Victory Over Sin

There are those that send out the message: “Don’t let anyone tell you that you are under the Law. You are not obligated to keep commandments because you are under grace. You have freedom in Christ.” . . . Yet Christ Himself said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

Cautiousness is recognizing that we have natural inclinations that are opposite to God’s ways. These tendencies seem right but lead to destruction and death. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 16:25).

Alertness is exercising my physical and spiritual senses to recognize the dangers that could diminish the resources entrusted to me. Alertness is motivated by the realization that many actions have predictable results and that the laws of the harvest apply to all levels of life.

Self-control is the inward strength to bring all physical appetites under the control of the Holy Spirit. Self-control is essential for any believer who wants to excel in the Christian life and receive honor from the Lord.

You were not designed to live with the weight of unconfessed sin. If you try to hide your sin and refuse to confess it and repent, you will eventually come to ruin and to shame. . . . As soon as you are aware of your sin, repent. The load of sin will disappear and you can prosper again.

Sin brings destruction into your life and relationships. A clear conscience prompts you to live honorably in order to avoid the painful consequences of sin and the humiliation of confessing wrongdoing, asking for forgiveness, and making restitution.

Anger is a symptom of something deeper, and only when we understand the root cause of our anger are we able to find the answers for resolving it.

Instead of looking at others’ actions, remember that you are responsible for what you have done. Even if you are guilty of only 10% of the offense, you need to resolve the conflict in that relationship before you will have a clear conscience.

When adversity comes, we are forced to face problems and pressures that are too great for us to resolve. In this way, God gets our attention.

Have you ever told a lie, taken something that did not belong to you, or coveted someone else’s possessions? What about hating another person or harboring lustful thoughts? When we are honest, each of us will admit to having done wrong things.

You probably know the pain of regretting words you have spoken: words of pride, dishonesty, envy, gossip, or anger. Although you can seek to restore bruised relationships through repentance and forgiveness, spoken words can never be retrieved.

Regardless of your feelings to the contrary, the Bible says that believers are dead to sin. God wants us to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin, which means “to count it to be so.” If a seductive woman walked past a dead man, he would not even blink an eye. God wants us to have a comparable response to the power and appeal of sin—to react to temptation as a dead person would react to temptation.

In seeking forgiveness for a wrong we have committed, our pride can get in the way, because asking for forgiveness requires us to humble ourselves before those we have offended. The key to obedience in this area is being open before the Lord, asking Him to search our hearts, and determining to follow through on whatever He shows us to do.

The enemy will do all he can to keep us from being open with our spouse about our sexual failures. Satan will convince us that confessing them will only bring hurt and confusion, that God has already forgiven us, and that they are sins of the past that have been dealt with. However, until we are open with our marriage partner regarding all failures—past and present—we will remain in bondage.

Somehow the most important thing I learned from this setting was that looking good on the outside was what really counted. The standard we measured everything by was, “What will people think?” No one shared openly about past or present sins and struggles. Thus, when I began to experience struggles and failures of my own, I didn’t dare tell anyone.

Christ’s victory over sin and death has set us free from bondage. What then is the freedom we have in Christ? It is the freedom to do what is right! You know you are free when you can make the choice to resist temptation and follow after righteousness.