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Good morning.
Sin consists of two areas and Paul sums it up nicely in Romans 7:15, 17-20: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 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.”
We can easily think poor Paul was actually not such a good guy, since He lived in this terrible state of sin. Note, however, that he referred to his sinful nature in this way with the intention to help his reader understand their sinful nature. This is why the Lord chose Paul to write most of the New Testament, for he was humble enough to make his weaknesses known so that we could identify with it. He, however, lived as he advised the Galatians in chapter 5:16-18: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” Even though Paul’s sinful nature was always present, tempting him to follow its demands, he chose to be led by the Spirit, which is why he received such ‘surpassingly great revelations’ as he put it in 2 Corinthians 12:7.
Sin is to miss the mark. If we disobey the Lord’s commands and do wrong things such as gossip, steal, lust, criticise, etc. we sin. God set the standard (mark) for a pure and godlike life by forbidding us to do these things, and missing this mark is sin.
If we don’t do the things expected of us, as written in the Bible and told us by the Holy Spirit continually during the day, we also sin. We read in the Bible we should preach the gospel, disciple the nations, love one another, encourage one another, be humble, surrender to God, resist the devil and the sinful nature, keep our eyes on the things above and not on earthly things, not to serve money, but to use it for service to God, etc. Even if we are being perfect by not doing any of the bad sins as mentioned in the previous paragraph and in e.g. Galatians 5:19 and 20, but fail to do the Lord’s instructions, we sin.
The Lord desires for us to be led by the Holy Spirit in doing what is expected of us. The ‘how-to’ we get from manuals, sermons and seminars in the modern church could be a guide to living a life in Christ, but if we want power and life we need to follow the Holy Spirit’s guidance and not only the ‘how to’ rules and directions.
We ask why we don’t experience God’s power and don’t see revival. It’s because of the sin of not walking in the Spirit. Think a bit about it prayerfully. In our next message we will expand on it.
Lord, I don’t want to sin, but desire to walk in the Holy Spirit.
Thank you Lord that your Word went out from your mouth, via your servant’s pen, and it will not return to you empty, but will accomplish what you desire and achieve the purpose for which you sent it.
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