Matinoh:

believers don't sin?

Earthrealmlord:
This is nice, Thank you

omoelerin1:
Henceforth, I should start living my life the way I like? After all, grace has covered everything.

This is a false teaching that emanates from the deceiving spirits. Or it is more likely you people purposely twist the scripture to suit your lust desires and to keep enjoying the pleasures of sins.

Message of salvation is very serious. The way to heaven is not smooth at all.

jiggaz:
Sorry you misunderstood me. Yes, believers do sin. But from your write up, its like your friend has made his own a practice and even backing it up with the quote u wrote up there. Believers sin but they don't stay there. Because they have the Holy spirit in them, they always feel bad about it and want to stop. But with human effort they can't, its only Christ that set them free.

Like some cases of sexual sins, some believers do fall into that cycle but most always feel bad after doing it and always call on God to forgive them. But it's only Christ that always break that cycle in their lives.

Matinoh:

I really like your response but it still leads to more questions.. pardon me cos I really want to know lol.. So what separates us from unbelievers is the ability to feel remorseful after indulging in sinful acts and asking for forgiveness. so where will believers that sin and about to Ask for forgiveness go? hell or heaven?.. I have heard a sermon where d teacher said all you have to do to make heaven is to believe,( John 3:16) .. pardon my inquisitive mind

jiggaz:
No wahala my broda, i understand you. No, ability to feel remorseful is not what separates us from unbelievers. It's our new nature that separates us. The ability to ask for forgiveness is not what makes us to go to heaven, it's because of Christ's Finished Work on the Cross where he forgave our Past, Present and Future sins. Yes, what you have to do to make heaven is to believe ( John 3:16 ). It's only God that knows our hearts, so i can't say this person is born again and this one is not lol. Anyone that believes that Christ Jesus is the Son of God and believes He died, was buried and resurrected on the 3rd day for his Justification is saved and will make heaven on the last day. My bro i don't condemn people oo cos am not God, i don't know their relationship with God.

Matinoh:

Thanks bro. Have a nice day

jiggaz:
Believers, not only is the Christian life hard to live by human effort, it is impossible to live. Only Christ can, so we have nothing to boast about. This is why we sing “‘tis no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.” Here’s an illustration:

I'd been doing my best to resolve the mosquito issues we'd been experiencing at my home for some months. This breed of mosquitoes seemed to laugh off regular insecticides when I used it on them. I'd use Baygon on them and see their dead bodies strewn all over the floor afterwards but our relief was always short-lived; they'd be humming all over the place again within hours! They tormented me day and night.

But one day, I remembered Integrated Science or was it Home Economics from secondary school: mosquitoes need stagnant water to breed! I rushed outside: close to our living room windows were two buckets, both of them half-filled with rain/tap water, and with all sorts floating thereon. Mosquitoes everywhere!

My point is no matter how often I sprayed the house with insecticide, our respite from mosquitoes would always be temporary unless their breeding places got destroyed. Plus insecticides have their own harmful effects on humans and the mosquitoes would eventually become resistant to them too. Getting rid of them would only become more difficult. How does this relate to living the Christian life? Romans 5:19 says-

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

From the above verse, we see that committing acts of sin is not what makes people sinners. People are made sinners by Adam's sin. Everyone descended from Adam is born with this sin/old nature. The stagnant water in the buckets represents man having the old nature inherited from Adam. The mosquitoes that bothered me represent acts of sin as well as sickness, lack, stress and everything that came to be as a result of Adam's fall. Having this root of sin (stagnant water) is what causes the mosquitoes (acts of sin, sickness, lack, etc) to proliferate. We see this in Romans 7:5-

"When we were controlled by our old nature, sinful desires were at work within us, and the law aroused these evil desires that produced a harvest of sinful deeds, resulting in death."

Unfortunately in the church today, the focus is on preaching the killing of mosquitoes (acts of sin) by using insecticides (law-keeping) as the path to attaining righteousness, when what is needful is ridding the flock of the old/sin nature that was inherited from Adam (getting rid of the stagnant water.) Christ died to rid us of this old/sin nature. See Colossians 2:11–

“When you came to Christ, you were “circumcised,” but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature.”

