August 15, 2021 AWAKE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS continued
1 Corinthians 15:34 “Awake to righteousness, and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.”
In the previous blog, we looked at how critical it is that we embrace the truth of the above verse-that we ‘awake to righteousness’-that we awake to who God has made us, and sin not. When we hear “sin not,’ many jump to the erroneous conclusion that we are referring to a state of ‘sinless perfection.’ The main point is that we adjust out thinking-our belief-to what the scriptures clearly teach regarding believers having the power to say no to sin. This is not just a play on words, but is a huge issue; what we believe about the new nature and the old nature directly affects how we live. The old flesh part of us does oppose the new nature that God has given us, BUT we have the power not to yield to the flesh! We can ‘die’ to the flesh-not be subject to it. If we believe, if we allow the old nature to be ‘alive and well,’ then we will find ourselves habitually sinning. However, if we have died to self and choose to walk according to the Spirit, we will not sin. As said in the last posting, we have the power to choose not to sin. (The temptation to sin is not sin; yielding to the temptation is sin.) With that being said, let us look at just a few of the verses that tell us that the power of sin over us has been broken. Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.”
Romans 6:12-14 “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body to obey it in its lust. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:1 “What shall we say, then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
1 Peter 1:15 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
1 John 3:6 “No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has neither seen Him or known Him.”
1 Peter 4:1-2 “Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lust of men, but for the will of God.”
Galatians 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.”
Let us not miss the life-changing, most wonderful truth, that we have been made new creations and can now live in righteousness, no longer in bondage to sin; let us AWAKE TO RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Blessings,
Buddy
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