Abide In Christ By Andrew Murray

Gen 2:17 ...In the day that you eat of it (you disobey Me) you will surely die.

Gen 3:4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die".

2 Co I 1:3 ...as the serpent deceived Eve that your minds may be corrupted

Rom 8:2 ...The Iaw of sin and death. 1 Co 15:56 The sting of death is sin...

Jam 1:15-16 When lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived... NASU

Rom 7:9 ...Sin revived and I died (I died to God and needed to be revived).

That You May Not Sin

In Him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not,

-1 John 3:5-6

The apostle had said, "Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins," (1 John 3:5) and had thus indicated salvation from sin as the great object for which the Son was made man. The connection shows clearly that the taking away has reference not only to the atonement and freedom from guilt, but also to deliverance from the power of sin, so that the believer no longer does it. It is Christ's personal holiness that constitutes His power to effect this purpose. He admits sinners into life union with Himself; the result is that their life becomes like His. "In him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not," As long as he abides, and as far as he abides, the believer does not sin. Our holiness of life has its roots in the personal holiness of Jesus , "If the root be holy, so are the branches" (Rom. 11:16).The question at once arises: "How is this consistent with what the Bible teaches of the abiding corruption of our human nature, or with what John himself tells of the utter falsehood of our profession, "if we say that we have no sin…that we have not sinned" (1 John 1:8,10)?" It is just this passage that, if we look carefully at it, will teach us to understand our text correctly. Note the difference in the two statements, "If we say that we have no sin" (v. 8), and, "If we say that we have not sinned" (v. 10). The two expressions cannot be equivalent the second would then be an unmeaning repetition of the first. Having sin in verse eight is not the same as doing sin in verse ten. Having sin is having a sinful nature. The holiest believer must each moment confess that he has sin within him: the flesh, namely, in which "dwelleth no good thing" (Rom. 7:18). Sinning or doing sin is something very different it is yielding to indwelling sinful nature and falling into actual transgression. And so we have two admissions that every true believer must make. The one is that he has still sin within him (1 John 1:8); the second, that sin has in former times broken out into sinful actions (v. 10). No believer can say either, "I have no sin in me" or "I have in time past never sinned." If we say we have no sin at present, or that we have not sinned in the past we deceive ourselves, But though we have sin in the present we are not required to confess that we are doing sin in the present as well; the confession of actual sinning refers to the past.

Christians choose either sin and death to God, or righteousness

For a Christian to make allowance for sin or to accept ongoing sin means they are actually making provision for their soul to die to God. Their spirit may have been born again but their soul becomes dead to God. And their soul remains that way, because no one can “re-life or re-vive” themselves, until they put themselves in a position for God to re-life them.

Ezek 18:20 The soul who sins shall die…(regardless of whether we are born again)

Die in what way? Physically? No, spiritually. What does that mean? It means to die to God. When? Sometime in the future? No, at the very moment the sin is committed.

Jam 1:15 (This is written to Christians) Then when lust has conceived it gives birth to sin and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death (to God). NASU

The awful consequences of the way of sin – for a Christian:

Prov 21:16 The man that wanders out of the way of understanding (meaning he once knew the way) shall remain in the congregation of the dead (to God). KJV

Jam 5:19-20 Brethren, if anyone among you (this is written to Christians) wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, Let him know that he who turns a sinner (now referring to a Christian brother) from the error of his way will save a soul from death (to God) and cover a multitude of sins.