In Him, we are a new creation. God made Him to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, as it is written in 2 Cor. 5:21-

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

When you receive the abundance of grace and believe that you are saved and made righteous by the obedience of Christ (Romans 5:19) and not your own obedience or your self-discipline and law-keeping prowess, you no longer have the old/sin nature. You are dead to the law. Old things have passed away. No more curse. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus, made righteous not by your own obedience to the law but by Christ’s obedience (Romans 5:19.) And this is the result according to Romans 7:4-

"So, my dear brothers and sisters, this is the point: You died to the power of the law when you died with Christ. And now you are united with the One who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God."

Understand what it means to have "died with Christ" and to be "united with the One who was raised from the dead." God did not raise the Lord Jesus from the dead just because He could. Christ's death and resurrection is the divine receipt showing that we who believe have been forgiven of all of our sins and made righteous by His one sacrifice for sins. See this in Romans 4:23-

“Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal), [making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God]." See the TPT version: “Jesus was handed over to be crucified for the forgiveness of our sins and was raised back to life to prove that He had made us right with God!”


Christ would not have risen from the dead if our lifetime of sins had not been forgiven and we had not been declared righteous (justified,) all apart from works. His resurrection is akin to seeing someone who went to serve a death sentence in an impregnable prison for the crimes of another alive and walking free. As believers, we have everlasting righteousness apart from works because Christ is risen. When we believe that He is risen (that we are made righteous by His obedience and not our puny efforts at doing good things and obeying the letter that kills,) we get to "produce a harvest of good deeds for God," aka works of faith, yet not us but Christ in us.

Instead of stagnant water (sin nature) in vessels that can only produce acts of sin and such that lead to death, in Christ, we have His righteousness, so we get to live right! Just as the sin nature produces acts of sin, as a new creation with Christ as our righteousness, we bear fruit to righteousness, yet not us but Christ in us.

In essence, no matter how many canisters of insecticide one expends in a bid to kill the mosquitoes (trying hard by one's power to be sin-free through obedience to the letter that kills,) without getting rid of the stagnant water (rejecting the old nature that was inherited from Adam and receiving our Lord Jesus' blood-bought righteousness which is given as a gift to all who believe Him according to 2 Corinthians 5:21,) he can never be free from mosquitoes (acts of sin.) He has the old (sinner) nature. Sin will multiply and the result is death.

Remember Romans 6:14- “For sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace.” Sin has dominion over those who are trying to obey the law in order to be godly (be like God.)

This is why many in the church today are trapped in an endless cycle of committing acts of sin and attending deliverance/curse-breaking sessions all in a bid to be free from one bondage or the other that Christ hung on the cross and died to free us from. Like my insecticide and mosquitoes experience, any results will be short-lived. The old nature is still intact so no matter how much such do to be free from their "mosquitoes" of acts of sin, sickness, lack, depression, etc, more will come.

The one with the old nature rejects the gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have and strives to attain righteousness/godliness (be like God) by human effort, just like Eve did. He does not believe Romans 5:19– "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous."

But Romans 3:20 says :"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Also, Galatians 5:4 says "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

Yet in many places of worship, people are being subtly taught to reject the gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have and depend on their own "menstrual rag" righteousness from works of the law. Isaiah 64:6 shows us God's view of the "good things" we do in order to be righteous: "We are all like one who is unclean, all our so-called righteous acts are like a menstrual rag in your sight."

Only the blood-bought righteousness that proceeds from the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ will suffice for God the Righteous and He freely gives it to all who believe.

Grace is undeserved, unmerited favour. If one iota of our strength is in it, it is no longer Grace (Romans 11:6,) and only by grace through faith are we saved, so we have nothing to boast of in ourselves (Ephesians 2:8-9,) not our own self-discipline, giving, morality, evangelism, tithe payment, dedication or right-living prowess. Wonderful as these things are, they cannot save anybody. Doing them in order to gain God's favour and acceptance is rejecting the gift of righteousness that Christ died that we might have; it is akin to killing mosquitoes inside your house but ignoring their breeding ground. Only in the Beloved are we accepted. Ephesians 1:6.

