“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”   ~Deuteronomy 6:6-8

​“We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”   ~1 John 5:18-19

We must understand that we don’t keep these commandments to earn brownie points, but because God wants to protect us and guide us into all truth. We need to stop thinking we can earn our way into God’s good grace. We can’t. Religion is a way of trying to build a ladder so we can climb up to God—Christianity is a ladder that God uses to climb down to us.

Then, you might ask, why should I even try to be obedient if I can’t work my way to heaven? We don’t need to work our way to heaven because Jesus already paid our entry fee! We obey God out of our love for Him, for what He did to save us. We obey Him because we know everything He tells us to do and not to do are for our own good—to benefit us in some way, to keep us safe, to guide us, and to keep us with Him for all eternity. If we pray for God to lead us, and we choose to go against His laws, we are then removing one of the greatest ways He can guide us into His will for our lives.

​The fine for our sins, past, present, and future, has already been paid. Jesus already received our punishment, He died in our place. God said to Adam that the cost for sin was death. Obeying God’s laws can-not justify or redeem us because we’ve all sinned.

But once we accept, by faith, what Jesus did on the cross to pay our penalty, we realize that our condemnation has already been reconciled. We will not be judged on our own merit, but rather on His. When God looks at us on that great day of judgment He won’t see any of our sins, He will only see the pure robe of righteousness that Jesus covered us with.

We can’t fix our sin mess, only Jesus can redeem us. But, we can accept what He did, and through faith allow Him to empower us to sin no more! We aren’t repenting to earn our way to eternity, but rather because He already did that!

​How can we stop sinning...?​​​​

Jesus wants us to stop sinning! Just because we are forgiven for our past sins doesn’t mean we should continue to deliberately sin. In the following verses Jesus said to tell everyone about the repentance and remission of sin. This simply means, that by His power we are empowered to repent, (turn from sin), and by His power we are also forgiven for all our past sins as well! Remission means repealed and cancelled.

“Then He said to them, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”   ~Luke 24:46-47

When Jesus healed the sick, He often said…go and sin no more. He knew their sin was the cause of their sickness, that’s why He would say this when He healed someone.

I believe that Christians can, and should stop sinning. I think the Bible is crystal clear on this. I also believe the primary reason God wants us to stop sinning isn’t just because it offends Him, but because sin damages us! Sin, and the guilt that follows, weakens us. Guilt weakens us both mentally—to fall into temptation and sin again, and physically—to stress and get sick by weakening our immune system.

Guilt isn’t from God, it’s from Satan. Conviction is from God. He sends His Holy Spirit to convict us of wrong-doing to prevent us from sinning, and to point it out to us after we’ve done something wrong so we can ask for forgiveness, repent, and stop doing it. But Satan is the one who guilts us. He’s the one that temps us to do wrong, and then dumps guilt on us when we do what he’s tempted us to do. He’s the one that wants us to sin, and then beats us up with guilt after we do.

​“Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”   ~Matthew 5:17-19

Yes, Jesus did fulfill the law! But if you feel it's now okay to violate God's laws because He sacrificed His Son on the cross for our eternal salvation, you are misunderstanding what this verse means. When the Bible says, Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law, that doesn’t mean He did away with God’s laws, it simply means He fulfilled them, in other words, He successfully lived His life without breaking them to prove to us that it could be done.

​"For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. Instead, we have one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet He never sinned. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”   ~Hebrews 4:15-16

We can be empowered by Him to stop sinning! We must choose to call on Him in our times of weakness and know that He absolutely will rescue us. That’s a guarantee! We must boldly run to Him when we are tempted to sin and accept His  assistance to help us in our time of need, as well as accepting His forgiveness when we fail.

Yes, we all sin and fall short, absolutely. And yes we are all in need of God’s forgiveness and redemption, mercy and grace! But if we refuse to accept His empowerment to resist temptation, we are deliberately choosing to sin! Really think about that.

I now understand that when I deliberately choose to sin, I am crucifying Christ all over again, and I just can’t do that anymore. Self-control is a free gift from God, it is one of the fruits of the Spirit. I now choose to exhibit self-control to do His will—I choose to obey His laws! It’s a free will choice we must all make. Jesus lived a life of nonstop communication with His heavenly Father to show us what we must do if we want to succeed and be like Him. I choose His way, the talk to Him constantly way!

​“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”   ~1 Corinthians 10:13

Please click to Like my Facebook page!