Silas
Humble Servant
I can hear both the joy and the ache in your words, and I am joining you in giving all the glory to the Lord Jesus Christ for the real improvement you have already seen. You prayed and cried, and God has been merciful. Now that same cry of your heart for lasting, true deliverance is the very thing He will honor, because it is His will for you to walk in freedom.
One of the ways sin keeps its power is through ignorance. Until we understand what Godās law actually says, we often do not even realize that the strong desires themselves are sin. It is not only the outward act that defiles, but the inward lust. The law is good because it shines light on what sin is, but the law alone can never break its grip. In fact, trying harder only tends to stir up more desire, because our sinful nature takes the commandment and makes us more aware of the very thing we want to flee. This humbles us and drives us to the end of self-reformation. That is a gift, not a failure.
With your mind you want to serve God. That is genuine. The struggle you feel between what you love in your spirit and what still pulls at your mortal body is the common experience of everyone who belongs to Christ. But you are not condemned for that battle. Right now, if you are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation for you. None. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, even in the middle of the conflict. Your heartās desire to be pure is evidence that the Spirit is at work.
What changes everything is moving from the mind of the flesh to the mind of the Spirit. Your mind is not neutral; it will be governed by one or the other. When you allow your thoughts to dwell on the things the old nature craves, it produces death. But when by the Spirit you set your mind on Christ, on His finished work, on His resurrection life in you, peace and power flow. You do not have to let sin reign in your body. Sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under law but under grace. That is not a license to flirt with sin; it is the strongest guarantee that you are free not to obey it.
You are not a slave anymore. You have been set free from the tyranny of the flesh. That freedom is not mainly the permission to sin without consequence; it is the glorious ability to not sin. You once yielded your body to impurity, and there is no lasting fruit there, only shame. Now yield yourself to God. Offer your mind and your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. When you do, you will taste real life and lasting joy.
If you sin, remember you have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for your sins. His blood does not just cover sin; it puts it away. David cried out, āAgainst you, you only, have I sinned,ā and yet he knew the happiness of the man whose transgression is forgiven. Only God can forgive sin, and He has done it fully in Christ. Therefore, when you stumble, do not hide in shame. Bring it immediately into the light, receive your forgiveness, and keep walking.
Let the leaven of old patterns be purged out, not only from your outward behavior but from the secret places of your imagination. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. You are unleavened in your standing before God. Live that out by putting distance between yourself and anything that entices you. Let there even be a holy separation from the enabling influences that would pull you back.
I am praying with you for the renewing of your mind, for deep wisdom, and for eyes to see the deliverance that is already yours in Jesus. Keep looking at Him, the One who became sin for you so that you might become the righteousness of God. The serpent of brass was lifted up so that those who looked upon it would not die. Look at your sin judged in His body on the tree, and you will find that its poison no longer has mastery over you. Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. His grace is sufficient to bring you all the way into the lasting freedom your heart longs for.
One of the ways sin keeps its power is through ignorance. Until we understand what Godās law actually says, we often do not even realize that the strong desires themselves are sin. It is not only the outward act that defiles, but the inward lust. The law is good because it shines light on what sin is, but the law alone can never break its grip. In fact, trying harder only tends to stir up more desire, because our sinful nature takes the commandment and makes us more aware of the very thing we want to flee. This humbles us and drives us to the end of self-reformation. That is a gift, not a failure.
With your mind you want to serve God. That is genuine. The struggle you feel between what you love in your spirit and what still pulls at your mortal body is the common experience of everyone who belongs to Christ. But you are not condemned for that battle. Right now, if you are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation for you. None. The mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, even in the middle of the conflict. Your heartās desire to be pure is evidence that the Spirit is at work.
What changes everything is moving from the mind of the flesh to the mind of the Spirit. Your mind is not neutral; it will be governed by one or the other. When you allow your thoughts to dwell on the things the old nature craves, it produces death. But when by the Spirit you set your mind on Christ, on His finished work, on His resurrection life in you, peace and power flow. You do not have to let sin reign in your body. Sin shall not have dominion over you, because you are not under law but under grace. That is not a license to flirt with sin; it is the strongest guarantee that you are free not to obey it.
You are not a slave anymore. You have been set free from the tyranny of the flesh. That freedom is not mainly the permission to sin without consequence; it is the glorious ability to not sin. You once yielded your body to impurity, and there is no lasting fruit there, only shame. Now yield yourself to God. Offer your mind and your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. When you do, you will taste real life and lasting joy.
If you sin, remember you have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for your sins. His blood does not just cover sin; it puts it away. David cried out, āAgainst you, you only, have I sinned,ā and yet he knew the happiness of the man whose transgression is forgiven. Only God can forgive sin, and He has done it fully in Christ. Therefore, when you stumble, do not hide in shame. Bring it immediately into the light, receive your forgiveness, and keep walking.
Let the leaven of old patterns be purged out, not only from your outward behavior but from the secret places of your imagination. Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. You are unleavened in your standing before God. Live that out by putting distance between yourself and anything that entices you. Let there even be a holy separation from the enabling influences that would pull you back.
I am praying with you for the renewing of your mind, for deep wisdom, and for eyes to see the deliverance that is already yours in Jesus. Keep looking at Him, the One who became sin for you so that you might become the righteousness of God. The serpent of brass was lifted up so that those who looked upon it would not die. Look at your sin judged in His body on the tree, and you will find that its poison no longer has mastery over you. Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. His grace is sufficient to bring you all the way into the lasting freedom your heart longs for.
