One of the biggest lies we can believe as Christians is that we need to “overcome sin.” Something within us probes at our conscience when we sin and we feel the need to make things right.
I suppose this inner compulsion to fix our mistakes stems back to Eden when Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame with fig leaves. The problem is, just as Adam and Eve discovered, fig leaves don’t work.
Humanity can’t fix its problems.
The children of Israel declared over and over that they would “serve the Lord.” Yet, over and over, they kept falling away from God. They served other gods.
They served themselves, really.
And each one of us, at the bottom of our hearts, works desperately to maintain a sense of control or a sense of power. Even when trying to “overcome sin” we’re usually merely doing our best to hang on to the reins.
For most of my teen years, I struggled with an on-again-off-again battle with porn. I worked hard to “overcome it.” I fasted and prayed, I used the best filtering software, I attended seminars and applied everything I learned.
But I could not overcome my porn addiction. I would go a month or two and be good, but then I would have a bad week and be right back in the muck and slime of lust.
I could not experience victory because I saw victory as my ability to go days without sin.
There’s a problem with this concept of victory: it’s not being real about the current state of humanity.
Humanity is broken; we are bent on doing things our own way—not God’s way. Therefore, we will use whatever we come across to try and take better control of our lives. And we sometimes do this even when what we come across is the Christian faith.
In Romans 7, Paul tells us that he does things he doesn’t want to do and he doesn’t do the things he wants. He cries out in desperation, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
His response?
He doesn’t say, “I will try harder to not be on my computer when no else is around.”
He doesn’t say, “I will change my attitude so I don’t get angry or bitter anymore.”
He doesn’t even say, “I will develop an accountability group who checks in with me about how I’m doing personally and with my family.”
He says, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Ro. 7:25)
You see, Jesus overcomes sin for us.
He did it with his life. He did it on the cross. We are not responsible for fixing ourselves because we can’t fix ourselves.
God knew this back in the garden when he said he would send someone to crush the serpents head (Gen. 3:15). He knew this when he caused poisonous vipers to attack the Israelites and kill many of the people in the camp (Num. 21:6-9). Only those who looked at the bronze serpent that Moses lifted up for all to see were healed and saved from death.
In the same way, only those who look on Jesus—believing that when he says he has set us free we are indeed free—are healed from sin and saved from spiritual, eternal death.
Jesus crushed the serpent, he overcame the world (Jn. 16:33). Victory is because Jesus is. We have never had a day without sin. Jesus always has days without sin—he is sinless.
And victory, John tells us, is our faith in the one who God condemned in the flesh for our sin so that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us and we could walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh (1Jn. 5:4, Ro. 8:3-4).
God doesn’t ask you to overcome sin; he asks you to trust his grace. And as you trust his grace, you overcome the evil one (1Jn. 2:13).
We usually get busy trying to overcome sin and struggle with simply resting in his grace. I suppose resting in his grace is actually more difficult, that’s why we opt for the former.
You see, as Paul points out later on in Romans 8, we all groan inwardly because of the corruption in this life (Ro. 8:21, 23). Even those of us who have God’s Spirit within us face an inward groaning and temptation to follow our flesh.
We’re not exempt from the effects of sin even after surrendering our lives to Christ. What’s different is that as we surrender to Christ and trust he has given us a place of peace with God, we are given his Spirit who works in us as we suffer against our flesh.
Paul says we experience the resurrection of Christ when we suffer with him (Ro. 8:17).
Here’s what that might look like: I am tempted to look at porn. I recognize my fickleness in walking faithfully with Christ. I realize anew how I need God’s grace in my life, so I lean into his grace and walk away from porn. The temptation increases, but I choose faith instead. I demonstrate faith by resisting because I believe that what Paul said is true—“We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (Ro. 8:28)
And what is “his purpose”? To conform us into the image of his son (Ro. 8:29).
We can’t change ourselves, which is why God doesn’t ask us to change ourselves. He simply asks us to trust his grace. He asks us to trust that his promise to conform us to his son is “yes and amen.”
But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2Co. 1:18-22)
I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can share them in the comments below.
