Victory Over Sin Class 2
Victory over Sin…Pt. 2
Welcome to a message that will tell you what you have IN Christ through His Death, Burial & Resurrection.
The purpose of His Redemptive work was to bring into existence a New Creation that would succeed where Adam failed.
If you are a New Creation, that means you!
Presented by:
Ann Windsor
Video Class 2
Addressing specifically:
Where does….the problem of sin originate for a Christian?
….if I’m born again why do I still have the struggles with sin that I have?
Is the Christian life intended to be a continual personal ‘struggle’ against sin?
Is it possible for a Believer to get to the place of consistent victory over the world, the flesh and the devil?
What about the issue of sin and the Christian?
Does a Christian still have a sin nature as well as a new nature?
What does religion say?
What does the Bible say?
What does experience say?
We will look at answers to these questions through the prism of the New Creation in Christ…..
The New Creation Realities.
What a glorious experience it will be!!!!
Where does….the problem of sin originate for a Christian?
….if I’m born again why do I still have the struggles with sin that I have?
The main reason is:
You are still learning the foundational truth that you ARE a new creation and that you must learn to live by that fact.
This learning process is called, ‘mind renewal’ & ‘putting on the new man’.
Ask yourself this question in a trying situation: “how would the new creation handle this situation. What would the N/C do with an emotion that is not in line with the character of God? A thought that was not in line with the mind of Christ?”
When you have the answer, you will begin to see ‘how to walk out’ the new person that you have become in Christ.
Walking after the S(s)pirit: notice the upper case and lower case ‘s’. Our spirit is indwelt by the Spirit of Christ, Romans 8:9. Galatians 5:16 says: ‘walk in the Spirit and then you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh’.
That is what I want in my Christian life: victory over the world, the flesh and the devil.
I want to please Jesus in my daily living.
To help myself put this truth into practice I picture it this way: the Holy Spirit is out in front of me doing the ‘leading’: ‘when He the Spirit of Truth is come, He will lead you and guide you into all Truth’, (John 16:13). Then I (the spirit) am following behind Him.
My soul follows my spirit as my spirit follows the Holy Spirit. My body goes where my soul and spirit go as the Holy Spirit is leading them.
To accomplish this, you must grasp the truth of the New Testament Model of Man.
The New Testament Model of Man:
1 Thess 5:23: “I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.” Vs. 24: “Faithful is He Who calls you Who also will do it.”
Heb. 4:12: “The Word of God divides asunder the spirit and the soul.”
Many Christian viewpoints of man is that of man being a ‘dichotomy’: soul & body.
Paul’s revelation of the New Creation revealed man as a ‘trichotomy‘: spirit, soul & body.
Like a mother defending her child, I am set for the defense of the New Creation.
I know what Jesus went through to bring into existence this New Man, the Second Adam family.
In several translations of 2 Cor. 5:17, it is stated that a person in Christ is a creation of a totally new kind. Jesus gave everything to birth a new race…..this new creation.
Those born of His Spirit in salvation (getting saved), become a brand new person inside.
Paul calls that creation: ‘the new man’.
Salvation is more than sins forgiven and remaining a sinner.
Salvation is the death of the you that was a ‘sinner’ and the birth of a new you in Christ’s image, and even more than that, Paul says the new creation is “Christ in you”.
I want to hold up before the eyes of your understanding this ‘new man’ so that you can gaze upon him.
He is altogether lovely.
He is the righteousness of God in Christ, 2 Cor. 5:21.
He has been created in righteousness and true holiness, Eph. 4:24.
This new creation is Jesus in you: Gal. 2:20
In these teachings, I am not really ‘giving’ you anything, I am telling you what you have….what you have in Christ when you are born again.
Going back to Paul’s model of man: 1 Thess. 5:23
‘whole spirit, soul, and body’
‘preserved blameless’
Faithful is He who calls you, Who also will do it. (Vs. 24)
Blameless: our entire being living sin free….free of spots and wrinkles or any such thing.
You were made a new creation so you could enjoy the sin free life. “Condemning sin in the flesh”, we called it in our previous lesson.
To cover another topic that can come up in believers’ lives, are the elect ‘barely saved’? Is it possible to deceive the very elect? How does this apply to those who are new creatures in Christ and walked according to that truth? Let’s look a little deeper into this question.
The elect ‘barely saved’? These are the verses that are used in this context:
Emphasis many times is put on how the ‘elect’ will ‘barely be saved’. 1 Pet. 4:18.
Mt. 24:24: false christs and prophets deceiving the very elect….if that were possible.
These verses terrify Christians…..I have had many of them ask me: “How do I know I will make it through if the elect are barely saved?”
Well, let’s contrast 1 Peter 4:18, Mt. 24:24 above with 1 Thess. 5:23 & 24 and for good measure we can throw in 1 Thess. 5:4&5:
“I pray God your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord. Faithful is he who calls you who also will do it.”
“But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night nor of the darkness.”
Quite a contrast, yes?
I think I will go with Paul….and you should to.
Think about 1 Thess. 5:23 again: “whole spirit….”
What does that mean? Let’s think a little more about WHAT we are.
