Striving Against Sin

Today Jon Greene from Mt Pleasant, TX was a guest speaker at our church. Something that he mentioned in his message caused me to start thinking a little more on the responsibility of the believer to put away sin. He was talking about how a Christian is given a new nature, and by grace his life is changed. But he also stressed the fact that the Christian needs to be actively fighting against sin in his life. Now there is a tightrope to walk in the subject he was dealing with and I think he had great balance in his perspective. Some would say that the Christian needs to rely totally on Grace to deal with sin; in other words, just sit back and Grace will do all the work for you in ridding your life of sin. Others would say that it is entirely up to the Christian to purify himself; a matter of willing yourself into submission as I've heard it put before. Again, there must be balance. And I don't profess to know a great deal on the subject, but here is what I believe to be true based on the teaching and reading that I've been exposed to.

One side of the coin is this: "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin..." Romans 6:6 Christ accomplished a work on the Cross that guarantied the Christian victory over sin. This does not mean victory 100% of the time, but victory in a broad, overall sense. Anyone who is truly in Christ has a new nature. This new nature still struggles with sin because we are still living on earth and we are still human, but sin is no longer a consistent lifestyle. This is the kind of victory I am talking about. The Christian cannot help but wage war on sin because it now contradicts the new life that he has in Christ. It goes against his new, regenerate nature.

The other side of the coin: the Christian does have a responsibility to struggle against sin. "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires." Romans 6:12 It is not a walk in the park to break habits that you've kept during your years as an unbeliever. Nor is it easy to resist temptation. The words "do not let" (or in some versions allow) imply that the Christian must be determined that sin will not reign in his life. He must strive against sin, in other words. It is an ongoing battle. And while we are "not letting sin reign" we ought to also practice Romans 13:14. "Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." What difficult things to do, but if any of us are able to obey these commands it is because we have help from a most powerful God. That brings the thought full circle to the issue of balance. What a fine line, and this is only a scratch on the surface! If anyone is interested in learning more on this subject and others pertaining to it and the book of Romans, I would encourage you to buy a copy of Charles Leiter's "Justification and Regeneration." He explains these things more clearly than I have ever heard them explained before and it is very easy reading for anyone who desires to learn more on the topic.