With the Lord as our righteousness, the old nature is no more; "all these things shall be added unto you." We get to be transformed to the image of the glory of the Lord, from glory to glory, through no effort of ours but by His Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18.) We get to live in triumph over sin, stress, sickness and every ill. We get to love proclaiming Jesus. We get to live a life of moral excellence even beyond that which the law demands, yet not us but Christ in us.

Romans 5:17 says: "For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

This death that is as a result of Adam’s offence is not necessarily immediate. It is a process. Fear, stress, worry, silly mistakes, working so hard only to lose it all, sickness, lack, depression, fast-tracked ageing are all death begun. God said to Adam "for in the day of thine eating of it -- dying thou dost die." Psalms 90:4 says of God "A thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by,"; Moses wrote this concerning God's view of the life of man (v.3.) Adam did not give up the ghost immediately after his death sentence came into effect; he lived for almost 1,000 years aka one day gone by in the sight of God.

Not only is the Christian life hard to live by human effort, it is impossible to live. Only Christ can. This is why we sing “‘tis no longer I that liveth, but Christ that liveth in me.” Only with the abundance of grace and having Christ as our righteousness do we get to live in triumph over sin and death.

Sinners are made righteous by "one Man's obedience": Christ's; when we believe that God "made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. 5:21. Here, we are a new creation in Christ. When you believe that your right-standing with God and His blessings upon you have got nothing to do with what you did or did not do but have ALL to do with what Christ has done, the old (sinner) nature is no more. The stagnant water is gone.

There might still be some mosquitoes (acts of sin, sickness, etc) inside your house after the stagnant water (old nature) is removed but they will all die off and there will be none to replace them. Remember, “The way of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, which shines ever brighter until the full light of day.” Proverbs 4:18. Things will only get better and you will no longer continue to live in sin because you have the only brand of righteousness that counts before God: Christ’s.

In place of the root of sin (stagnant water) that produces acts of sin (death-bearing mosquitoes,) we have Christ's righteousness so we bear fruit to God. We get to produce "a harvest of good deeds for God." No more mosquitoes (acts of sin) but abundant life, right living and every blessing of God in Christ! This is the Good News.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.

http://rightbelieving101..com.ng/2018/02/why-is-christian-life-so-hard.html?m=1


This is attainable by the power of the Holy Spirit.... When you have it, then you have conquered the flesh... you would be able to Love, by that, you have fulfilled the LAW

ifenes:
Cos it’s fake news

Thoniameek:
The Christian life isn’t hard...

profolaolu:
Christian living is not hard when you surrender totally to Christ and not struggling, Apostle Paul when he was still struggling, was wailing in Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?, but when he surrender his will and self to Christ he said in Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me and in Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

SuperSuave:
Someone told me this week that "There's joy in Christianity" I said "really?" she was surprised cos I go to church also

bahaushe1:
How can one man's sin be carried by his descendants? Every man for himself. Prophet Adam (AS) committed a sin, became remorseful and sought forgiveness and was forgiven.

Matinoh:

hi bro. I have a friend dat prays and studies the Bible very well and also meditates regularly. you will be amazed if you hear him teach God's word. Yet he smokes, fornicates, and even do Yahoo.
each time I confronted him of his deeds, he always tell me we are not righteous by our own efforts. So I'm kinda confuse

Matinoh:

I really like your response but it still leads to more questions.. pardon me cos I really want to know lol.. So what separates us from unbelievers is the ability to feel remorseful after indulging in sinful acts and asking for forgiveness. so where will believers that sin and about to Ask for forgiveness go? hell or heaven?.. I have heard a sermon where d teacher said all you have to do to make heaven is to believe,( John 3:16) .. pardon my inquisitive mind

CuteMadridista:
Supporting slavery is not hard

Emmanystone:
No, it's not,

CuteMadridista:


exactly! so OP is trash!!

Emmanystone:

What makes us different from unbelievers is not a guarantee to keep sinning because we can feel remorse, No. What makes us different is that, we have a new nature which abhores sin. The believer who is indeed led by the spirit, hates sin. But that doesn't mean he won't trip and fall once in a while, he will. But, he gets up with tears and regrets asking God for grace never to.go back there.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
1 John:2:1

The Grace to not to.sin is given to us, but our father, just like earthly parents knows that, it won't be automatic to get up and never fall, hence, Christ stands as our lawyer to defend our frailty until we grow and mature spiritually and stop sinning.

