kerrylou wrote:
The clue to overcoming sin is to love the way God loves. Love that is impartial; love that seeks not its own. This is a high order but Jesus did it and he said, "You will do greater works than I because I return to my Father."[color=0033FF]I agree that learning to overcome sin can only be accomplished by learning to live in love, the love that God loves, Agape love.
Alas, your conclusion is incorrect, not in what you wished to say, but in that it does not support your initial statement.[/color]
In [color=993300]John 14: 12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.[/color]
That's an amazing statement. We will not do greater works because we are better but, because He has returned to His Father, and our Father if we believe. It seems the world has not experienced this power in modern times.
[color=0033FF]Christ's promise is indeed amazing, but it has absolutely nothing to do with your initial statement on the power of living in God's love to succeed against sin. It is rather a testament to Christ's glory through man's belief in Him, for without that belief our prayers are as nothing.
Even with our love in Christ, and His in us, we cannot cease from sinning. It is built in genetically, though we may learn, in the love of God, to sin less and less with practice and much devotion.[/color]
True sinlessness does not exalt itself because pride is sin. So you will not find one who is sinless boasting of it as an accomplishment. Even Paul wrote, "Not as though I have already attained, but I press on toward the mark." Sinlessness is not to be spoken out, it is to be lived out.
[color=0033FF]Truly, I wish sinlessness could be lived out, yet it seems that the more I love God and want to please Him, the more aware I am of my faults, my ever present pride and rebellion that keep me from more than a moment or two of sinlessness after prayers and communion, then the 'ME' of me trys to take back over again. And my love for God only keeps me trying to work with the Holy Spirit to be changed, for without that help, we cannot change, we cannot sin one less sin than we achieved through our will power, and how short a time that lasts.[/color]
But I speak to those who are afraid they shall never be free of sin. Don't live in fear of it, rather, thank God for His victory over it. Don't live expecting to sin, live expecting not to.
[color=0033FF]Oh, how I wish this were true, but experience has taught me that the moment I begin to believe I will succeed, for an hour, for a day, the world, the flesh and the devil conspire against my best efforts to be sinless.
Rather, understand that sin is our portion in this human body, and that we must fight against it moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, and only look to make progress in sinning less than we did in earlier times. For we have no righteousness of our own.[/color]
[color=993300]Romans's 3:10. As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
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It saddens me to hear someone say, "You will always have sin in your life till Jesus returns" because it doesn't have to be so. You CAN aim to no longer sin. You can make it your goal to accomplish. And you will if you trust Jesus.
[color=0033FF]Oh, that this were true, that we could be sinless in ourselves, through Jesus. Yes, we can aim for less and less sin in our lives, but only under the covering of the blood of Jesus are we actually given His Righteousness. It is nothing that we do, or can do, to become as righteous as He. It is because of who He was and what He did at the cross that saves us at all. Our striving is only that we may try to please Him by attempting obedience, a moment here or there without sin, as the proof of our love of Him.
In His love,
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