearts. We are powerless against sin in our own strength. It is fundamentally impossible for a sinful person to remove sin from their own lives. It would be the same as trying to wipe dirt off of ourselves with dirty hands. We are surrounded by dirt (sin) inside and out and the only clean (holy, righteous) thing in the entire universe is God. Only He can clean us and by cleaning I mean transforming our sinful hearts in addition to forgiveness.

We often have an incorrect response to sin in our lives. The only correct response is to focus on the only cure: God. The incorrect responses always focus on ourselves or our situation, and can include

Get down on ourselves
Wallow in guilt or self pity
I am the product of upbringing or other bad situation and it's not my fault
Try harder
Just keep plugging along with no change.
Draw away from God for a time as we "feel bad" about our sin (like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden)

Our first response, as we all know, must be to come to God and enjoy His forgiveness. Note that I didn't say seek His forgiveness, but enjoy His forgiveness. Forgiving our sins cost God everything and, praise and glory to our wonderful God, it costs us nothing. We need not feel a tinge of guilt or remorse as we come to Him. He paid it all and there is nothing I can add to it by getting down on myself or punishing myself in any way. In fact, to think that I must add "guilt" or "self pity" or anything else to the mix when I have sinned, is really to say that Christ's sacrifice was in some way incomplete. Our sin is "Paid In Full" by the blood of the Lamb.

Lastly, God is the only cure for our sin. When we sin, we must draw closer to Him not let ourselves grow distant from Him or to be caught up in our own efforts to figure out why we sinned or how we can do better next time. There very well may be practical things we need to change to avoid a sin in the future, but the primary focus of our hearts must be on the Great Healer of Souls. He is the only hope for overcoming sin. To make a conscious decision, even for an instant, to drift away from Him in our hearts because we have failed, is a foolish and destructive pattern. Can there ever be a time or circumstance where we would benefit by drawing away from Him? Of course not. No matter what we do and how we fail, cling to Him and draw even closer to Him. Bask in the incredible cleansing we have in Christ. Seek Him as the healer of hearts and minds.

The most fundamental way we can practice our trust and reliance on God is to devote our hearts and minds to worship and honor Him. Remember, we are wonderfully cleansed whiter than the whitest snow in Christ. We can always come fully and boldly into His holy presence (Hebrews 10:19-22) without the slightest reservation or even hint of guilt. You don't have to "get your life together" or do anything to come into His presence and worship Him in the splendor of His Holiness. His salvation is so gloriously wonderful and complete, it doesn't make "sense" (in our human wisdom), but it is so beautifully true.

Fix your eyes on Him, not yourself. A heart fixed on Him and filled with true worship and praise has no room for sin. When we do sin, it is a reminder that He alone is our Redeemer and that He alone is our hope of righteousness. Don't be caught in the trap of focusing on yourself after you sin. The only cure is Christ, not self evaluation, self condemnation or guilt. Turn completely to Him and receive His complete righteousness and holiness in Christ.

Scriptures

These are the scriptures I referred to above.

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; (Romans 3:10 NIV)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:23 NIV)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV)

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7 NIV)

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22 NIV)

Transformed, Turned Upside Down and Inside Out

As I was writing this week's email, I realized it is incredibly important for each of us to realize that the message of Christ, the gospel, is a radical and completely different way of thinking from the world and even from what we may be used to in our own Christian life. All of scripture is not just information to add to our body of knowledge, but the Creator of the Universe calling us back to fellowship with Him. We, as residents of this world, have been deceived and corrupted so from His original design. We cannot incrementally get better by adding scriptural information to our lives. We must seek after and allow His truths to completely and totally transform every aspect of our lives.

We cannot make this change ourselves. I believe the only way this can happen is to be completely immersed in Him as we abide in Him and literally live and breath Him in our every moment. As we draw closer to Him, our perspective on life and our very way of thinking will be transformed (Romans 12:2) to be more and more like His. Please recognize what God says is radical stuff. If we don't see His truth as radical, our hearts have become dull and we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to our hearts.

Set aside time in Pure Worship to focus on Him and Him alone. Let yourself be lost in His love, His grace, His forgiveness, His peace and His joy. This is how life was meant to be lived. We have been created for wonderful fellowship with our Creator. Savor every moment you can with Him and let Him transform you inside out.

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