“If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.”
Colossians 2:20-23 ESV
Don’t let others judgment about your faith influence how you determine your faith
Anything that finds its power in your strength have no ability to help you conquer sin
“But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
Romans 7:13-25 NLT
God must heal our heart to deliver us from sin
Sin is a condition. It isn’t the stuff we do. The act of the sin is the manifestation of what is in our heart. If we only look at the act we only deal with the symptoms. We look at sin as the individual acts.
“The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.”
Genesis 6:5 NLT
“Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin. As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one. No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. All have turned away; all have become useless. No one does good, not a single one.””
Romans 3:9-12 NLT
Only a relationship with Jesus can give us access to the cure for sin
Human remedies mask the symptoms but can’t cure the condition. The church would be content with a people full of masked symptoms with no healing.
There is a cure for our sin condition. “But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all.” Isaiah 53:5-6 NLT
What can I do?
I want to be who God wants me to be. If God does it all then what do I need to do?
We can put ourselves in position to be transformed by God.
We can prepare the ground. V 26 am I actively preparing the ground?
We can sow the right seeds.
We can wait prayerfully and patiently on God’s harvest. When you practice the spiritual disciplines you are doing your part to prepare the ground and seeing the right seeds.
Having done our part we can patiently wait for God to produce the harvest in our lives.
Audio is not available due to technical difficulties.