Many Christians have a difficult time with sin and with understanding God’s love. Sometimes a lack of scriptural knowledge regarding sin can lead one to experience guilt and condemnation instead of knowing that God loves them unconditionally. I want to share my struggle and how I was set free through the knowledge and belief of the scriptures. I want to share the correct way to deal with sin and how this affected my belief of the scriptures regarding God’s love for me.

When I failed again and again in a particular weak area, I would experience great guilt and thoughts of condemnation.  As a result, for many years I experienced feeling horrible about myself which robbed my joy, especially when I read in Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”  If we have been reconciled to God by the death of Jesus we should have no ongoing guilt and condemnation. “… We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” Rom 5:11.

At times guilt can come and red flag us that something is wrong as a conviction. However, what I’m speaking about is guilt, accompanied with tormenting fear; which is a legalistic pressure to do the Word but without the grace to do it. If you do not have the right understanding about how to deal with sin you may continually live in a guilty state before God, even though He says we can go to Him each time for forgiveness; even in an oft repeated sinful area without fear of condemnation. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I hope by sharing with you, having gone through this struggle for many years, I can help free you of the same “guilt -struggle”.  This vicious cycle of guilt usually leads to believing you are not saved, which strikes at the love and acceptance of God for you.

Instead of resting in the written Word I was driven by feelings. Instead of simply believing the written Word regarding His love and acceptance for me I let my feelings of guilt and condemnation control me. “… He has made us accepted in the beloved” Eph 1:6   I was sin-conscious instead of God-conscious, always trying to correct myself for God like an Old Testament person still under the law.

The Word says in Romans 8:1, “There is now therefore no condemnation to them who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”  Each time I sinned I kept thinking that I was not walking in the Spirit.  I was up one day and down the next, never sure of my salvation. Romans 8:9 says, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you…” I let the devil have a heyday with me by making decisions based on my feelings and not by what the Word said about me. I needed to overcome this mindset and gain the victory. I had to settle this by faith in the written Word, in spite of how I felt. With each attack in my mind, I would give Him my trust so that He could fight for me. I had given up using my own strength as it shows in Luke 4 when Jesus depended on His Father’s power to deliver Him from the temptation of the devil.  I am accepted in the beloved and it is not according to my works, goodness or perfection. ( Eph 1:6)   

Tit 3:5    “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost”

Eph 2:8, 9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

The “breastplate of righteousness” (Eph 6:14) has to be put on by faith.  How can we otherwise stand against the devil if we aren’t sure of God’s love for us, and that His righteousness stood in place of our sin?

Once I submitted to God’s warfare, peace started, because the burden was His and He would fight for me. Through renewing my mind with the Word I stopped trying to change me!!!   “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Rom 12:2 .  Now it was His burden. I had come out from under the law of sin and death which kept trying to bind me; I had to rest in His grace by faith and trust in Him.  “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Rom 8:2 .  The purpose of the New Covenant is total dependence on Him and His Spirit. Trying to obey the law in my own strength was not obedience from the heart; it’s only when by faith in Him to do the whole work that it’s truly from the heart. He already accepted me unconditionally. I am “…justified by His blood…” Rom 5:9.  Who is it that condemns? (Rom 8:31-34)   As I gave this area to Him by faith, trusting Him and stopped trying in the flesh to perfect myself, peace came. “For it is God which worketh in you both to will and do of His good pleasure” Phil 2:13  I realized my salvation was secure because He said so and I stopped worrying about all my mistakes. I knew He wasn’t rejecting me and I finally felt secure.  It took a constant decision to act in faith to push out these tormenting guilt thoughts and to go on with a productive day. The more dependent I am on Him the less I am controlled by what I am doing and my failings. He wants our devotion and if we don’t have a healthy relationship by knowing internally of our acceptance by Him, it is easy to fall prey to looking inward followed by feelings of insecurity.

We need to put sin in its correct perspective. We must as a “one-time” act believe this verse, “…reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin but alive to God” Rom 6:11. This is how we should view sin in our flesh.  We are dead to it and the law is no longer valid because grace has saved us through faith.  Rom 6:14 “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.”  I knew I was not supposed to sin or have it dominate my life, but at times it would seem to be an ongoing conflict because of “…sin that dwells in me…” Rom 7:17.  Because it is the job of the Holy Spirit to kill sin in us “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Rom 8:13.   As we yield to Him in faith to do so, then we must reckon that the sin that arises in us is not unto condemnation! I have been “crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20). When this understanding came to me fully I was really set free!

