Foundations of Faith
GETTING THE POWER AND VICTORY OVER SIN IN OUR LIVES (I)
Let us once again look in on Mr. Ronson’s Sunday school class:
Mr. Ronson: Do any of you ever struggle with temptation and sin in your lives? (All but one raise their hands.) Beth, would you feel free to tell us about your struggles?
Beth: My mother told me that in order to go to heaven I had to make lots of changes in my life and reach the point where I don’t sin any more, and …
Mr. Ronson: Yes … and …
Beth (in tears): And … it’s so hard! I don’t think I’ll ever make it!
Bill: No, I don’t think you will make it, Beth, because none of us can be saved and go to heaven on the basis of our own efforts.
Mary: That’s right; the Bible says, “By grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8,9). Also, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us” (Tit. 3:5).
Mr. Ronson: Thank you, Bill and Mary. Does that help you, Beth?
Beth: Yes, and maybe after the class you can tell me more about how to be saved.
Mr. Ronson: Fine, and for those of you who have been saving all your issues of GROWING, you should review the Jan97-May97 issues for God’s way of salvation. Now Bill, please tell us about your struggles.
Bill: I know that I am saved and have eternal life because I have put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16). I owe everything to Him and want to please Him and live for Him in return. But I still give in to temptation sometimes and I still do and say and think things I know are wrong. Is there anything I can do?
Bob (with a slight air of superiority): Bill, why are you concerned about all that. I am saved too and I know I am going to heaven. Remember what Mr. Ronson taught us last month:”Once saved, always saved” (Feb98-Apr98)? Don’t you see? Now that we are saved, we can just do as we please and sin all we like and it won’t make any difference!
What do you think, readers of GROWING? Is Bob correct in what he says? If not what can we say to help Bill? How about you? Do you struggle with temptation and sin? Are you trying to get the victory as Bill is, or are you-like Bob- happy to live your life yielding to temptation and wallowing in sin?
The apostle Paul knew people like Bob. In his presentation of the gospel, the apostle shows that the blessings brought to mankind by the obedience and death of Jesus Christ more than overcome the negative effects of Adam’s sin:”Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (Rom. 5:20; see Assignment 15). But there were some who took God’s grace and ran with it. They asked questions like this:”Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (6:1). The apostle responded by reminding the believers of the meaning of their baptism:”Don’t you know that so many of us as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized unto His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism unto death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (6:3,4). Whenever you are tempted to excuse your sin by saying, “I’m only human,” or “That’s the way God made me,” or “I can’t help it, I’m just a sinner like everyone else,” remember that these excuses are not valid anymore for a real child of God.
Have you been born again (John 3:3,7)? Do you know what it means to be “born again”? Yes, you are correct that it means you were lost and now are saved (Acts 16:31); you were spiritually dead and now have eternal life (Eph. 2:2; John 3:16); and you have been born into the family of God as His children (John 1:12). But there is more.
There are three words or expressions in the New Testament that give the truth of new birth. First, “You must be born again” (John 3:3,7), or literally, “born from above.” Second, “God … has begotten us again unto a living hope … being born again … by the Word of God” (1 Pet. I :3.23),. or literally, “born upward.” ” Third, “He saved us by the washing of regeneration” (Tit. 3:5). The only other use of the word translated “regeneration” in the New Testament is found in Matt. 19:28 where it refers to a whole new order of life. There it refers to Christ’s 1 ,000-year reign of righteousness and peace upon the earth (more about this in a later issue of GROWING). So we see that being born again denotes a totally new kind of life. “If any man, be in Christ, he is a new creation:old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5 5:17). So let us not excuse our sin by saying, “This is just the way I am,
I can\’t help it.” God has given us the power to live Christ-centered lives.
This goes hand-in-hand with the teaching of Romans 6 of our identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. Our position now in Christ is “dead to sin” (Rom. 6:2); therefore let us “reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:1 1).
This all sounds very good, but how do we do it? how do we carry this out in our everyday lives? We want to live our lives on this higher, heavenly plane, in anticipation of being with our Lord and Saviour in heaven for eternity. But… we keep failing! We sing, “Jesus keep our feet from falling,” and then a few minutes later we fall again.
At this stage, many believers turn to the law for help. By “the law” I don’t mean necessarily the Ten Commandments, but any set of rules of living that I am trying to follow. I may try to remind myself of God’s justice and judgment in order to keep from breaking His commandments. I may tape the verse, “Be not deceived, God is not mocked:for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7) on my wall. I may ask another Christian to check upon me periodically and ask if I have been able to keep from yielding to temptation.
What is the outcome of this turning to the law. Here is how the apostle Paul describes it:”What I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I… The good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do” (Rom. 7:15,19).
Running the Race
Assignment 15: Write out four other verses in Romans 5, besides verse 20, that include the phrase, “much more.”