(this is the conversation I am going to have with myself right now, would you join me?)
Does that mean I am a spirit?
So there’s a spirit in me?
Soul? What is my soul?
Spirit & soul….I can’t see them.
Body…I know what that is, I can feel myself, the temperature on my body. I have no problem understanding what that means.
But spirit and soul is another dimension of myself that I cannot see or feel, but Paul tells me that there is that other dimension to myself: a spirit and a soul.
What they are and how they function I don’t completely know, but the Word of God tells me that the spirit can be divided from the soul.
I will think about that. Let’s see…..
I have a spiritual being inside of my body and that spiritual being is made up of two parts: spirit and soul.
OK.
I am going to start looking at myself as spirit, soul and body.
Paul tells me that God will help me, so that all 3 parts of myself will be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.
And what does blameless mean?
that I will be an overcomer over the world, the flesh and the devil.
Preserved blameless.
Blameless: innocent of wrongdoing, faultless, guiltless, irreproachable.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm……is this what I have to look forward to if I view myself as a 3 part being?
I am a spirit
I possess a soul
I live in a body.
What kind of spirit am I if I am saved/born again?
According to 2 Corinthians 5:17: I am a new creature in Christ
And according to Galatians 2:20, that new creature is Christ in me.
My soul is made up of my mind, my will and my emotions.
My mind is to be renewed to the new truths of who I am in Christ and who He is in me, Romans 12:2.
My body is to be presented to God by my spirit and my soul as a living sacrifice, an instrument of righteousness: Romans 12:1
My emotions are to bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, etc.
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I don’t know what kind of sins & weights you may have right now, but put all of what you know about yourself ‘after the flesh’ on the shelf, turn your back on the problems….and look with me at the New Creation.
You will not overcome sins and weights by looking at them, putting the emphasis on them.
You overcome them by putting the emphasis on the New Creation you have become, becoming acquainted with the new you.
The more you become acquainted with the new you, the more the sins and weights will fall away….you will find it easier and easier to resist temptation.
Looking at Galatians 5:16 again, notice that it doesn’t say: ‘don’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh and then you will walk after the Spirit’.
What does it say: “walk after (in) the Spirit and (THEN) you won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh.”
Pour in the clean water, the revelation given to Paul of who you are now that you are born again, and the residue left in your soul and body of the old man will be washed away…..the unrenewed mind, and old behaviors. Mind renewal!
(I am a water carrier and I want to wash you with the Word today.)
I can hear you say, “Yes, but you don’t know what I…..”
Just put all the “Yes, but’s” on the shelf for now….
Settle yourself down, don’t let your mind and emotions contend with you about what you are hearing. Don’t oppose your new ‘self’.
I want to give you the truth about your new self that is going to cause you to overcome the “Yes, but’s” that you may still deal with.
Pour in the clean water and the dirty water will go out.
That is what God did when you were saved/born again.
He poured His Spirit into you and when the Holy Spirit poured in, the nature of the Devil, the sin nature, went out of you…the real you, the Spirit Man.
The real you, the Spirit Man, is already free of/from sin by virtue of having received the new nature, the Nature of God…born of the Spirit, Jesus called it, John 3.
Your mind just has not caught up to the facts yet.
“As He is so are you in this world”. 1 John 4:17
In your mind? No, not yet until it is renewed.
Where then?
In your spirit, the real you.
2 Corinthians 5:18: ‘all things (in the new creation) are of God’.
First John 4:17 must be spiritually discerned.
There is a wisdom the Holy Spirit speaks with: 1 Cor. 2:12-16…explaining the Holy Spirit’s ideas with the Holy Spirit’s words.
The Holy Spirit speaks of the new you with new words that your mind is not familiar with.
That is why it is important to discern yourself after the spirit rather than the flesh.
He who has come alive in the spirit, in whom the Spirit of God dwells, is capable of true insight into himself and God….that you are a spirit, that you are a new creation in whom Christ dwells.
You may be more aware of your soul and body, but that doesn’t mean that the New Creation in you is not real.
Awareness of this New Man must be cultivated.
1 Thess. 5:23 mentioned our soul being preserved blameless….as well as our spirit.
It is to God’s glory that we are free from sin in all of the compartments of our being. That’s what Jesus died for.
A Believer’s Authority over the Devil comes with the New Birth.
Authority over Satan means authority over sin!
Believers have authority over the devil, Luke 10:1
If we have authority over the devil, all his power, than wouldn’t you say that you also have authority over sin…which is his works?
Authority over the devil means authority over his works/fruit.
1 Cor. 10:13 says there is no temptation that comes at you, that God will not give you the power to overcome.
No temptation taken you…..total victory….over sins and weights that want to so easily beset us.
Second Cor. 2:14 also states: ‘God always causes us to triumph in Christ’.
Eph. 6: ‘the whole armor of God’ is for one purpose: Victory over sin/Satan.
Holy Spirit is here on earth as Executor of Jesus’ Estate….He is here to help us enforce all the benefits of the New Covenant that Jesus put into force with His Blood.
That means total victory.
What am I?
