overcoming sin?

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” John 8:10

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” John 5:14

Did Jesus tell them to do something that was possible to do or impossible?

If I give you a basketball and stand you at the free throw line and then tell you to make 100 free throws without missing one, am I asking you to do something impossible? Technically, it is not impossible, but the chances of succeeding is so small as to be indistinguishable from zero.

Tim Conway has a good video on this very thing at illbehonest.com called "How Do I Repent?" Check it out. I don't think we're supposed to post links to outside media or I would.

How serious should they have taken His instructions? How serious should I?

I believe the fact that the instruction came from Jesus made it possible. A rhetorical question here; in chapter 5 of the same book Jesus said take up thy bed and walk, was that an impossible task? Interesting isn't it? In verse 34-36 of the same chapter Jesus expounds on the fact that He has the power to set a person free from sin. When Jesus says to you, "sin no more" he has in essence set you free by that very statement. It is amazing that Jesus could forgive sins and set people free from sin even before His death and ascent to the right hand of the Father. The differene is that now we can receive His life on a massive scale without Him having to say it individually to each of us, but if we by faith receive revelation from His word.

Jimm

Hello again.

As for overcoming sin and how seriously you should take it. Try not to think of the words of Jesus as threat but rather a life giving, enabling statement. You can be totally free from overt obvious sin instantly with the right teaching from the word. You will be sanctified from less obvious hidden sins of the heart and attitude gradually throughout this life.

What the obvious sins we need instant relief from to have a clear conscience and a healthy life with the Father in Christ? The list is by no means exhaustive but as a general rule of thumb, you need freedom from any kind of sins that are also physical addictions: drugs, alcohol and sex related addictions. You also need freedom from emotional sins such as anger and depression. These are things which as I say, there is instant deliverance from in Christ if you get the right revelation by His grace. There are many teachings on this very subject on this site.

My own tip on the subject is don't try to fight the urge to sin. The moment you begin to fight sin yourself you loose your ground in Christ. Jesus has done it all, but the issue is learning to rest in this truth. If an urge arises don't fight it but surrender it to Christ in you. That's not as deep and mystical as it sounds, in essence what it means is just ignore the temptation and the life of Jesus will rise up in you and beat it. This truth works instantly, and is strengthened when you continue to read the bible (especially the New testament epistles)

James

Mike, if it's something you are trying to overcome and having a hard time doing I would recommend reading Romans, especially the first 6 chapters.

As far as the passage you quote we must remember what sin is at it's core. Sin is unbelief. Sin, as in adultery or what not, is but an outflow of that unbelief. Sin can be considered a roadsign telling you and others where your heart is.

Our salvation is not built on morals, but on faith. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. If you read the rest of the story you mentioned you will see that the man was unbelieving in his attitude. Jesus asked him if he wanted to be well and the man offered excuses as to why he couldn't get to the water but never answered Jesus' question.

His response is typical of many in our churches dealing with sin. Jesus is asking them if they want to be well and they make excuses as to why they are unable to stop whatever it is they shouldn't be doing. Well, Jesus simply healed the man and told him to go and sin no more. He has done the same for us through His death on the cross. Colossians 2:13 & 14 says "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." All of our sins, or debts, have been nailed to the cross so that we are no longer slaves to sin, but to righteousness. This means that like the lame and blind man we must turn from our unbelief and walk in belief.

It is not an issue of not smoking or drinking or whatever. It is an issue of believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Believe that and seek THAT Jesus and instead of roadsings being sin they will be fruit. Don't dwell on the sin, dwell on the Savior and sin will be left behind.

Super excellent question!

It's really very simple. Jesus knew that the Gift of No Condemnation was the only thing that would set her free.

He has Made us to BE the Righteousness of God. He has made us to BE the Temple of God... even if we mess ourselves (which we will) and even if we have to brush our teeth and comb our hair in the morning. But by simple Faith in what Jesus did for you at the Cross, we ARE overcomers. As God freely gives us His Son's Righteousness - in the midst of all our frailties.

By His Spirit, He supernaturally adjusts our soul and then the actions out of the body are of the fruits of Righteousness. Sadly, most of the church pushes laws and schemes to trick the soul into getting the body to do "right" in our lives. God does not see it this way however.

