A Scriptural Approach to Overcoming Sin:
Before we begin our approach to having victory over deadly sin, it is important to understand what exactly sin is and what God in his one and only book (the Bible) speaks about it.
Here we are attempting to win over a powerful enemy of humankind,the sin. It is very important to understand our enemy (just like one understands his rival in a sport) before we attempt to defeat him.
You and I have no authority to define what Sin is. In fact,no human or any religious community has the authority to define Sin.The only person who has the authority is God himself. So, let us see what God has to say about Sin in his holy book,the Bible.
What is Sin according to Bible?
Sin of commission:
1 John 3:4 (ESV) Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.From the above verses, we can comprehend that Sin is simply breaking the law of God found in the new testament of the bible.
1 John 3:4 (NIV) Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
Let us understand with some examples. God commanded not to steal. If some one stole some thing, He broke the law of God and sinned. God commanded not to have sex outside of marriage, if some one had sex with some one other than his/her spouse (fornicated) , he/she broke the command or law of god and sinned.
Sin is lawlessness. Dictionary.com defines lawlessness as "a state of being contrary to or without regard for the law".Therefore,sin is a practice of doing something without any regard to God or his law
This type of Sin is called sin of commission because we commit something which we ought not do.
Sin of omission:
James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.Therefore, if we fail to do some right thing in view of God, then we commit a sin of omission.
Let us understand with an example.In Jesus's parable of good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), the Priest and the Levite both committed a sin of Omission because they failed to the right thing of saving a dying person.So,when we fail to do a right thing which we can,we commit a sin of omission.
what sin brings and why should we overcome it?
Now we have understood from the scriptures what actually sin is then comes the question what Sin actually brings?
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.From the above verse,it is clear that Sin has the power to separate us spiritually from our creator and care taker, the God. Sin seriously hurts the heart of God.God does not take sin as easy as we take it. Also, practice of sin hurts God to the extent that it prevents him from listening to our prayers.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.What sin brings? the answer is death.You may wonder everyone dies not just the person who sins.The death here the scripture speaks about is spiritual death not physical death.Spiritual death means a spiritual separation from God,our father.
If we die physically in this state of spiritual death, we experience the eternal punishment.
Revelation 21:8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second deathHow devastating the sin is ! How miserable it is to fall into the hands of God !
Now the question comes who is in this miserable and pitiful state?
Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of GodUnfortunately, every accountable person has sinned and fallen short of glory of God, Who will save the mankind from this miserable and lost state? the answer is Jesus.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world,that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.Jesus was ready to die for our sins. He already paid ransom for our deadly sins to release us from the bondage of sin. Jesus's blood has the power cleanse any person from any kind of sin.There is no such sin which blood of Jesus cannot cleanse. His blood is that powerful.
Jesus has made it possible for every person to have the forgiveness of their sins by the power of his blood if we are willing to obey the gospel plan of Salvation.
After we obey God's plan of salvation, he cleanses us from all Sins and we become the children of God.We have the promise of eternal life and deliverance from wrath of God on the day of judgement.
Once we are saved we have to depart from the filthiness of sin and obey God to live a life of righteousness till the end.
Our problem of sin is not yet over after Salvation because we are going to sin from time to time because of the weakness of our flesh (Mathew 26:21)
1 John 1: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us
Once we become Christians, Satan is going to do his best to cause us to sin (1 peter 5:8). As faithful christians, no matter how hard we try to keep sin out of our lives,Satan manages to find some ways to sneak into our lives.
Therefore there is a dire need to learn how we approach to overcome the crafty sin.
Our approach to put sin behind us:
our approach to overcoming sin begins with learning how actually sin develops.
How Sin develops?
James 1:12-15 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.From verse 14, we can see that the development of Sin starts with temptation and this temptation involves 2 things in it
- Own desire (some translations suggest "lust") - Strong desire in heart for some thing
- Enticement (An opportunity and encouragement to satisfy the bad desire)
Temptation is just an encouragement or motivation to satisfy desires .Let us see an example.
"One boy went to a shop to buy cookies. As he did not have enough money to buy the cookies he really wanted, he thought of stealing them which is a bad desire.If he gets a good chance to steal them or he gets a suggestion from his friend on how to steal without being caught,its an encouragement to satisfy his bad desire which is temptation"
It is not a sin to be tempted.We can learn this from Jesus himself because he is tempted as we are yet without sin
Hebrews 4:5 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Next stage in the development of sin is sin itself. From verse 15,when desire has conceived it gives birth to sin.This means when we take action to satisfy those desires to actually fulfill them,then it becomes a sin.When we yield ourselves to temptation, we commit sin.
Sin = temptation+ Action (yielding to temptation)
Sin=Desire+Encouragement+Action
Next stage is spiritual death. Verse 15 takes us further to say "and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death".