A spirit……..let’s reason this out again:
Jesus said God is a spirit.
God said, Let us make mankind in our image (substance).
If God is a spirit and He made me in His image then I am a spirit.
My body without my spirit is dead.
I AM a spirit.
Hmmmmm….that is interesting.
The Old Covenant has a fore gleam of the New Creation that you have become in Christ: “I will put a new heart and a new spirit in you.” Ezek. 36:26
Living Bible: “A tender, responsive heart.”
A new what? A new spirit!
In the new birth, God took away that old stony heart, the stubborn sinful heart.
He put in you a new spirit full of His Life: Zoe.
Your spirit wasn’t renovated or renewed, it was re-created.
A brand new man on the inside of you.
God took the nature of the devil out of you, the stony heart.
He put His nature in you and you became a new man in Christ.
You became a member of the family of the Second Adam.
It is impossible to live a victorious Christian life without discerning yourself to be a spirit. And what kind of spirit? A new creation in Christ.
I know I seem to be going over and over the same ground, but I know with myself, I had to hear this teaching over and over again before I really began to ‘see’ these realities with my mind. These truths were stated to me in basic and various ways again and again. Once your mind begins to ‘see’ these realities, you will never get tired of hearing them or rehearsing them to yourself.
Now to look at this question:
Where does the problem of sin originate for a Christian?
NOT IN YOU!!!!!!
YOU ARE A SPIRIT.
YOU GOT BORN AGAIN.
Your soul and body have no nature of their own….think this through. If you ARE a spirit, then the real you is the only part of your triune being that has a nature. The soul and body are influenced by the nature within your spirit, just as a sinner is influenced by the devilish nature within him. Whatever nature is in a person’s spirit IS their nature.
As a new creation, you aren’t ‘ just a sinner saved by grace’….another damnable doctrine.
You don’t have an ‘evil heart’, Mt. 5:19.
You aren’t waiting to be completely delivered from the sinful nature at death.
You aren’t ‘half God’ and ‘half Devil’……
These are all statements propagated by the ‘dual nature theory/doctrine’, which sprang from John Calvin.
Again, according to the Revelation given to Paul:
YOU ARE A SPIRIT.
YOU ARE A NEW CREATURE IN CHRIST.
THE OLD MORAL AND SPIRITUAL CONDITION PASSED AWAY….THE SINFUL NATURE.
ALL THINGS IN THE NEW CREATION ARE OF GOD.
(taken from 2 Cor. 5)
The New Creation…that’s the REAL you!
Think through on these realities from Paul’s writings……let the Holy Spirit convince YOU of these things about YOU, if you are saved/born again.
I have been convinced and I know He will convince you also.
“I pray God your whole/entire spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord.“
This verse gives no hint of a ‘sinful nature’ residue anywhere….in your entire being.
I am set for the defense of the New Creation against damnable doctrines that dilute his uniqueness, awesomeness, over-coming-ness, his peace and joy and love, his new quality of life.
What about sin then?
Can you still choose to sin? Yes.
But if you make that choice, the new creation inside of you will not be in agreement with your choice, he will be convicting you, telling you: “don’t do that, don’t do that. You better repent!”
In a Christian, the conscience is the voice of the new creation, the voice of the Holy Spirit in your spirit, speaking to you.
Our conclusion:
Where then does sin originate for a Christian? The thoughts, feelings, temptations.…?
Not from within but from without….look at the word temptation:
“a solicitation to do that which is evil”.
Easton’s Bible Dictionary says of Jesus’ temptation: ‘that temptation was not internal but it was by a real, active, subtle being. It was not self-sought.’
Temptation is not ‘self-sought’. It doesn’t not spring from a sinful nature that you still have, a lower nature. You have a new nature…..which is the righteousness of God in Christ.
Temptation comes through a real, active, subtle being, working to ‘awaken’ the lust of the flesh.
Think about it…when you become a Christian, your primary desire is to please God.
That is your new nature in operation.
You wouldn’t grieve over sin if there was still a nature in you that loved it!
Where are we going????
I am leading you down a path to convince you of the total victory over sin that IS yours and can be your WALK in this world.
Bear with my reasonings…..and think through on these matters. Have the spirit of the Bereans…they searched the Word whether these things be so. Let the Holy Spirit show you the revelation given to Paul of the Glorious Church made up of the New Creations in Christ.
As we close, say this with me:
My spirit has conquered all things in this world through the New Birth.
I am a New Creation that is not of this world and is not subject to the Kingdom of Darkness that operates here.
With the Holy Spirit’s help, I will put on my new man, my new creation, Christ in me, and demonstrate what a New Creature in Christ is like!
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Next session:
We will be concluding our 3-part series on Victory Over Sin, specifically relating to: “Where does sin ORIGINATE for a Christian?”
Be sure to join me because we are going to spend most of the time going over the new you….2 Corinthians 5:17….the best way to convince you that sin doesn’t ORIGINATE on the inside of you any more…it comes from without.
Contact information
Facebook: Ann Windsor
or email: [email protected]
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Web site: http://www.callofthesoul.org/
Join me for further New Creation Realities studies.