QUESTION FOR TODAY: Am I a sinner because I sin OR do I sin because I am a sinner?

I WAS NOT SEPARATED FROM GOD BECAUSE OF THE SINS I COMMITTED.

I WAS SEPARATED FROM GOD BECAUSE OF MY SIN NATURE.

I think maybe we, the church, need to re-evaluate some of our word usage or maybe our theology. As we are approaching the Feast of Passover (which is not Easter), whereby we celebrate the work of the cross there is a lot of talk about Christ going to the cross because we sin and do wrong.

QUESTION FOR TODAY: Am I a sinner because I sin OR do I sin because I am a sinner? If the first statement is correct "Am I a sinner because I sin" then there was a time that I was not a sinner and at some point of my life I became one. This is fundamentally and theologically incorrect. I was conceived in iniquity. I was born with the sin nature. No one had to teach me how to sin, it was the natural thing to do.

The second statement is correct. "I sin because I am a sinner." I was born a sinner. It is not WHAT I do, it is WHO I am. It is my status and position because of the rebellion of Adam and Eve.

Why is this important? Because my Jesus did not die just so I can be forgiven each day of my sins. He died so that my Adamic nature would be put to death and a new race would come forth. That new race is the first-fruits of the Last Adam (Jesus Christ). He did more then just forgive my sins, He eradicated my sin nature and gave me a new nature. He removed the corruptible seed and placed within me an incorruptible seed. I have the very nature of God within me.

Thank God that our sins are forgiven...however we need to move beyond that to the fact that we no longer have a sin nature. It is not natural for us to sin. We now have the righteousness of Christ within us. So walk in it.

I have met so many Christians who have fallen into this trap of redefining sin in hope to take the sinfulness out of sin, and all in the name of tolerance and unity in diversity. I had one guy tell me that he smoked dope for the glory of God.

In order to maintain an ABSOBUTE standard, sin must be defined by someone who does not do it. God the Father is the only One who has the right to define sin. His Son died to pay the price of our sinfulness. When the world renames and redefines sin, it is an attempt to take the sinfulness out of sin and to make our Lord's death on the cross something done in vain. Sin is sinfully sinful. Deception is deceivingly deceptive. Here is what our God says about sin.

1. Sin is transgression of the law (1 Jn.3:4).
2. Sin is coming short of the glory of God (Romans. 3:23).
3. Sin is rebellion against God (Isaiah. 1:2).
4. Sin is unbelief: It makes God a liar (I John. 5:10).
5. Sin is going our own way, planning our own life according to our own will, without seeking the will of God (Isaiah. 53:6).
6. All unrighteousness is Sin (I John. 5:17).

When we play with sin by trying to use "Christian liberty" to do what is right in our own eyes we must remember that...
Sin is a folly to deceive us,
Sin is a force to destroy us and
Sin is a fact to condemn us.

A little leaven, leavens the whole lump!

Sin is a volitional act of disobedience against the revealed will of God.

But in our Lord Jesus Christ we can be free from the Penalty of sin, the Power of sin, and the Presence of sin. To Him be the glory. AMEN!

1 John 1:7 ESV  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
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First I would like to look at the Scriptures concerning lifestyle sins or deeds of the fresh, and the consequences of living in them.     

Galatians 5:19-21 ESV  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,  (20)  idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,  (21)  envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
 
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 ESV  Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,  (10)  nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

We are told from the Word of God that a true believe cannot continue living in a lifestyle of sin.

1 John 3:5-7 ESV  You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.  (6)  No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.  (7)  Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.
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From these Scriptures we come to some conclusion. 
    
Those who live in the sins listed in Gal.5:19-21 and 1 Cor.6:9-10 will not inherit the kingdom of God. Those who live in Christ according to 1 Jn.3:5-6 keeps a life-style apart from a lifestyle of sinning.

These Scriptures are so clear. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. If we say we are in Christ we do not keep on sinning. It is as simple as this.

Sometimes I ask people, “Can Jesus Christ deliver someone from lying?” Usually they affirm He can. “Can Jesus Christ deliver someone from stealing?” Usually the answer will be, “Yes, He can.”

Then I ask, “What sin is too great for Christ to overcome?” Usually the answer is, “There is no sin too great for Christ to overcome.”

We know this is true, yet Satan has convinced us that we have so much sin it is useless to think that we can overcome them.

Wintertime is approaching. Imagine this. You are on your way to work early in the morning. It had been snowing (hard to imagine if you live in Florida), and the roads are full of slush. You are now late for work. There is a big truck ahead of you going very slowly and you can't see around it.

You think, “There is really bad traffic this morning. I don’t dare pull around this truck because I may cause an accident. The roads are slippery.”

