Our Struggle With Sin

The life long struggle for the follower of Jesus:

The Christian will struggle with sin from the day he is saved until he closes his eyes for the last time. We carry around our corrupted flesh...or old man...or sin nature. The Apostle Paul talks about this in chapter seven in his letter to the Romans.  Hear the struggle of the Apostle:

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate... For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing" (Romans 7:15, 18b-19).

We can pretend that we are outstanding church folks who have done away with sin in our lives. We can walk with our heads high with the Bible under our arm and all the while the sin of pride is written all over our forehead, and we can’t even see it. Blessed is the man that recognizes his own sin and by God’s grace hates it and confesses it to his Lord.

The Christian who does not struggle with sin is in a very dangerous way. The one thing that a Christian should hate in his life is sin…his sin and the sin that is in the world. I believe that those that do not see their sin are those who have never been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Those who do not feel the weight of their own sin are those who compare themselves to those around them and to the rest of the world. The reasoning goes like this, I’m not that bad, I never killed anyone…I don’t steal...I go to church on Sunday…I help others when I can. This is the thought process that goes through the mind of an unregenerate man.

On the other side, the Christian compares himself to the holiness of God. The Christian looks at the Father and measures himself against His perfection. Here’s a thought: The Bible commands us to love God with all our hearts, minds, bodies and strength. If we are are not loving God like that every second of ever minute of every hour of every day we have fallen short of God’s standard of perfection, and the same would go for loving others all day every day, and yes, even on those days when things are going badly.

The hope for the Christian is the righteousness of Christ.That righteousness is given freely to the believer who has put his faith in Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.  The Christian will stand before God and God will not see his sin, for they have been removed as far as the east is from the west, but the Father will only see the righteousness of his son as he looks at us. I’m always reminded of that great hymn written by Edward Mote:

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…
 On Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand….”

The hope of the Christian is not in our performance. The hope of the Christian is in the atonement of Jesus Christ to cover our sins. When my sin gets me down, I’m always reminded of the saying by Robert Murray McCheyne, “ For every look at self, take ten looks at Christ.”