By Jonathan Dodson, Gospel-Centered Discipleship
Yesterday we posted the first of three in a series on fighting sin.
Check out the post on the importance of knowing your sin. Once we know
our sin, the challenge is to actually fight it.
Know that victory over sin has already been won.
Before we address fighting sin, it is worthwhile to point out that
the victory over sin has already been won in Christ. The good news of
the gospel is that Jesus has defeated sin, death, and evil through his
own death and resurrection and is making all things new, even us. Paul
explains Jesus' victory over sin and its implications for us in Romans 6:6-11:
- The power of sin has been rendered powerless, as we are no longer enslaved to it but to Christ!
- However, disciples will continue to battle sin until our final reunion with Christ. This is why Paul exhorts us to “consider” ourselves dead to sin and alive in Jesus.
- The time between the cross and the return of Christ will be filled with battles against sin, but in these battles we possess a new life which enables us to defeat sin through Christ’s decisive victory.
- The fight of faith is a fight to be our new, authentic selves in Christ, free from sin and alive to God in righteousness. Knowing our sin, we fight against it by fighting to be who we already are in Christ.
Why Fight?
Fighting your sin is a tenacity to put sin to death, which arises
from our life in Christ. Unfortunately, many disciples do not walk in
their newness of life but in old patterns of sin. Perhaps this
lackadaisical approach to sin is because we value Jesus’s atonement for
our guilt and the penalty of sin, but at a heart level fail to value and
understand how his atonement has also freed us from the power of sin?
Or perhaps our indifference to fighting sin springs from a false belief
that God accepts us just as we are, not as who we will be? Why fight if
we are already accepted? Continue at Jonathan Dodson