Hi Knitefall,

You have brought am important point to this discussion. I hope that I don't sound too technical even in the subject heading but let me by the grace of God attempt a simple summary. Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him as righteousness, even apart from actual "works of righteousness". In other words, God said that Abraham was a God guy even before he did good things. That's called "righteousness imputed" if you want to google more on the subject.

Knitefall also alluded to the righteousness of Christ gradually taking hold of our lives, but this is done in the context of us already being righteous because we, like Abraham believe in God (Jesus Christ). Fantastic. My only addition would be again that, without adding condemnation to anyone at all, we can be delivered from obvious sins instantly in Christ, but we are not hereby justified (good in the eyes of God). It is as Knitefall says, we are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. Freedom from sin (sanctification) is another blessing in addition to this.

James

Oh yes! Thank you poster friend! Great points - now, this is a conversation. No arguing back and forth from others... yet.

I really appreciate the responses given.
I think of Jesus when He said “Woe to the world for temptations to sin!b For it is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the one by whom the temptation comes! 8And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than with two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hellc of fire. Matthew 18:7

He sounds very serious

I think of Paul when he cries,
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. Romans 7:24

Jesus appears to be the source for change

In 1 Corinthians 9:24 Paul appears to be somewhat proactive

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27But I discipline my body and keep it under control,b lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

I think what was essentially being asked by the original post was this: is it possible to live a life of perpetual sinless perfection?
Nothing forces the Christian to commit any sin any longer because of the life-giving Spirit we now have in Jesus. Overcoming sin and walking in the Spirit is a moment-by-moment walk of faith. We as Christians live in bodies of sin which constantly seeks to gain control of the will in order to express sin. We can become weary of well-doing and be distracted to give place to the flesh. Paul talks about the constant battle between the flesh and the spirit. In this battle, in order for the spirit to prevail, one needs only to yield, submit and surrender to the Spirit of God who puts to death the deeds of the flesh. Life is a never ending series of choices between self/flesh and God/Spirit. Christians may enjoy victory in this area most of the time, but I do not believe that a Christian will have the victory 100% of the time. I am not saying that there is anything that forces a Christian to sin, just that human nature being what it is, we are weak and easily distracted from perfectly trusting the Spirit.

Hello Ebeth

You asked an important question if I may paraphrase, "can a Christian be half-full of life and therefore compromised in his fight against sin? Peter (Gal 2:18) was clearly wrong, did this indicate that he was now compromised or half-full?

My take on it is that there is no half-life even as is the case biologically. Something is either alive or dead, although I understand the perspective that someone can be so sick they can be considered half-alive or half-dead. This is where the analogy of biological life with spiritual life falls apart. In Spirit, Jesus is the Life (John 14:6) and He is a 1) a person and 2) above any kind of sickness. For our spiritual Life to be half, it means that Jesus is half a Person, that is not possible. For our spiritual Life to be sick it means that Jesus must be sick, that too is impossible.

So you are either completely in an aspect of the Life or you are completely out of an aspect of the Life. That does not mean you're not saved or even completely defiled, it only means that there may still be aspects of your soul that stil need sanctifying and that will always come with revelation.

So what happened with Peter? Peter was an Apostle to the Jews and Paul was an Apostle to the gentiles. It is because of this that Peter was not well versed in the revelation of how to interact with gentiles as Paul was. It was not as common as it is now for non-Jews to believe in a "Jewish" God. Peter's failure was not like adultury or anything like that. It was a failure due to simple ignorance, which he admitted and repented of. So we see that ignorance of certain revelations can result in certain sins in our lives.

a carnal fleshly understanding of the Gospel is thinking that we have something to do to make God be "closer" to us.

This is not so.

We are either repented of our own abilities to "please" God or not.

perhaps you would like to clarify what you are implying before you lead a little one back into the Law?

Is there also a FULL and then not staying FULL
enough that has it's efect on us?
I'm asking ! I know I have not arrived,as yet ,but desire to.

Leonard Ravenhill once said: "There is no such thing as one filling with the Holy Ghost that is going to last you from here to eternity."

But for anyone reading this, the baptism of the Holy Ghost is just as real, and just as tangible, and just as necessary in today's church as it was in the beginning. God is not a cessationist! ...and for that I am truly grateful!

listen to Leonard Ravenhill on the subject:

Anointing - Leonard Ravenhill
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BeO-iCqxvI