Just because we’ve not been able to ‘make it work’ for us...does not give us the liberty to ‘re-write’ the Bible so it ‘fits’ and affirms our current lifestyle marked by failures and sin; or even worse...to write books and commentaries that do the same thing as they then get read more than the Bible itself.

Yes, ALL of us have sinned and ‘blown it’! But the Bible does not teach we will continue... to do that after we surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Surely you’ve heard that well known definition of ‘insanity’...trying to do the same thing over and over while expecting different results’?

Oh...so this walk of faith seems to have gotten a lot more serious than what you had ever really considered, you say...especially after reading these messages the past two days? That probably would explain why even back in Jesus’s day...that many ‘turned away and no longer followed Him’...because they thought the same thing. (John 6:60,66).

Were you aware that Paul spoke of a great ‘falling away from the faith’ in the days leading up to the ‘Day of the Lord’ (2 Thess. 2:3) as people would be led astray by ‘doctrines of demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1) and even fall prey to ‘other gospels, receive other spirits, and even follow ‘another Jesus’ (2 Cor. 11:3-4)? No wonder Jesus cautioned His disciples when they asked Him what signs would indicate His return at the end of the age, and He told them to ‘take heed that you be not deceived...for many will come in His name and deceive many’ (Matt. 24:3-5).

Yes....I’m back on this issue again, talking about ‘sin’ and how we are supposed to ‘go and sin no more’. There’s a reason why the writer in Hebrews admonishes us to “exhort one another DAILY...while it is called ‘today’, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (3:13)

For all the interest that countless Christians have these days with the topic of ‘prophecy’, it’s a wonder we overlook that ongoing ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ that is widespread as churches continue to teach and reinforce this idea that ‘believers will remain as sinners who continue to sin’. May I ask - what part of being a ‘new creation’ (2 Cor. 5:17) and abiding in Jesus where we sin no more’ (1 John 3:6)...do we not get?

Friends...this should be ‘good news’ to any and all who truly want to be free of sin- YOU. CAN. BE! This is what Jesus came to do...to set the ‘captives’ free! (Luke 4:18; John 8:34-35; Rom. 6:18,20,22)

So ‘what about Paul’ and his apparent admission of continuing to live as a ‘sinner...saved by grace’? There are two passages folks like to point to that makes them feel better about their own ongoing sinfulness...concluding (falsely) that since Paul continued to struggle with sin...who are we to think we won’t? The first and most often cited passage is found in Romans 7:14-24, and I’ll give you the ‘short version’ of explanation today. If you care to read more in-depth, check out my posts from 8.12 and 8.13.25.

Paul was simply writing to describe (in present tense) the struggle we ALL have when we first come to Christ and find ourselves at ‘war’...wanting to do good...but aware that ‘something else’ is at work within us that prevents us from ‘doing what we want to and should do’, which is to obey and please God by keeping His commandments (Rom. 8:7-8). Do you know what that ‘something else’ ....is? He refers to it as his ‘body of death’ (24) and his ‘flesh’ nature (18), lamenting in vs. 24: “Who will deliver me from this...?”. But don’t stop reading there! He answers that question in the very next verse (25) and then goes right on into chapter 8 explaining HOW...we are set free from this ‘body of death’ and ‘sinful flesh nature’. God’s Spirit leads us to ‘put it to death’...(8:13)...and those who do follow...and belong to Christ...do that very thing (Gal. 5:24). This...is how we know who the ‘children of God’ are. (8:14; & 1 John 3:9-10)

The other passage that gets a lot of ‘air time’ is found in 1 Timothy 1:15, where Paul refers to himself as ‘chief or worst sinner’. Now based on those two references alone, it’s easy to see why people just assume that Paul continued to live and struggle with sin, but let’s consider this thought in context of what we read throughout the Bible- Paul described himself as the ‘worst of sinners’. No doubt, I suspect he may have struggled some with guilt over all the Christians he had put to death prior to his conversion. But think of what it would mean to be the ‘worst of sinners’, and not just stumble in those ‘little sins’ that we tend to dismiss and overlook.

He encouraged us to ‘follow him...as he followed Christ (1 Cor. 11:1)...(as the worst of sinners?) Does that even make sense? And if you were out there continuing to sin in the ‘worst’ of ways...how do you keep harping on sin with such conviction and reminders as found in Gal. 5:21 and Eph. 5:5-6?

Scroll back and look what he mentions in 1 Tim. 1:13 how he was “formerly... a blasphemer...a persecutor, and insolent man...”. That...is ‘past tense’ as he is describing how he ‘used to live’ prior to being set free. He points to folks there in the Corinthian church who ‘used to be... fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers...but were washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus...” (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Ephesians 2:1-3 confirms this same idea...that we “once...conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh and mind ...and were (past tense)...by nature...children of wrath just as others” (but we don't anymore). The real question we need to be asking ourselves is this: “Do we want to be free...and free indeed” (John 8:32-36)...or, as Jesus put it forth to a man whose life was in a wretched place: “Do you want to be made well?” (John 5:6).

And as He told that man there...’you can be...take up your bed and walk’ {8}...Jesus also told him...to ‘go and sin no more or something worse will happen to you (14). Join me tomorrow?