Jesus said that He came to set the captives free and to give life abundantly. Either He was a liar or He did that which He said He came to do. Of course I don't believe that He was a liar, I have committed my life to His. Christ did what He came to do, set the captives free and give abundant life. We were captives to sin that separated us from the life of God. Now we have died to sin and have been joined to God's very Life.  Which leads me to this question, if we are dead to sin and have been made new in Christ, why do we still experience sin in our lives? I am sure that all of us would agree that we experience sin in our lives. I know I do.

Before we answer this question we need to understand how we were created. We were created in the likeness of God. God is spirit, so He has created us as spirit beings. We are spiritual beings who have a soul that live in a body. If we misunderstand this then all of what I have been writing about in the past few articles will not make much sense and will leave us powerless in our Christian lives against the power of sin. Why? Because victory can only be found in Christ and our spirits (not our bodies) have now been joined to Him. Our bodies are only the vessel we use to function on this earth. Dr. Bill Gillham calls it our "earth suit", Tony Evans "corrupt shell", as for me plain and simple flesh/body.

As long as we are on this earth we will have to deal with this struggle of sin because our new nature (our spirit) lives inside a body contaminated by sin. The body was not designed or created sinful, but has become a victim of this fallen world. The body in and of itself is weak and unable to keep sin from controlling it. In Romans 7:18 Paul points out that the source of  the problem is not that which dwells in him, but in his flesh. The point of this article is not to blame our flesh or indwelling sin for our experiencing sin, only to identify that the source is not us, but sin which dwells in our flesh.  Let me also point out that we are the only ones responsible for experiencing sin in our lives.  Sin is now a choice for us because we have been made righteous by nature in Christ. That which does not come by nature must be a choice.
To be continued … How do I live from this new source and not in sin …