When we were kids, we all peed on the bed, but as we grew, we stopped. Anytime we wake up and discobered we had peed we become ashamed, we try to hide. We make efforts to stop peeing on the bed.

That is how it is with being in Christ. We grow gradually, rising and falling until our feet bcoms firm. It doesn't happen one day, and when we sin, we cry out for forgiveness and grace to scale through. No believer enjoys sin. Na lie.

But the case of your friend is different. He is excusing himself to remain in sin.

Emmanystone:

1 Corinthians 9:27 I discipline my body and bring it under complete control, to keep myself from being disqualified after having called others to the contest.

It is by their fruits that you know who they are, not by what they say they are.

That your friend is the type who will one day get to a very hard point in his life. A point where money won't answer him. Nothing would, then he will cry out to God he doesn't regard or honour, when he does not get any answers, he will come to nairaland shouting, 'I was a Christian for 15 yrs, i preached, prayed, won souls, i did everything, only for ne to realize God doesn't exist, because i called and called and called to Him, but no answer came. He doesn't exist.

In Church are still goats that will eventually cross over to the Goatherd. There are sheep who are also still with the Goatherd, will eventually cross over to the shepherd.

Your friend is a goat trying to weaken the sheep.

Matinoh:

thanks for this enlightenment.. I pray we all live above sin

Matinoh:

Thanks... What of when a believer falls and died just about when he was to ask for forgiveness. HELL OR HEAVEN?

Emmanystone:
Is the Op about slavery?

CuteMadridista:


Nope but Christianity is based on the bible which supports slavery

Emmanystone:

Maybe you shd open a thread lets trash that instead of trying to derail this thread.

Can you do that? Am waiting.

CuteMadridista:


Its already been discussed at length in the past here

https://www.nairaland.com/3508437/god-jesus-didnt-forbid-slavery

This one happened this week

https://www.nairaland.com/4405316/thank-god-slavery

Emmanystone:

Listen carefully because i know you must have heard this before but did not take it in.

What takes us to Hellfire is not the ACT, of sin. It is not the lie you told, the fish or money you stole, or that girl you just had sex with. It is a NATURE of Sin that takes you there.

SIN is;
S=====SATAN'S
I======IMPOST
N=====NATURE.
when you have this nature, you are dead in the Spirit.

When you have the renewed Nature which only Christ can give. The nature Adam lost in Eden. It is the only prerequisite to enter heaven. It's like dress code.

A sinner (one with satans nature) is lifeless in the Spirit realm, as in, the body he has can not access God's kingdom and no one in the physical body (this flesh) can enter also, that leaves him with no other option than to go to where others like him are.

Satan although a spirit but is dead spiritually in the sense that, he is enstranged from the presence of God, so that's where tbose with his nature will be.

Now, a believer who falls into sin, does not stop being a believer just because he fell into sin. Just like a toddler does not cease from being a child of his parents just because he peed on himself.

Again, note, many believers will enter heaven, but won't have rewards. Meaning, if a believer has the spirit of God but falls into sin, (note, FALLS INTO) not live in it, his father will pick him up.

Now also not that, God is not a man who sees only the face and not the heart. If you sin and about to repent but falls and dies, God sees, that you are sorry.

Matinoh:

I have heard this before and I'm sorry to say I don't feel comfortable with it... It's the "grace doctrine". It encourages sin. Imagine how comfortable a weak Christian will be when he eventually sees this write-up.
In Philippians 2:12-13, Paul beseeched us to continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Matinoh:

Ezekiel 33:11 Therefore, thou son of man, say unto the children of thy
people, The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him
in the day of his transgression: as for the wickedness of the
wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from
his wickedness; neither shall the righteous be able to live for his
righteousness in the day that he sinneth.
living in sin and falling into sin?? a friend once mentioned this. I need biblical illustrations..
NOTE: WE ARE NOT ARGUING, JUST LEARNING THE WORD.