Do you get tired of struggling with sin? Are you getting weary of fighting and seeming to not win? You make some progress in one area but then other sins pop up. Do you look at other, older Christians and think they must be having victory that you don’t have? Therefore, something must be wrong with you. Do you wonder when you’ll finally get to the point where you don’t keep struggling and failing?
The answer is simple. “Never!” if you are true born-again child of God, you will never stop struggling with sin as long as you live in this sinful world. In fact, as we become more like Jesus and more aware of how awful and how prevalent sin is, it seems like the battle just gets stronger.
But don’t be discouraged. There is a good side to this struggle. Hating sin and struggling with it shows there is spiritual life in you. Struggle shows there is life. Those who are not alive do not struggle, they are dead (Ephesians 2:1). If you are alive in Jesus, it will be shown by your struggling against sin. It proves that you are a Christian who wants to follow Jesus. Those who aren’t Christians don’t struggle against sin.
Let me explain. When we are born we are totally self-centered. All we think about is ourself and our wants and needs. Greed, lust, jealousy, anger and fear all come naturally and automatically. We fight against these things if we want to live for Jesus. Before we became Christians, we didn’t fight sin, we just went along with it. We fight, but often lose. Paul experienced the same thing (Romans 7:18-24).
What about the person who professes to be a believer but lives in sin and doesn’t seem to make any effort to overcome it. There is no struggle to overcome sin. The truth is, I don’t know. I certainly would not give them assurance of salvation, but I do not know their heart and how God sees them. We can look at Lot in the Bible and see a man who did not seem to be fighting against sin in the book of Genesis, but in the New testament we read that he was a righteous man and was bothered by the sin all around him (2 Peter 2:7). I cannot judge the person who claims to be born again but shows no sign of it in their life. I do know that is a very dangerous position to be in. In the parable of the sower and the seed (Matthew 13:1-23), Jesus talks about different responses to the gospel, but only one brings fruit, and that is the one that grows as the fruit of salvation is in their life.
After receiving Jesus, the Bible says we are born again (John 3:3), freed from sin as our only taskmaster (Romans 6:22) and directed to repent and live a righteous life. Paul refers to this tension when he writes: “We too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Ephesians 2:3).
Contrary to what some may say, we don’t stop sinning when we receive Christ. Scripture says, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8); “Who can say, ‘I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin’”? (Proverbs 20:9); “In Your sight no man living is righteous” (Psalm 143:2); “Indeed, there is not a righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins” (Ecclesiastes 7:20); “For we all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2).
If you are a true believer who is growing in your faith, then the habitual, carefree lifestyle of sin should erode as John says: “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him” (1 John 3:6). John isn’t referring to individual acts of sin which are confessed, but a life-style of unrepentant sin. Along the way, the believer is more sensitive to sin as they grow in grace, which can seem to intensify the struggle even more.
This is one way a believer knows their salvation is real: they don’t want to give in this sin but battle it. they clearly recognize it and want to be free from it. Such freedom isn’t achieved in this life, as Paul said: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect” (Philippians 3:12).
So, if you feel the burden of sin in your life, you’re not dead in sin but instead alive in Christ and sensitive to the unrighteousness that plagues us all. That’s one way you know you have life and really belong to Him.
Romans 7:18-24 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
Do you struggle with sin? Are you seeing growth and victory in your life? How does your life now compare to when you first became a Christian?
Do you get discouraged at your failures and want to quit? Do you ever give in and stop fighting sin? What happens then?
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cto Rev. Dr. JERRY SCHMOYER
Christian Training Organization
Jerry@ChristianTrainingOrganization.org
(India & Africa & Spanish Outreach, Spiritual Warfare, Family Ministries, Counseling, World View)
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