1. If we belong to Christ, He has taken our sin upon Himself alone at the Cross. He bore all our sin and punishment at the Cross on Calvary. We have a new nature in Christ once the Spirit enables us to believe and repent according to the Gospel of God. We could not believe and repent according to the Gospel without a new heart from God's Spirit and Word. That is, He gives us a heart of flesh and takes our a heart of stone. He gives a contrite spirit and a humble spirit. He makes us have a new spiritual disposition. But the Christian life is a fierce battle between the Spirit and the flesh. The Spirit is opposed to the flesh and the flesh is opposed to the Spirit. It is said in the OT that even righteous men sin. There is no escaping the sin of our nature except in the Cross of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Sin is not completely done away with but we must wage war against it to live right with God. There is no compromise in this spiritual war. It takes the Cross of Jesus Christ our Redeemer to defeat sin. Good works do not take away sin, but only the remission, forgiveness and cleansing of the Cross of our divine Savior. I suggest to you that the atonement of our Redeemer Jesus Christ is what takes away sin. It is the only way we can be pure. We can't be pure through human effort or works of satisfaction or meritorious works or willing to do good deeds. We can only be pure by the very Cross of Jesus Christ our holy Deliverer! But as Christians we ought to walk and live by the Spirit of God. This should be a primary pleasure. We ought to please God to walk by the Spirit and the Word. However, the flesh seeks to "pull us away" from God-honoring living. The flesh is the beast within or a great monster of sin. The war is wage on our hearts. We can overcome by contrite repentance; however, some would seek to discourage other Christians because they fall into sin. There is not anyone on planet earth that is inherently righteous or good or moral, but everyone has fallen short of God's standard. No one is good and no one is righteous in and of themselves. In fact, everyone sins; however, the difference in mankind about sin is the degree of sin. If a person thinks they are sinless, they are deceived. Everyone has committed abominable iniquity. No one is just. We need something to help us. We need an act of God to declare us righteous. The Cross is the only work of the God-man to forgive and pardon our sins. There is nothing else that takes away sin but the Cross of the divine and spotless Lamb of God.
2. Sometimes we walk in the Spirit and sometimes we walk in the flesh. However, we ought to yield to the Spirit of God by His awesome and divine and holy grace! Sin effects our attitude and actions and thoughts and words and deeds. Sin taints everything we do. However, the Spirit lives within us to give us the ability to have victory over sin, but if we should fell we have repentance unto the forgiveness of sins through the Cross of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ. No one else supplied atonement for sin in human history but our Lord and Savior. There is no one suitable to meet the divine requirement for divine satisfaction for justice than our Savior and Redeemer and Deliverer Jesus Christ. If we walk by the Spirit we will have the demonstration of the fruits of the work of Christ in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. However, if we live by the flesh we will possess immorality, jealousy, anger and idolatry. But all of these sins are forgivable through the Cross. None of these sins could outdo the Cross of our divine Scapegoat. For all of those who truly believe by His Spirit, all of these sins are atoned for, but we ought to remember to live by the Spirit and Word. Do we rest on the Spirit of God? Do we ask God to change us wholly and so we would never be the same through His awesome Word? If we practice sin, if we rebel in sin, we are not truly born again; however, if we sin and repent according to the divine glad tidings of grace we demonstrate that we are truly His. However, if we practice the things of Satan we surely will not inherit the kingdom of God. But if we practice repentance unto remission and faith towards our Lord Jesus we have nothing to dread or fear. Can we observe God's fruit in our lives? Do we see a holy manifestation of repentance and faith? Do we redeem the time? I suggest to you that none of these things are prescriptive but these things of God are descriptive! Christians will find themselves sinning, but it does not mean we should give into sin. We ought to wage war against sin. We ought to fight the good fight of faith! We are aware of our sin through the intercession of the Spirit of God. Do you read God's Word? If so, it will search your heart and you will become aware of sin. Do you listen to sermons? If so, you will find sin in your life to repent of. We will never stop repenting until the moment of death.
3. The flesh is the sinful nature of man. We are totally depraved, radically corrupt, mortally wounded, thoroughly polluted, abominable in thought, word and deed, and we sin continually. Apart from the Cross of Jesus Christ our Lord and Friend there is simply no hope. However, many world religions today speak of a false hope but none know the Savior! There is a false peace. Peace is proclaimed but it is no peace at all. We are conceived in original sin. It is from the fall of Adam. No one is perfect and that is our spiritual problem. We have sinned against a holy and just God. The Cross gives the sinful nature a spiritual "death blow"! And He gives us a new heart and a new nature. He gives us hope, life, joy and peace. He gives us faith, focus, confidence and love. We ought to love the divine Cross of Jesus Christ and His shed blood. It is the shed blood of Jesus Christ at His Cross where we are pardoned from our radical sin. Sin is so thorough in our lives that the Bible says if we have broken one commandment we have broken them all. But the Spirit of God lives within us, and greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. We live and walk under the divine lordship of our Lord and Deliverer Jesus Christ! God is our Heavenly Father! Jesus Christ intercedes for us through His Spirit. We are eternally His forever. No one can take us away from Him. We cannot take ourselves from Him and no creature can remove His loving outstretched arms at His bloody Cross. We are new creations in, through, by and from Jesus Christ! We still have a remaining corruption in ourselves that wages war against the Spirit of goodness and preservation and endurance! The sinful nature or the flesh moves us against the Spirit of righteousness, holiness, uprightness and godliness. We must not give up or give in to the flesh. Sometimes, I suggest to you, we mess up and fall into small or great sin. I submit to you that there is no sin so great that the Cross cannot forgive or pardon. There is no sin so small as to jeopardize your eternal security. Nothing in all creation can take us away from the love of God. There are some people who say that a greater degree of sin can remove God's loving and caring love for us. I suggest to you that they are simply mistaken, because they do not know the divine Scripture or the power of God! Beloved, there is no sin that can remove God's loving hand at the Cross. Those who possess the Cross by simple child-like trust have eternal security. We are kept by God the Trinity forever! However, there is a serious and real struggle in the war between the flesh and the Spirit. I suggest to you that there is no sin that heaven cannot forgive but that does not mean we should indulge the flesh or abuse grace, but I suggest to you the divine riches of the Cross for your consideration! Yes, it is true that even abusing grace is forgivable through our Savior's shed blood! We all know what is right and wrong. We were created in the image of God but it is a shattered image because of sin. We ought to understand the negative consequences of sin. God will chasten us if we sin. It is a very serious matter; however, that does not mean He does not love you anymore. He still loves you when you sin because while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. And there is the divine truth of the blessings of obedience. God surely blesses us when we obey and when we repent. If you have started repentance, keep going. Make sure it contrite repentance, because fear of punishment is not the right disposition for asking for forgiveness. We ought to have our ultimate goal as pleasing to God. All of us should seek to please God. There is always a way out if we sin through His Cross in repentance towards the holy forgiveness of sins. The Christian life is difficult. It is not for those who do not seek to posses faith and repentance that works through love. The Christian life is a life of obedience. It is a life of faithfulness. You ought to love faithfulness towards God. It ought to be what describes you. I suggest to you that faithfulness to God involves repentance but also knowing that sin has been put to death.
This blog web site is for the in-depth, sound and basic exegetical study of the Bible in Reformed apologetics; that is, I shall expound upon the inerrant and infallible Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. There shall be biblical studies in world religions and non-Christian cults. I also quote and research reformed writers and I am happy to study from them. May the Lord bless everyone who reads this blog with spiritual riches in Christ which is His imputed merit by faith alone.
