Religious laws do not keep one from sin. They have no ability to make the sin nature of which we are all born with due to Adam’s fall dormant. As well intended and sincere as we may be, those vain philosophies have no power to isolate us from the sin nature that dwells in us.
“22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:22-24
There is but One Who can isolate the sin nature which dwells in each of us causing us to transgress and He is the Holy Spirit. At Salvation, when we are Born Again; born of the Spirit, we are baptized into Jesus’ death.
“4 Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.” Romans 6:4-7
Why does the Holy Spirit baptize us into Jesus Death? Because it is there, at Calvary’s Cross that the penalty of sin was paid and the power of sin broken. At Calvary, Jesus Christ afforded whosoever wills to believe, the power to believe and it is all done so by the believing sinner placing his or her faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
As our faith is placed in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the Holy Spirit is commissioned to baptize us into His Death where we are dead to the sin nature which ruled and reigned in our hearts for so long. With our sin nature dethroned by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to live unto God. Sin no longer has dominion because we are under Grace and not law.
…then we stumble. Immediately we place some type of well intended rule to keep us from stumbling again. With this rule in place to keep us from sinning, we fail to give the Holy Spirit latitude to isolate that sin nature which is still alive and dwelling inside of us. The sin nature is not dead but we are dead to it as long as our faith is placed solely and exclusively in the Cross of Christ for dominion over sin. The rules and regulations will not do and in fact make the Cross of Christ of no effect.
When we stumble, we repent and seek the Lord for deliverance because we know that we know that we know that at Calvary the power of that sin was broken. Our faith is in Jesus’ finished work…not our will power.
Victorious Christian living is afforded Believers through the Cross of Christ…not religious laws which keep us bound. There is liberty at Calvary. Freedom from the power of sin. It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to isolate our sin nature and produce fruit unto God but we don’t give Him any room to plow when our faith is placed in religious rites.
The Holy Spirit lusts to envy. He is jealous over the things in our lives we give to vain philosophies for the victory He is commissioned to give. To be sure, those vain philosophies do not and cannot give us the victory of which we seek.
The Cross of Christ is the answer to man’s dilemma. Soon and very soon our faith is going to become sight and we will see our Lord and Saviour. Until then, we occupy – we occupy until He comes or calls us home. Until then, we are determined to know nothing else among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
-Donna Clark Warren
Living in The Spirit 