Rushwavefrom the book Why I Love God
11. New Life made Sin Unnatural
In addition to all the transformations of character I have previously mentioned, there was one which in particular stood out. And it centered around my relationship with sin.
- My experience with temptation changed. I still experienced temptations, and fell from time to time by being impatient, complaining, and so on. But there was clearly a war going on within me. There was something inside of greater power and influence pulling me in the direction of righteousness and warring against those old sinful tendencies and habits that characterized me before. And the new righteous desires, combined with God’s discipline, kept me from falling into a celebratory, casual or indifferent lifestyle of sin.
- My reaction to my own failings changed. When through ignorance or defiance I would sin, the end result was always the same. I was overcome with sorrow and remorse towards God. Sometimes I would weep; I would weep greatly. And my sorrow was not a sorrow of the world, but a godly sorrow. It was not sorrow that I had been caught, as though I would sin again if I knew I could get away with it. Nor was it sorrow born of self-pity, as if I grieved primarily over the hurt I had caused myself or those I cared for. Nor was it a half-hearted sorrow, as if I had a casual, nonchalant attitude about my failures. Not at all. It was rather a sincere, heartfelt sorrow that I had grieved God, that I had sinned against Him. It was against Him and Him only that I had sinned. So even in my failings I acknowledged God, ran to Him, and sought Him.
This change of relationship with sin aligned with the a basic, fundamental Christian teaching: genuine faith cannot be divorced from a righteous lifestyle. This truth is repeated over and over again in the New Testament.
- Paul exhorted the Galatians and the Corinthians that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.
- Paul taught in Romans it is not possible for believers to live in sin because they have in fact died to sin.
- The apostle John wrote that everyone who practices righteousness is from God, but those who practice sin are not from God.
- Jesus taught that in the judgment there will be many false teachers who profess to know Him, but to whom He will say “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.”
What is clear, therefore, is that sin, unrighteousness, and godlessness were no longer characteristic of me because of the new life indwelling me.
from the book Why I Love God
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