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Sin no more--Is it possible?

Greetings beloved in Christ,

I have an encouragement.

The Lord has been taking me on a journey to the truth.

I have always been unsettled with the great disparity between the teachings of Christ and the apostles and the practices of the modern evangelical church. Within the church is a grace-based mentality that encourages disobedience and teaches sanctification as a life-long process that is “spirit-led” and clearly quite ineffective. As a result, most cultural Christians look no different than non-Christians in most ways. I have always questioned the salvation of such folks as a result of the litany of verses that describe what a born-again Christian should look like—holy and obedient, full of love, joy and peace—hmmm, something is not adding up, you see.

In response to this, I have been studying church history, and discovering the practices of the early church and kingdom saints in our lineage. There has always been a kingdom-sect who practiced obedience and unrestrained commitment. Among them are many who see the litany of verses associating love and obedience and freedom from sin and rebirth and righteousness and authentic faith, leading many to conclude that works are indeed a measure of ones “authentic” faith and that you cannot separate works from salvation. The result, it takes a lot of effort to be saved. This indeed reconciles Christ’s commands with Pauline doctrine yet leads to two difficult-to-accept conclusions. One, most “Christians” are not saved, and are greatly deceived. This one can be accepted if you fall into the obedient and holy crowd, and Jesus did say the gate was narrow. The next is this: where is the joy and peace—life more abundantly, the freedom purchased by Christ. Hmmm, it is elusive—and religion is the result.

The tail end of the journey: We have been listening to a great teaching series by Michael Pearl (Here's the product link.) called “Sin no More.” We have always been curious about it, and just recently purchased it. I have to say, this has been an incredible series. It reconciles ALL these matters. I won’t be able to do it justice without writing several pages, but want to encourage you to consider purchasing it or I can teach on the subject for 15-20 minutes at the next regional meeting (for you locals). It is a very good teaching—I can’t emphasize it enough.

The thesis: salvation is by faith through grace—and so is sanctification. Rebirth and dying to self, partaking in Christ’s death and resurrection will result in a new mind that will render sin powerless over you—leading to obedience, holiness, and righteousness. Literally, sin has no hold. I know what you are thinking, You’ve read all these verses too. They are right there in Scripture. However, this is NOT a life-long process as we have been taught. It is an instantaneous process. Hear me out—what I say IS in Scripture, and I know you are thinking it just does not reconcile with your reality—because like us, you struggle with sin. What I am telling you is that your sanctification (like ours) was incomplete, because we assumed it was indeed a life-long process, and as a result, did not lay hold of our newness of self because we lacked faith in it. As a result, we worked for our holiness and righteousness—resulting in religion and joy elusive.

An analogy: our old self is a beat up Dodge. We, presuming “by the Spirit” work on one area at a time over a long time, restoring a quarter panel, tuning up the engine, putting on new tires…and so on, with the hope one day to have a fully restored Dodge. However, at any given time, we have one panel the wrong color, and there is always wear and tear because we drive it—an exhaust system, brakes, small dents and scratches—and we never arrive. Yet Scripture says we are ALREADY seated in the heavenlies with Christ—that our victory over sin is here—in past tense. We believe by faith in our salvation, because it can never contradict our experience. Yet, we doubt our sanctification because it contradicts our experience. So we work one part at a time—in our own strength, all the while—and look more like the cars that don’t have Christ than the resurrected cars.

Here is the truth: The old Dodge is picked up by the magnet and dropped in the crusher. It is turned into a foot-sized cube and tossed. Christ pulls up in His stretched limo and says “hop in, from now on you’re riding with me.” We spend all our time fixing the old self and fail to die to self and live in Christ. We fail to partake and abide in Him. Get it?

The truth is here. What I share is designed to get your experience to line up with the Word—so that you can walk in freedom from sin, and experience life more abundantly. I am bubbling with freedom right now. It is incredible. But on the outside things may not look much different. My strong will power and depth of Scripture knowledge have rendered me somewhat effective at obedience—yet this is simply a mirage—a poor refection of what Christ offers. There is still bondage. And for those (most folks) who have less will power, biblical knowledge offers nothing but discouragement because we never measure up. What Christ offers is freedom—a freedom that actually results in immediate sanctification. Stop thinking “no way,” you’ll psyche yourself out—just believe and you’ll understand what I am saying is true. Your experience will indeed line up with the Word, and your joy will be complete. Then you will have a contagious joy that naturally results in kingdom expansion.

Shalom and Agape,

Marc

posted by Marc Carrier @ 10:06 AM