An example of spiritual warfare happened when I had a dream that was sensual in nature and when I awoke I felt a tremendous guilt because I could feel the sensual feelings. I always read a daily passage from an A. B. Simpson devotional and by God’s providence its message for the day was the power I needed to bring more freedom to me. These external feelings of guilt tried to affect me concerning my standing and salvation in Jesus Christ. I was declared righteous by His death at the cross “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord” Rom 5:21. I am dead to that sin and any other stronghold, as long as I remain in faith, humbly yielding myself to Him to purge these things from my life and never to go back under the works of the law to deliver myself from guilt. The reading from Simpson’s book said this: “When it seems your old self has come back, you listen to it, fear it, believe it, it will have the same influence upon you as if it were not dead. Simply ignore it. It is Satan trying to make you believe your old self is not dead. Refuse it. Treat it as a demon power outside of yourself. The evil thing will disappear because your faith will dispel the spirit. We need to reckon ourselves dead and meet everything from that standpoint.”

The old sinful self is no longer recognized as our true self. He lives in me now. It took courage to take up  the shield of faith and declare I was forgiven.  “He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. 1 John 1:9 The devil likes to say, “There you go again, and again, and again.”  We need to cast that troublesome thought down. 2 Cor 10:5 “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” and replace it with a scripture from the Word such as “I am forgiven” or “I have been accepted in the beloved.” This will bring peace once again.  He in His time will bring deliverance through “…sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience…” 1 Pet 1:2.  Christ in us is our source of sanctification and when we recognize this, we are dead. We can move from unbelief to faith because we read in 1 Cor 6:11 “… you are sanctified and justified by the Spirit… and  “ 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.” Rom 6:6.   I was made free from sin and became the servant of righteousness (Rom 6:18). His life indwelling in me counteracts the power of sin in my flesh. Though it is dead we are painfully aware of something that would gladly return to life. We cannot trust our own resources any longer because “For we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God” Col 3:3.

The spiritual part of us (in our heart) no longer wants to sin. There is a sin principle in your flesh as Paul says in Romans 7, not in your spirit. My flesh may want to sin, parts of my “uncrucified” soul may want to sin, but the real you, renewed you, the born again you, does not want to sin. That’s why you can’t sin comfortably. You can sin and be comfortable when you’re not born again. Being born again we can live and behave in “…newness of life…” Rom 6:4. We are one sharing in His death. We are one with Him sharing in His resurrection by a new life “…in the likeness of His resurrection…” Rom 6:5. Our old “unrenewed” self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that our body which is the instrument of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil that we might be no longer “…servants of sin”.  Rom 6:6. His spirit and His heart are in us. We now have a good heart with His power and grace of the New Covenant enabling us for victory!  We have His righteousness in our spirit. Wrongness might be in our soul and flesh, but our spirit is full of right desires and right wants even though the devil keeps you thinking how bad you are, and how often you fail. While we are aware of our mistakes we are not to always think about them!!! There is no peace in that!!  Sin is no longer the boss! You need to know that when you are in Christ the thoughts of unbelief, “I just can’t get over this…” must yield to Him and we must trust Him diligently and expectantly for deliverance. The devil will try to press and torment you with guilt, but renewing your mind with God’s Word will bring victory. The flip side of this is who are you yielding to, God or the devil? What is it going to cost you to change? You should want to change and know that He died to set you free from a sinful lifestyle. If you are straddling the fence you will end up missing all the good things that God wants for you. Are you yielding to the flesh instead of acknowledging your weaknesses and giving the burden to Him? Whatever sin you yield to over and over is what you become a slave to. Romans 6:16 says, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” We want to be willing slaves to God and do what He wants. Pressure comes from the devil and you need to make the decision about to whom you will yield. We can learn to not react to our emotions and to act on the Word of God and this takes discipline and time. Pray and ask God to change the desires of your heart in an area of weakness so that the temptations can be handled properly and godly. Does it seem like it’s taking so long and it’s not working? That is unbelief and not faith.

