Working......with the wrong mindset

Now if you are Protestant you have heard it said a million times that grace is through faith (alone). Got it! That isn't the hard part. The hard part for me is the sanctification part. I get that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8), I know His grace is completely sufficient (2 Cor. 12:1-4) and I get that my Facebook status in life has changed from guilty to forgiven by his blood.

I can admit that I find myself getting in a mentality that I think many Christians find themselves: if I work harder at not sinning that means I will sin less in life. Let me elaborate.
Jim is a believer, he loves Jesus, serves at his church and does what good Christians do: pray, read, serve. He struggles with sin in his life, just as any Christian does, some more than others are consistent, so he decides to work harder at not "doing" those sins anymore.

See the problem? Tom's focus is not a matter of obedience to Christ, it isn't a matter of him being a bad Christian, rather his focus is more on him working harder (self-oriented) to eliminate his consistent sin.

Read any Paul book and you are going to get a list of exhortations. For examples read: Eph. 4:25-5:3-21; Colossians 3:5-17.

Through the Holy Spirit, Paul makes exhortations to "put to death....kill...or put away various sins and falsehoods (sexual immorality, gossip, slander, etc...). Sin that kills your joy, alters your mood or steals our focus. Stop doing these things.

But this is only half of the battle.

In no way am I saying that we shouldn't combat sin through the Spirit, God's word, prayer and petition. That's biblical. But I do find that we become very works oriented with our struggles and self help and self combat becomes our solution. I am saying that to work harder at not sinning is going to leave you feeling lonely and defeated. Rather than spending so much of our time trying "not to sin" I propose another and I believe biblical approach.

What do we know? Using Ephesians 4:22-24: That our old self (unregenerate, sin destroyed life) is over. It died with Christ,(Gal. 5:24) and that life was corrupted through desires that were deceitful (as part of our unregenerate nature). Now our call is to renew. To renew is to restore, to begin again in our minds and our thinking. Similar to Jesus conversation with Nicodemus about being born again, our new life our sanctification is a product of new creation that took place through Christ working on the hearts of his people through the cross.

Look at 2 Cor. 5:17--"We are a new creation...the old has gone the new has come"
Ephesians 4:22-24-" put off the old self....put on the new self"

Rather than trying to NOT sin, we should be busy with pursuing the things of Christ. Read Galatians 5:16-"I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh." Paul tells us in 5:17 that these two natures are opposed, they are in combat, war with each other.

What Paul is getting at here is if you are so focused and busy with living or walking by the Spirit, then you will not have time to gratify the flesh desires! What a profound concept.

The Greek word for walk is (peripateo) which means to physically and literally walk, but is used in the metaphorical sense to conduct one's life, to behave, to live in a way that glorifies God. This is the context Paul uses it: live (walk) in a way that is characterized the Spirit, which is shown by the fruits (outward signs) of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, gentleness. Pursue these!

What Paul doesn't say is expel so much energy in working harder and focusing NOT to sin. I recently read a psychological article about how a person can tell themselves over and over not to do something, and because of it being a constant reminder on the brain, they are actually more prone to do whatever it is they told themselves NOT to do. They have defeated themselves already. Translate this to the Christian life: we have sins we struggle with, and we cannot have victory apart from Christ. We cannot hope to achieve a Spirit-filled life by simply trying harder. We need Christ to help us, forgive us, heal us of the sins that "so easily entangle" us (Heb. 12:1-2) and we need to put effort in working out our salvation (Phil 2:10) which is supplied by Christ' power. We do this by setting our hearts and minds to pursuing Christ, and the fruits of the spirit (mentioned above).

Finally another great example of pursuing the things of Christ is Paul's letter to Timothy in 1 Tim. 6:11-12 where he tells him to "pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness." Chase after those things, so that you won't have time or a desire for the things of the flesh.

Be Blessed