On Sunday night we addressed this issue of Holiness... I felt a strong urge to think and preach about such an important topic. It is a real struggle that all Christians must face up to and have at least a little understanding of.... what does it mean when the bible says, "be holy because I am holy. (1 Peter 1:16)" Or, what does the writer of Hebrews mean when he says, "without holiness no one will see God. (Heb 12:14)" And then how do you reconcile those two verses to the fact that you sin?
The reality is that we are in good company... The apostle Paul (my hero) struggled with this in Romans 7:14- Romans 8. He later points out that no one is without sin, especially him, "not that I have already obtained all of this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (Philippians 3:12). None have obtained perfection on this side of eternity. It is a process that we are going through that the bible terms sanctification. God is taking us through a process of making us more like His Son as we struggle with sin.
The key to this is a proper understanding of Romans 8:13. "Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation- but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. (vs 12-13)" So, if you live according to the sinful nature and just dive into sin over and over again you will die. But, if by the spirit you somehow kill the misdeeds, the sin, you will live. The picture that this gave me is one of intense wrestling. I think about the stubborn goats that my parents have at the tree farm and how I used to, with my friends, try to catch them for fun. It was hard and they were resilient. Imagine if they knew I was trying to kill them. And I physically had to take them to the cross... it would be extremely difficult. That is what I think of when I talk about wrestling sin to the cross.
But, I think I missed the point on Sunday night. 'Great Cory, simply wrestle sin to the cross... sounds easy.' I even said that the means for this is prayer. Wrestling with prayer. But, I think there is more to be said of the phrase Paul uses, 'by the Spirit.' Telling you to wrestle your sin to the cross is about as helpful as telling a jr high boy not to have sex until you are married. It is good advise but it isn't very helpful for a boy that has a million hormones shooting through his body. His desires are telling him one thing and that advise doesn't give him anything substantial to work with. It doesn't get at the heart of the matter.
So, for the sake of our holiness, lets try to get at the heart of the matter. When a desire creeps up on us... the struggle that occurs is twofold. 1) We desire to indulge 2) We know it is wrong. The problem is that knowing it is wrong is seldom a strong enough combatant to help us to refrain from that desire. For example knowing that gluttony is wrong hardly helps me do anything about the fact that cheesecake is so good and tasty and I could eat the whole thing! What we need to do is fight by the Spirit. The Spirit is our sword(Ephesians 6) and is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17). In this illustration Paul gives us, this is our only offensive tool for combat. Everything else is defensive in nature but the sword is our offensive tool. Now how do we mightily use our sword. I would say by faith. "Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of eternal life" (1 Tim 6:12). "I have fought the good fight of faith. I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim 4:7). It is by faith that we win and it is our sword that we use.
So, not only do we wrestle our sin to the cross. Our means of fighting it is by the sword of the Spirit (the Word) teaching us to have faith in God. What happens too often in our Christian walk is that the results aren't immediate enough to quench the desires of a very real and immediate sin. Our faith is weak. A desire comes up, our sword is sheathed. Most likely sitting at home dusty on a shelf. We don't have enough faith that God is better than our desire. So, we sin. The problem is that our faith is weak.
We pursue our fleeting pleasures in replace of being satisfied eternally in God. But God is better and greater... we need to use the word to remind us of that! Last night I was reading 1 Kings and I was floored by how great God truly is. When I remember that his benefits are never ending.
When we sin our actions are saying that we want to sin more than we want God... now if you have a right understanding of the glory of God then it makes sin less appealing. Use your sword.
So, I am not saying simply abstain from sin and when you encounter it wrestle it to the cross. I am saying replace your desire to sin with something greater, namely God himself.
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