Dealing With The Demonic - Lesson 2 Series

The enemy knows that mankind is subject to the infestation of inherited sin brought on by the first parents, Adam and Eve (See Gen 3:1-7). He understands that the “heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jer 17:9 NIV) He will do everything he can to get a Christian to focus on their own failures rather than the victory over sin found in Jesus alone.

Sin permeates the nature of every person from infancy to adulthood because the very nature of sin belongs to them through inheritance. Oswald Chambers wrote in “My Utmost For His Highest,”

“The nature of sin is not immorality and wrongdoing, but the nature of self-realization, which leads us to say, ‘I am my own god.’ This nature may exhibit itself in proper morality or in improper immorality, but it always has a common basis—my claim to my right to myself. When our Lord faced either people with all the forces of evil in them or people who were clean-living, moral, and upright, He paid no attention to the moral degradation of one, nor any attention to the moral attainment of the other. He looked at something we do not see, namely, the nature of man.

Sin is something I am born with and cannot touch—only God touches sin through redemption. It is through the Cross of Christ that God redeemed the entire human race from the possibility of damnation through the heredity of sin. God nowhere holds a person responsible for having the heredity of sin and does not condemn anyone because of it. Condemnation comes when I realize that Jesus Christ came to deliver me from this heredity of sin, and yet I refuse to let Him do so. From that moment, I begin to get the seal of damnation. “This is the condemnation [and the critical moment], that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.”

A. Sin Defined

All sin is defined as disobedience of the direct and indirect commands of God.

“You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Ex 20:5-6 NIV)

God “repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face.” (Deut 7:9, 10 NIV)

Inherited sin is the sin that is present in all women and men, which places every human in rebellion and damnation before God. No one is free from the responsibility of sin. Their sin is their sin. No human was ever born sin-free, except Jesus Christ, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Rom 3:22-23 NIV)

Sinful behavior is the product, manifestation, and proof of inherited sin. It is the actual working out of the sin nature within. Jesus said;

“And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19 NIV)

However, the Born-Again Christian is forgiven and cleansed. All actual sins have been removed, and they are given eternal life by Jesus Christ at the moment of salvation. No past sins, no current sins, and no future sins will be counted against them if they confess and forsake them through repentance (See Rom 8:1; 1 John 1:9).

As long as a person lives on this planet, the corrupt sin nature still remains within and produces the “desire” to sin. The Born-Again Christian, saved by the grace of God through Christ Jesus, battles to turn from that desire and to live their lives in obedience to God. The Christian’s life is a struggle, a battle, and a conflict that will never end until the day they stand before God. Jesus has already won the victory over sin. The eternal consequences of sin were taken away on the Cross and are no longer applied against them. When a Christian begins living forgiven, the enemy cannot win.

B. Family Ties

It is important to understand the nature of fallen humanity in order to wage successful spiritual warfare. The Bible reveals that every unbeliever is actually a spiritual child of satan (See 1 John 3:10). Those that don’t do what is right and don’t love others prove this. Spiritual children of God are just the opposite in position and in practice. Christians do what is right, and love their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus told His religious opponents that if God had been their Father, they would have loved Him because He came from God;