Bible Study Sin a Choice

[for_his_glory]

By the way, a "fleshly mind" or a "carnal mind" is not necessarily a reference to a sinful mind, only to a mind that is anchored in, and relying primarily upon, human powers of will, intellect and physical action in daily, practical living rather than upon the Holy Spirit. This sort of human-centered mind, because of its orientation away from God, quickly becomes fleshly in sinful ways, however.

But a Christian can be trying to work toward godly, spiritual ends by fleshly means, by means of human will-power, intellect and physical strength/action. Unfortunately, since like begets like, only a fleshly result is obtained. This fleshly sort of "Christian" living has been called "boot-strap Christianity" wherein a believer is constantly trying to pull himself up by his own boot-straps spiritually, which is impossible. This doesn't stop Christians from trying to do so - sometimes for decades - however.

We who are Christ own strive for that perfection that is in Christ as there will always be a battle between flesh and Spirit that makes it hard to do the things we know we should do, but fail at times. Thank God for His mercy and grace.

 

[Tenchi]

We who are Christ own strive for that perfection that is in Christ as there will always be a battle between flesh and Spirit that makes it hard to do the things we know we should do, but fail at times. Thank God for His mercy and grace.

Perfection is not possible this side of eternity. But we can get a whole lot holier than we are.

As I pointed out, though, only the Holy Spirit can make us holy in the way we ought to be. If we try to produce our best version of holiness, we are being fleshly, and so create a fleshly - and thus corrupt - version of what only the Holy Spirit can produce in God's children.

One of the wonderful benefits of "walking in the Spirit" is that the common strenuous battle with the flesh that so many Christians endure, ceases. The flesh is no match for the Spirit, for the power of God. When the Spirit is in control of the believer, they go from strength to strength spiritually, mounting up with wings as eagles, not desperately scrabbling about in the muck with the impulses of their flesh, as often as not beaten by the flesh. This regular defeat by the flesh is not the normal Christian life described in God's word.

God's mercy and grace is amazing. But it is ours at a terrible price. Every collapse into sin of which we are guilty - every - single - one - was heaped upon Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), the wrath of God poured out upon him instead of us. We do great evil, therefore, when we take advantage of God's mercy and grace, willfully continuing in sin.

Hebrews 10:26-29
26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,
27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.
29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

 

[for_his_glory]

God's mercy and grace is amazing. But it is ours at a terrible price. Every collapse into sin of which we are guilty - every - single - one - was heaped upon Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), the wrath of God poured out upon him instead of us. We do great evil, therefore, when we take advantage of God's mercy and grace, willfully continuing in sin.

As a Spiritually born again child of God we would never willfully sin thinking that now we are God's own we can continue in sin thinking we can because of God's mercy and grace that pardons our sin. Grace loves us and mercy pardons us, but if we are trampling God's mercy and grace thinking we can do whatever in the flesh because God only sees our spirit then we are truly fooling ourselves. There is no human that is perfect, but through Christ working in us and through us He is perfecting us daily as we strive for that perfection that is in Christ.

 

[Tenchi]

As a Spiritually born again child of God we would never willfully sin thinking that now we are God's own we can continue in sin thinking we can because of God's mercy and grace that pardons our sin.

I wish this were true. Some are as you describe, but not, I think, the majority of Christians - at least, not in my personal experience, anyway. These willfully sinning believers don't frame what they're doing in this way, of course. And this is why they are quite comfortable - as I once was - with regularly committing the same sin(s) over and over again. They don't describe their persistent, even habitual, sin as "willful sinning" but as "the struggle with sin," or "the battle with sin," or the "war with the flesh." Even though they are always battling with the same sin(s), confessing them repeatedly over decades, they will not accept that this amounts to willful sin. I don't know how else it could more accurately described, however.

There is no human that is perfect, but through Christ working in us and through us He is perfecting us daily as we strive for that perfection that is in Christ.

Amen. It's a...funny thing, though, how the work of the Spirit of Christ is described in terms of our striving. How is it both? Paul asked this question of the believers in Galatia, implying that perfection by human effort, that is, fleshly effort cannot be achieved:

Galatians 3:3
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?