Putting To Death The Sins Of The Flesh

We’ve been building a structure, and it’s based around what it means to be a follower of Jesus. We’ve talked about the fact that a Christian walks by faith, trusting in God and following God’s leading even when it seems odd or strange.

We’ve talked about how a follower of Jesus seeks and experiences healing from past hurts and sins that once troubled us.

We talked about how God has redeemed us, made us new, and given us a new identity in Him. And we work from that place of safety in Him.

Now we bring those concepts of faith, healing and redemption together with a fourth concept called holiness.

We’ve learned to walk by faith, we’ve learned to find healing and we’ve learned our identity in redemption, now, we need to discover how to live our live in response to these truths.

How does this work exactly? We’ve received Jesus Christ as our savior. His blood has atoned for our sins. Our sins went to Jesus on the cross, they are deleted. Christ’s righteousness has been placed upon us as our robe to wear.

What’s next?

Well, we find ourselves in this situation that is constantly discussed in the New Testament. We are redeemed which means our sins are ransomed and removed. We are also clothed in Christ, which means we wear Christ’s righteousness as our own.

We also have been given the Holy Spirit who lives within us and directs our choices. But at the same time, we still have the sinful nature.

What is the sinful nature? The sinful nature is what we were born with. It’s the reason we struggle with making bad choices. It’s an inheritance of the line of Adam and Eve, which we’re all part of. It’s part of the curse and punishment for the sin of Adam and Eve.

One might assume, well when I become a Christian the sinful nature must be removed right? Wrong.

Our sins are forgiven. We are changed and made new. We are born again. However, we still have the sinful nature. Which means we continue to have a tendency to want to sin.

So, we made the choice at some point in our lives to give our lives to Jesus Christ. The sinful nature remaining in us, along with the Holy Spirit, you could say is a test.

The test is, after you’ve been saved, will you continue to say "yes" tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.

Or will you begin to say "no" to God, and "yes" to sin? The choice remains with you, into the future. Of course there will be consequences to the choices we make.

Will you be controlled by your sinful nature? Or by the Holy Spirit within you?

That is holiness, when we say yes to God and no to sin. Here is the definition for holiness. From the 1828 Dictionary: HO'LINESS, noun [from holy.] “The state of being holy; purity or integrity of moral character; freedom from sin; sanctity.”

This issue is discussed in detail in Romans chapter 8. Let’s take a look at verse 9. Paul has just been writing about the sinful nature. And what it does. Next he says...

It says this: “But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)”

If you have the Holy Spirit, you belong to God, if you don’t then you don’t belong to Him at all. And the goal is, that the Holy Spirit would control our lives.

Next it says in verses 10-11, “And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”

The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead two thousand years ago lives inside of you, today.

So one might also think, well, once we’re a Christian, we should never die then, because God made us new. Also not true, we will still physically die, again because of the curse of death placed over the line of Eve. However, we get a picture of our future with Jesus.

Jesus was crucified and died on the cross, but three days later Jesus rose again from the dead. The same thing happens for the Christian. When we die, we can expect we will also rise from the dead after death, and find eternal life beyond the grave.