Q&A – WHY DO BELIEVERS STILL SIN? - 5

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Q&A –  WHY DO BELIEVERS STILL SIN? - 5

2 Corinthians 7:2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

We are saved by grace.  We are not saved by forgiveness.  Believers must embrace the call of a righteous life and thereby live by grace.  Apart from grace, the power that IAUE gives us to do His will, we will continue to live petty and meaningless lives of sin moving from one prayer for forgiveness to another, and never experiencing the reality of the salvation that Messiah died to give us.  We will never live above our expectations.  If our expectation is that Messiah died to forgive us of our sins and take us to Heaven when we die, we are doomed to lives of sin.  If our expectation is to live righteously by the power of IAUE, then that is what we can expect to experience.

In our last post, we discussed the “false gospel” that prevails within contemporary Christianity that would lead the lost to believe that Messiah came to forgive them of their sins, and that once forgiven they would be eternally saved. This message misses the whole point of why Messiah came.  The forgiveness of sins is only the doorway that enables us to become aware of the salvation that Messiah made possible; and that is the power to live righteous lives before IAUE.  If we believe forgiveness of sins is the objective, then our lives will never experience freedom from sin.

This false gospel is also responsible for another very significant reason why believers still commit sin. If the believer camps around the forgiveness of sins as the essence of salvation, then he/she will never recognize the significance of the new creature.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Messiah, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

1 Corinthians 1:30  But of him are ye in Messiah Yahushua, who of IAUE is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

When we give our life to Yahushua Messiah, we are born anew by the Spirit of IAUE; and what we become in Messiah did not exist just moments before.  We are “created” a new life.

Psalm 102:18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise IAUE.

Obviously, when we come to Messiah, we do not receive a new physical body (although one is promised to us in the resurrection); nor do we have a brand new mind.  We still retain our memories, our knowledge, etc. [though we are commanded to have our minds renewed (Rom 12:1-2)].  We do, however, have a new spirit, a new life-force; that part of us that animates our flesh and activates our soul (mind, will and emotions). If our focus (produced by the gospel message to which we responded) is that we have been forgiven of sins, we will not appreciate what has actually happened to us; and we will leave far beneath the dignity, power and capability of the new creature.

All that you did before you came to Messiah was attributable to the life you lived up to that point.  You may have been a liar, a cheater, a deceiver, a thief, a hater, a bitter and unforgiving person, a conniver, a manipulator, a murderer, etc.  All of that sinful activity, though forgiven, is still a part of your “permanent record” in this world. It is the history of the flesh, the human body that committed those things; but it is absolutely not attributable to the new life that was created within you when you were born again in Messiah Yahushua.  There is no permanent record that is a function of the physical body and soul of the man who has become a new creature in Messiah.  That record begins at the moment of the new creation.  Nothing of your prior life carries over to the new creature.

Look at the life of Paul.  He was an aggressive protector of Judaism, such that he was personally responsible for the arrests of the disciples of Messiah in Jerusalem.  So mean and vile was his pursuit to cleanse the city of these disciples that his campaign was responsible for the dispersion of the disciples of Messiah who fled Jerusalem to the regions round about and beyond to escape his persecution.  Remembering who he had been before his “Damascus road experience,” Paul says:

1 Timothy 1:12 And I thank Messiah Yahushua our Master, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

13 Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

14 And the grace of IAUE was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Messiah Yahushua.

15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Messiah Yahushua came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Yahushua Messiah might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

Paul freely admitted to his “permanent record.”  He was a blasphemer.  He was a persecutor. He harmed the lives of others, needlessly.  He identifies himself as the chief of sinners; but he does not stop there. He says that he obtained mercy; and that his redeemed life would serve as an example to others that it does not matter what your permanent record is, there is a whole new life that begins when we come to Messiah.  Look at what Paul said of his life as a new creature.

2 Corinthians 7:2 Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

This same man who hauled people to prison that they might be tortured and killed says he has wronged no one. He has corrupted no one.  He has defrauded no one.  That is the new creature speaking.  The man who was the chiefest among sinners had been forgiven and REPLACED with a new life; and since becoming a new creature in Messiah, Paul had harmed no one.  He did not carry with him the onus of having been so evil in is past.  That was no longer Paul’s identify.

So many believers never recognize the nature of the new creature within them.  They are stuck on being forgiven of their sins, and continue to move from forgiveness to forgiveness as their lives are still defined by the person they were before they came to Messiah.

Now, to be perfectly honest about this matter; a large part of this problem in believers is another false teaching that pervades Christianity; and that is that their baptism in water is simply an act of obedience that we are supposed to do after we become believers.  Nothing of consequence is attributed to it; but the Scriptures have a powerfully different position on the matter.

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

2 Elohim forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Yahushua Messiah were baptized into his death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Messiah was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

In the book of Acts, which serves as our only historical account in the New Testament of how the gospel was presented and how people responded to it, we never see anyone being “invited” to “accept Messiah as their personal lord and savior.”  That is so much absolute nonsense; and yet it is the heart of the false gospel that marks contemporary Christianity.  No one is ever asked to pray to receive Messiah. When the gospel was presented, it was a command to repent, to forsake lives of rebellion against the authority and will of IAUE.  It explained that the impasse that made relationship with IAUE impossible had been broken by the death and resurrection of Yahushua, unto whom IAUE had given all authority to rule; and that he was the King unto whom their knee should bow.  How did they respond to the gospel?  They were baptized in water.  They buried the man they were and became the disciples of Yahushua Messiah.

There is no magic in the water; but it is the answer of a clear conscience before IAUE; and it unites man with the death of Yahushua.  The old man is crucified with Messiah; but until he is buried; our link with sin is not broken. Once fully separated from the old man, the nature of the new creature can empower our lives in freedom from sin.

Freedom from sin is what Messiah died and rose again to produce in our lives.  IAUE desires a family that walks in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:5-7). Such a life is the natural product of the true gospel.