Here are some excerpts dealing with this subject from Andrew Murray in his book Covenants and Blessings.   “The intensity of their desire for their needed healing made all who came to Jesus ready to believe His Word. Where the actual desire to be freed from every sin is strong and masters the heart, the presence of the New Covenant comes like bread to a starving man. The subtle belief that it is impossible to be kept from sinning destroys the power of accepting the promises of the Old Testament promise “I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me…I will put my spirit within you and you shall keep my judgment” Eze 36:27. If this is understood in some feeble sense according to our experience and not according to the Word then the soul settles into a despair of self-contentment that says it can never be otherwise. It makes true conviction for sin impossible. The New Covenant provides a guarantee not only for God’s faithfulness, but for man’s too. There is no other way than by God Himself undertaking to secure man’s part as well as His own. No new Covenant could be beneficial unless provision were made for securing obedience. He demanded obedience. If it was to be an everlasting Covenant it must make sufficient provision for securing the obedience of the Covenant people. Christians today are unable to see and believe what the New Covenant really means. They thought human unfaithfulness was a factor to be permanently dealt with as something utterly unconquerable and incurable. They never realized how the Holy Spirit is to be the unceasing, universal, all sufficient worker of everything that has to be done by the Christian. God showed the purpose of the law was to convince man of his sin and awaken his confession of his frailty and need of a New Covenant and true redemption. A real knowledge of the power of sin and our entire inability to cast it out or work in us what is good is what is hard to learn at once. Until this is learned one cannot fully enter into the blessing of the New Covenant. You cannot raise yourself from the dead or keep your soul alive. When you can see this you will be capable of appreciating the New Testament Covenant promise. Then he is made willing to wait on God to do it all in him. You will learn to come out from the Old Covenant of bondage and learn that all your efforts are failures. We consider the glory of the New Covenant above the Old to consist chiefly in the redeeming work of Christ for us and not equally in the sanctifying work of the Spirit in us. It is ignorance and unbelief of the Holy Spirit as the power through whom God fulfills the New Covenant promises that we do not really expect them to be made true to us. We seek to be sanctified by works as were the Galatians “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Gal 3:2.   They had not understood that the progress of the divine life is by faith alone and day by day strength from Him alone out of love. The New Covenant law written in the heart needs an unceasing faith in a divine power to enable us to keep it. The power of religious flesh is one of the great marks of the Old Covenant religion. It misses the deep humility and spirituality of the true worship of God with a heart and life entirely dependent upon Him. The faith of the flesh cannot conquer sin and it is still the Old Covenant life of bondage and failure. The secret root of evil must be removed. It is the legal spirit of self-effort which hinders faith in God. It does not overcome sin because it does not rest in faith and the liberty which Christ has made us free. One must know that grace always and alone does all the work in our sanctification and fruit-bearing, in order to stop with one’s own efforts of feebleness and bondage under the law. The law came with its literal instruction. It sought by the knowledge of God’s will to appeal to man’s fear, love, and his natural powers of mind, conscience, and will. It spoke to him as if he could obey so that it could convince him of what he did not know: that he could not obey. “And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” Rom 7:10 it can rouse effort but not secure success. It can appeal to motives but gives no inward power beyond what man himself has. Instead of the vain attempt to work inward from without, the Spirit and the law are put into the inward parts to work outward in life and walk. We will see how the “…sending forth of the Spirit of His Son into our hearts…” Gal 4:6 is the consummation and crown of Christ’s redeeming work. In the New God does everything in him. In the Old the heart was wrong. In the New a new heart is provided into which God puts His fear, His law, and His love. The Old failed to secure obedience but demanded it. In the New God causes us to walk in His judgments. As Adam died to God we inherit a nature dead “in” sin, in Christ we died “to” sin and inherit a nature dead to sin and its dominion. When the Holy Spirit reveals this death to sin and the law and the one condition of life yielded to God, the transaction from the Old to the New Covenant can be fully realized in us. We have a sense of sin once accepted by God. He sees that the New Covenant promises are not true in experience. He has indwelling sin. The power for a holy walk in all this with his conscience condemning him brings a secret despair of deliverance. We long for something better. The heart begins to be fixed on Jesus, the Surety of the Covenant. Years of bondage turn into hope. It will be to us according to our faith. Do I have this kind of faith so this blessing can be mine? He will bestow the power to make the surrender and to believe with a life of communion and victory within us. Let go of self and fall into the arms of Jesus. In the heart the work of grace will be done. It is the opposite of our fearful attempts at cleansing our heart and keeping right. Our only glory will be in the Atonement and the righteousness of God as our only plea!! He will make all covenants grace true in you working all in you. It is through belief that the word works effectually in us placing in the heart the actual possession of the grace of which the Word has spoken. The Holy Spirit entering the heart, writing, revealing, and impressing upon it God’s law and truth that can work true obedience. Do not neglect the chief blessing, the power of a holy life enabled by the Holy Spirit to keep His commandments. So our confidence must be in the hidden power for holiness that the working of the Holy Spirit brings. This is our covenant right. As we can see that grace literally and absolutely does all in us, we will consent to live the life of faith in which every moment everything is expected from God.”

In conclusion, do not allow unbelief in overcoming a habit to keep you bound, this annuls faith that would otherwise lay hold of the blessed victory! Only faith in Him and His promises will change you as you press in and endure. “…After that you have suffered a while (His grace will complete you) make you perfect, established, strengthen, settle you.”  1 Peter 5:10.  We need to understand and really know that unbelief is not pleasing to Him and also to know that deliverance is only by an act of faith and belief in Him and His power. If you are truly seeking deliverance you must continue to study and cry out about that area; without guilt and condemnation, and He will change and deliver you. Once you realize you are “freed from sin” Rom 6:7 and the “law of sin and death” Rom 8:2 then you can be free from your own efforts and believe God to produce proper holiness. He changes us from “…glory to glory…” 2 Cor 3:18.  Little by little, and then you look back and realize you are not the same as you once were! Amen.