Finally however you see your opportunity and you pull around the truck. What do you think you saw? There were no other cars ahead of the truck. The road was clear for a long, long way. Sometimes we are blinded by that one sin in front of us and convinced by the enemy that there are thousands more ahead of it. Focus on our Lord Jesus Christ and His work on the cross. The blood of Christ is enough to deliver us from all sin.
continued later

Hebrews 10:11 ESV  And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

The reason Christians are not delivered from their stronghold of sins is they don't know that this is promise in the New Testament and is a distinct feature of the New Covenant.

In our generational theology, there doesn't appear to be a clear statement that our salvation includes deliverance from daily sin or a workable program for overcoming the nature or habit of sin.

Before we can attempt to overcome our sinful nature we must know for a certainty that the Bible teaches that believers do not have to be continually trapped in sin. We must know what the Word teaches.

1. The New Covenant does not permit continuing in sinful behavior.
2. The New Covenant includes deliverance from sinful behavior.
3. The New Covenant includes a workable plan for deliverance from all sinful behavior.

We do not gain victory over the stronghold of sins until we learn that such victory is in available by faith in the Word of God and our Lord's work on the cross. Then we have faith to pursue victory over the sins of the flesh until we obtain it.

We are not speaking of some sudden experience in which the habit of sin will be removed. The removal of the sin nature is included under the New Covenant, but it has to do with a whole life of cross-carrying obedience to the Lord as the sinful nature is slain and Christ is formed completely within us.

Such freedom from the sin nature, being transformed into the moral image of Christ, and resting in the Person of the Father through Christ, are all part of the New Covenant. To much of modern Christianity is still be lived in the Old Covenant.

We are not dealing with victory over behaviors, such as impure thoughts, lust, anger, lying, gossip, slander, selfishness, hatred, unforgiveness, spite, backbiting, sexual perversion, drunkenness, the use of drugs, and other demonic chains that destroy people including Christians. We do these things knowing that we can keep coming to the cross for forgiveness or we start excusing them away as normal human behavior. But the Scriptures tell us to come boldly before the throne of God for help.
 
Does the New Covenant include victory over these and all sinful strongholds? You bet it does. Let’s see what the Bible says about victory over sin. It is entirely possible to get victory over this bunch of messy behaviors while we still are in this world. More later....

​YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE TRAPPED IN SIN!

Romans 6:14 KJV For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

It typically is true that before we can receive a blessing from God we have to know the promise is in the Bible. This is true of the blessings of being saved. It is true of the blessings of the gifts of the Spirit. It is true of the blessing of Divine healing. Once we know God has given the promise we can choose to believe and receive, or doubt and reject.

The same is true with the blessing of victory over sin. Once we see the victory which we have in the Scriptures we can choose to believe and receive that victory or live as a defeated victim of our flesh.

I have had people tell me “No one ever told me before that I could get victory over sin." Many believe that because we are 98.6 and breathing we just had to live with the fact that we are going to sin each day.

Some believers live their whole life with sin. Let me pick one: Anger issues. Every time they get angry and lose their temper they have deep regrets because of the people they hurt verbally or physically. They would feel deep conviction about the anger, but did not know they could get victory over it. We can have faith for victory over anger or any sin that hinders us from walking Christ-like.

The Cross Is Enough For Victory.

That’s just Bible... It is right and so simple and practical!

Years ago in the 1990's I was involved with a ministry called "The Holy of Holies". I taught on the 7 Biblical Feasts and the Holiness of the Tabernacle.

In my early years as a new believer I had been taught the conventional Christian wisdom that all of us are sinners and Christ came to forgive us and save us in order to bring us to Heaven.

This teaching told me that we could not keep the commandments in the New Testament because of our sinful nature. The commandments were written to show us our need of a Savior. We are saved by grace and not by works. This is the difference between the new covenant and preceding covenants. This was all true when I was lost.

But after salvation I was taught that as long as we are in this world we have to sin and there was nothing we could do about it. 

But upon searching the New Testament to see what it actually stated, I was amazed to find that the New Testament did not teach this. I had been taught very little about imputed righteousness and righteous behavior. God would not have commanded me in the New Testament to "Be ye holy" if it were not possible.

Then in teaching the 7 Feasts I found out some things about the Day of Atonement. The two goats of the Day of Atonement came to my attention. The one goat was slain and its blood sprinkled in the Holy of Holies, typifying the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus on the cross, the forgiveness of sin.
The second goat, also a goat of atonement, was left alive and led away into the wilderness, typifying the removal of sin.

Once I realized the truth about the 2 goats, Romans chapter 6 made more sense. Now I am preaching more about our spiritual position called the “state of grace.” We can live each day without being bound by the law of sin. I am no longer a slave to sin, therefore I no longer serve sin.