How to Deal with Sin

Preachers who do not rightly divide will say that if you hear a ‘once-saved, always-saved’ message, you will just live however you want.  Well, you were doing that before you were saved.  You mean to tell me that if I am preaching Christ and him crucified and what he did for you on the cross, your heart will be so hard that you won’t say, “Thank you Lord, I want to live for you.”? (2 Cor. 5:15)

You can live however you want, but at the judgment seat of Christ he will welcome you and call you Smokey, because you will be saved yet so as by fire (1 Cor. 3:15).  Or you could say, “Lord, you gave your life and you asked me for reasonable service and to live my life for you, so to the best of my ability, I will.”

When we sin, whether willingly or unwillingly, how does God want us to deal with it?  He wants us to reason and acknowledge that it was stupid (how that was said, thought, or done), and then to say, “Lord that is not who I am in Christ.”  He doesn’t want or expect us to promise not to do the same thing again, because we most likely will.  Don’t try to make any deals.  Simply thank the Lord that he died for that sin and all your other sins and tell him that you don’t want to sin against him because he said in Romans 6 that we are dead to sin.

Romans 6:1-2

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

“Thank you, Father, for making me dead to sin.  I am not totally living like I am dead to sin; I am waiting for you to sanctify me.  I know you are patient; I will be patient with myself and others; but I will be like the apostle Paul who was looking forward to that resurrection.  I want that life of Christ.  You will have to clean me up; I can’t do it.”

Then the best thing you can do when you fall is to get into the word even more.  When I find myself having the wrong thoughts or actions, I say “I’m sorry, Lord; I didn’t mean to grieve you that way.  That was dumb of me.  That was wrong.  Thank you for your grace.  Thank you for forgiveness.”  Then I get right back into the word.  That is the safest place to be – in the word of God. 

When you are taking it in and you are so thankful for his grace, he will change you.  Then you will look back and notice that you are not doing those same sins as frequently.  You will still sin because of the sin nature, but you will be doing it less.   Rejoice in how God accepts you in Christ. 

Ephesians 1:6

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

That is how you deal with sin.  It is not by having the law put on you and pounding you to death. 

Paul spent a small percentage of his time dealing with our sin.  The Corinthians were examples of believers who were saved (they were saints), but they lived their lives like they were lost.  Religious people would look at someone living like that and say that they can’t be saved because they are living in sin; but Paul would say, “No, they are saved because of Christ, even though they are not living like who they are in Christ.  God will take care of that.  Pray for them and encourage them to listen to what I say.”

2 Timothy 2:7

Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

Transcribed excerpt from a Message by Ron Knight at TCGF on 1 Corinthians