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Do I stop or do I carry on sinning?
Overcoming sin and the ability to live in victory over sin is a key question in the Kingdom and the life of a Christian.
The answer must be breathed by God’s Spirit into your spirit. A normal logical answer of YES or NO is not good enough.
Please bear with me here. The answer is “spiritual” not “practical”. The scripture seem to contradict themselves if taken by the human rational understanding. The apparently contradictory answers baffle “the natural man” as Paul calls it, in Corinthians.
The answer must be breathed into you heat by the Spirit. The apparent contradictions in various verses are reconciled in your spirit by God’s spirit.
22. that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,23. and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,24. and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24
The reason the answer must come form the Spirit of God is because the power to comply also comes by that same Spirit.
Don’t fear, Believe!
9. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 10. In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:9-10
Those who sin are children of the Devil.
7. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.8. He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:7-8
It takes time to be born of God and there is process during which things appear as a contradiction and messy.
8. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.10. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
1 John 1:8-10
The Answer is SPIRIT
11. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.13. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.14. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.15. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.16. For “who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:11-16
The Answer is “No Christian do not keep on sinning”
9. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.10. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.11. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.13. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.14. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.15. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”16. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,17. and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
Romans 8:9-17
note the tense
Yippeee!
Salvation!