Observe a very important thing here that sin can bring spiritual death only after it has fully grown.Fully grown sin is nothing but the practice of Sinning continuously and willfully without trying to stop the growth of Sin.
If sin overcomes us,we die in that sinful state and we have to experience the punishment of hell.If we overcome sin,then we can escape the wrath of God and will enjoy the eternal life in heaven.
Now we have seen how sin develops in three stages finally leading to death.We have studied this in order to stop sin overcoming us.
To overcome sin,we have to stop sin in any of the above three stages.
Well, by storing word of God in our hearts.
David stored up God's word in his heart that he might not sin against God.This is the best way to go about it.
If we sincerely follow this way, we can easily put sin behind us because the word of God works like a magic to transform of lives.
One more way to change our desires is start hating evil from right now.
While we work out on changing our desires,we can protect ourselves from sin by
Pause and think for a minute."What situations trigger me to have sinful thoughts? what triggers me to loose my self control?"
You best know about yourself and those situations.List them out and try to limit those situations as far as possible before you change your desires and develop enough self control to protect yourself from those bad companions.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
God always provides a way of escape and all that we must do is to make use of that way properly and sincerely.
May God help you overcome Sin. Amen
If you need any personal help in growing faith/overcoming sin, feel free to contact me by filling the contact form at the bottom.I promise a personal help in Jesus. hope U trust me.
If sin overcomes us,we die in that sinful state and we have to experience the punishment of hell.If we overcome sin,then we can escape the wrath of God and will enjoy the eternal life in heaven.
Now we have seen how sin develops in three stages finally leading to death.We have studied this in order to stop sin overcoming us.
To overcome sin,we have to stop sin in any of the above three stages.
Ways to overcome Sin:
1. Change our desires:
This is the best place to begin with.If we change our desires to God's desires then we will not have any difficulty to obey God rather we enjoy obeying God.
Our mind is like a hard drive in a computer.If we fill plenty of it with worldly things and leave little space to God and his word, we naturally desire only those worldly things which leads to sin.
But if we fill our minds with word of God by studying and practicing it daily ,we naturally begin to have good and godly desires which leads to a happy and well satisfied life and ultimately to eternal life.
That's why God commanded us to bring up our children in the instruction of God so that they can have healthy and Godly desires.
Our mind is like a hard drive in a computer.If we fill plenty of it with worldly things and leave little space to God and his word, we naturally desire only those worldly things which leads to sin.
But if we fill our minds with word of God by studying and practicing it daily ,we naturally begin to have good and godly desires which leads to a happy and well satisfied life and ultimately to eternal life.
That's why God commanded us to bring up our children in the instruction of God so that they can have healthy and Godly desires.
Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
In fact, changing our desires is part of our christian walk.
Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship
Galatians 5:24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.But how do we change our bad desires?
Well, by storing word of God in our hearts.
Psalms 9:11 How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.With my whole heart I seek you;let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart,that I might not sin against you.
David stored up God's word in his heart that he might not sin against God.This is the best way to go about it.
If we sincerely follow this way, we can easily put sin behind us because the word of God works like a magic to transform of lives.
One more way to change our desires is start hating evil from right now.
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.Well you might say it takes time to change our desires and is easier said than done.If you say that you are absolutely right.It takes some time to change our internal desires of heart because they are with us in the world.
While we work out on changing our desires,we can protect ourselves from sin by
2. Limiting our bad companions
Psalm 101:3 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless.I hate the work of those who fall away;it shall not cling to me.A perverse heart shall be far from me;I will know nothing of evil
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals"As we can see from above verses, the logic is to limit our opportunities by purposely avoiding situations that create wrongful desires against God,So,don't hang around the wrong crowd but hang around such people who can encourage you in God and righteousness.
Pause and think for a minute."What situations trigger me to have sinful thoughts? what triggers me to loose my self control?"
You best know about yourself and those situations.List them out and try to limit those situations as far as possible before you change your desires and develop enough self control to protect yourself from those bad companions.
3. Learn to exercise self control:
Self control is very essential virtue and is one of the fruits of the spirit mentioned in Galatians 5:22.
Recall what we have noted just now. A temptation becomes sin only after we yield on that temptation to satisfy our bad desires.
If we can control ourselves by exercising self control we can easily overcome sin.
But,how do we develop self control? The answer is by having an active prayer life
4. Practice an active prayer life:
Pray sincerely for God's providential help.
Mathews 6:13 And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil
Mathews 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”If we are sincere about overcoming sin and pray heart fully, God certainly provides us a way of escape from every temptation we experience in our lives.
1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
God always provides a way of escape and all that we must do is to make use of that way properly and sincerely.
May God help you overcome Sin. Amen
If you need any personal help in growing faith/overcoming sin, feel free to contact me by filling the contact form at the bottom.I promise a personal help in Jesus. hope U trust me.
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