Sin And Holiness - Even Though The War Is Won, Battles Rage On!

Someone smart once said that misery loves company.  Now I know that it’s probably not very Christian for any of us to wish misery on someone else but the truth is that when we are struggling it is comforting to know we aren’t alone and that someone else might not just sympathize but empathize with our plight.  We are in a battle friends and we have to be careful that as Christians we don't pretend that we have arrived at holy perfection.  We need to be transparent with each other and to those who haven't yet come to know Christ because the battle for our minds doesn't end the day we say yes to Jesus.

Yesterday I had one of those Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde days when I didn’t even recognize myself part of the time.  Now I know that I love God and he loves me more.  I know that I have been saved through my faith in Jesus Christ and am thankful for the amazing gift he gave me at the cross. I know that the Holy Spirit of God lives in me. I know that I’m being conformed to the likeness of Jesus - a process the Bible calls “sanctification” (a big word meaning the process by which we grow closer to God and our lives become more holy).  But I also know that until Jesus returns to call me home I am stuck in this body of flesh and some days the flesh wins out over my spirit. 

Yesterday was one of those days.  I was tired, not feeling that great, and had a very frustrating morning. I found myself thinking thoughts I shouldn’t have been thinking and saying things I shouldn’t have been saying.  Toward the end of the day I was feeling like I totally let God down and that he might just want to find someone else to do this work because there MUST be someone much more “righteous" he could use.  But as I was contemplating writing God my letter of resignation I spoke to two believers who reminded me that it is the holiness of Jesus in me and not my own holiness that is the power God uses through me.  Good thing because I didn’t have much good to bring to the table yesterday.

Like I said at the opening, it’s good to know I’m not alone but I don’t think just anyone who told me that they fight sin and temptation would suffice.  I needed someone who everyone thinks is so “HOLY” but still admits the battle exists.  I looked around then I found him!  The Apostle Paul or St. Paul.  Oh yeah I forget that New Testament saints were all of those who were saved and following Jesus.  St. David? Hmmmm?  I feel like one some days but yesterday I think they would have needed to retire my statue!

So what did Paul say about his battle against sin and the flesh?  I recommend you read the whole seventh chapter of the Book of Romans but I will share with you verses 15-25:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.  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!

Look, Paul was not saying it was ok to sin or falter but he was acknowledging the battle that is raging in those who have been saved.  He goes on later in Romans to remind us that we who are in Christ Jesus are not under God’s condemnation but also that we are to be controlled by the Spirit of God.  He promises that we can do all things through Him (Jesus) who gives us strength.  The Bible also says that God’s mercies are new every day and as I write this I feel a fresh shower of God’s grace over me.  I also see the work that God has done in me since the day he reached down and plucked me from death.  He is SO good.  So, if you are a child of God and have failed Him, let him know your sorrow over it and trust that if you confess your sins he is faithful and just and will forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  WOW!  How much unrighteousness?  ALL!  Thank you Father God for that and thank you Lord Jesus for doing what I could NEVER do!

Grace and Peace, David