“For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” – Romans 8:13
Jesus Christ has done everything necessary for your salvation. By His sinless life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection, He has made the way for forgiveness of sins, salvation, reconciliation to God, and eternal life. All this comes as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus and never as a result of good works. Those who entrust their lives to Jesus receive God’s Holy Spirit and He changes their desires, making them aware of sin’s horror.
Having been saved from your sins, you must not continue to walk in them, excuse them, or defend them. Having been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ, you must live by the Holy Spirit. One key sign that you’ve truly put your faith in Jesus as your Lord is a new instinct to live a holy life through the Spirit. That is God calling you to start putting the sinful acts you naturally desire to do to death. Whether that’s a natural tendency toward anger, selfishness, greed, cruelty, manipulation, gossip, addiction, sexual immorality, or anything else. To follow Jesus means you must stop following those natural impulses toward sin, which we all have. Though we are all naturally drawn toward particular sins, followers of Jesus must not indulge those. Certainly not without a fight!
Those calling themselves Christian but still contentedly doing the old familiar things Jesus forbids are probably not actually saved. No matter what box you might check on a form, if you’re still living by the flesh, you’re probably still spiritually dead. If Jesus is your Lord, fight against the sins you think define you. Resist your temptations, no matter how difficult or long that battle may last. Receive grace whenever you fail and ask God’s forgiveness. But keep fighting. Don’t play around with your sins and temptations. Don’t flirt with them. Don’t ignore them. Don’t try to manage them. Put them to death! #FollowJesus