QUESTION:
Wouldn't you say that before I was a Christian,
I was a slave to sin, but now I am a Christian I can overcome sin in my life
through the power and grace of God. Not to be saved but because I am saved by
grace. God loved me enough to die in my place and forgive my sins. He also
loved me enough to dwell in me through the Holy Spirit so I can have a new life
and not be a slave to sin. For example, before I was a Christian I was addicted
to drugs, after I'm a Christian Jesus not only saved me but delivered me from
drugs. Now my desire is to obey and follow Jesus because I love Him.
ANSWER:
We learn from scripture that the flesh is
unsalvageable. Even Paul, our apostle and example in the faith, cries out at
the end of Romans 7, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?” Sin is inside the nature of man. The flesh can
never be saved. This is ultimately why we get a new body at the
rapture/resurrection.
What God has saved and regenerated is our
spirit, the inner man. The inner man is the part of us that can learn and
understand the Word, 1Co 2:11–12, and which grows up towards maturity in the
things of God, Eph 4:15. It is here where the Holy Spirit resides. As our inner
man grows in truth and starts to show the fruit of the Spirit, it will start to
reflect more and more on the outside, in our flesh. It is at this point where
we are progressively delivered from old habits and corrupt thinking and practices.
As a Christian, we aim to overcome the
flesh by maturing in our inner man. We can improve the odds of not sinning as
we grow in the knowledge of the Word and learn to obey its influences in our
life. This is how we walk in the Spirit, Gal 5:16, but even as Paul says,
Php 3:12-14 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. (13) Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, (14) I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Our spirit (inner man) is perfect in God’s eyes. God has saved our spirit to the uttermost and imputed Christ’s righteousness to us. Our bodies will always be subject to sin; to the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life. However, our primary aim, in this fallen world, is to bring (train, buffet) this body of flesh to come in line with what God has done in our inner man. How do we do this? Certainly not by our own willpower, which will always fail!! We do this by renewing our mind; by filling it up with God’s written Word, and through wilful obedience to it, allow it to influence this outer man, as far as possible, to become subject to the God’s purpose and workings, Php 2:13. We will never attain to perfection in the flesh, but as we grow the inner man, in the power of God’s Word, it will shine through and bring the flesh under subjection and bring glory to Christ.
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