Why would God place humanity into a world controlled by Satan? Without God people don’t have a chance! Demons have no trouble taking advantage of someone’s dead spirit, since people naturally lay themselves open to attack when devoid of the life of God within. Many passages in Scripture make it clear that demons are able to exert powerful influence over the heart, oppressing and sometimes even possessing people.

But what about us? Even with God’s Spirit residing within, our ongoing struggle with the flesh is greatly impacted by Satan’s agenda. We shouldn’t be surprised, though. He never misses an opportunity to present sin as pleasurable—all the while concealing the bondage and misery it always brings. The devil has found fertile ground in mankind through the frailties of human nature. It has allowed him to develop powerful tools for manipulation in his pursuit of destroying us. Let’s face it, he’s had plenty of time to figure us out.

Godliness? How could I ever be thought of as being godly? We often get godliness confused with God’s acceptance. Godliness is a mindset of pursuit—a quest which keeps us constantly engaged in living to please God. But by doing so, are we trying to earn God’s favor? Frankly, yes, that is if it’s His acceptance we’re after. This pitfall can only be avoided by recognizing that it’s impossible to please Him in our own strength.

We must instead entrust ourselves to God’s grace, building on the righteousness which He has already imparted. It’s true that we are commanded to pursue godliness, but this should never stem from trying to become acceptable to God. Rather, it’s a sincere commitment to a walk with Him—rooted, sustained, and perfected through all that He has provided. It’s something we now do because of who we now are.

Standing in our rock-solid hope of God’s amazing grace carries with it the danger of breeding complacency: “Now that I’ve got my ticket to heaven, what more do I need?” Sadly, this is how many Christians view God and His purpose for their life. It’s a self-centered mind-set, since it boils down to little more than making a better life for ourselves here on earth, with the added bonus of a fabulous heavenly life later.

Well, saved is wonderful, but our reconciliation with God encompasses a whole lot more than merely our initial regeneration. Rather, the primary reason for God doing all He has through Christ Jesus is to pave the way for godliness to become the standard of our life in Him. Salvation is merely the starting point. Through redemption, we are provided the framework of choice. And choice by faith is the very heart of our life—and growth in that life—as Christians.

In Romans 7, Paul says that freedom from law is actually the basis for our freedom from sin. He uses the example of a married woman who by Law is accountable to her husband. But when her husband dies, she is free from that responsibility. Yet although the wife is the one who has been freed from the law, she didn’t die at all; her husband did! And so it is with us. By comparison, we’re like the living wife rather than the dead husband when talking about our own death to sin.

In Christ, we are just as dead to law in regard to our sin as she is to the commandment which once governed her marriage. God has acquitted His children of wrongdoing because the punishment for sin—that is, separation from Him—is no longer enforced. This is the key to understanding the true nature of our death to sin.

“Our body of sin has been done away with,” Romans 6 tells us. “Wow! My flesh is finally dead!”  Yet deep down it’s really hard to believe, because “our body of sin” being ”done away with” doesn’t actually mean what we think. Our sinful flesh didn’t go anywhere. It’s clinging close at hand. This can be very disheartening, because we find ourselves continually bombarded by a sense of guilt—made all the worse by Satan’s accusation and deceit.

Yet even though we have to drag that old baggage around in our new life in Christ, God has solved our dilemma. He truly did cause our old self to die, for our sinful flesh has now become a non-issue in His eyes. “Doing away with our body of sin” literally means that our flesh has been rendered powerless. Jesus got rid of the problem for us!

God’s law helps to curb our behavior and provide direction, but its main purpose is to expose sin. Romans 7:7 says: “I would not have come to know sin except through the law.” Law can be thought of as a gauge of sorts, because it sets the standard of God’s righteousness against our own self-centered motivations and desires. But what’s sad is that God’s law has been misinterpreted as a means by which a person might earn his own righteousness.

From the very beginning God had something far different in mind; law was to be a guidepost to His gift of life. Law was never intended to be a vehicle to bring us into right standing with God, because ultimately He wanted to freely impart His own righteousness—and thus His life—to man. Make no mistake: any attempt to earn our own righteousness merely results in pitting us head-on against God’s plan.

It’s not at all uncommon for Christians to be oblivious to the issue of pride in their life. We just don’t appreciate the influence this cancer has over us! Pride is at the very core of the problem of sin because our demanding ego causes us to pursue worldliness, where it’s easy to experience instant and tangible satisfaction for our misdirected needs. Being the offspring of self-will rooted in self-interest, a prideful ego constantly seeks to enhance itself in an attempt to satisfy the desires of the heart.

It’s easy to see how all the sins described in the Bible find their root here. But sin is deceptive, because its gratification is always short term. In our struggle against sin, it’s very helpful to understand why we continue to do what we do, even though we ultimately do not find it rewarding. Pride is the culprit, and the flesh is its instrument.

When Jesus took our sin upon Himself, He freed us from sin’s consequence—separation from God. When we receive Christ, we are securely joined to Him through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. His Spirit residing within is our guarantee of all that God has promised.

The death and resurrection of Christ as it relates to our own death and life in Him is a recurring theme in Scripture. Being united with Jesus in His death allows us to also share in the benefits of His resurrection. Understanding this principle is vital to our spiritual growth.

At the very heart of this truth is the fact that freedom from the power of sin—our death to sin—is guaranteed by our freedom from law. Freedom is now the absolute reality of our life in Christ, because we are no longer bound by what Paul calls “the law of sin and death.”

Satan wields a two-edged sword in the process of tempting us to abandon our faith. His argument goes something like this: “It only makes sense that God would expect you to perform for your salvation,” all the while criticizing us: “Give it up! You’re a failure! You’ll never be able to overcome that sin. Face it: you can’t please God unless you work at this thing a little harder!” But why should this surprise us? Doesn’t the Bible clearly describe Satan as both the deceiver and the accuser of God’s people?

We can’t earn our way into good standing with God! Through Christ, God made provision for our righteousness in spite of our sin. Doing good pleases God. Of course it does! But it’s not what ultimately satisfies Him. Our relationship with God rests on one thing alone—being in Christ—enjoying righteousness anchored in God’s provision rather than in our own efforts.

After being set free in Christ, it’s easy to become a bit confused as we set our minds to do right. As we attempt to rid our life of sin, we often turn to good works in the hope that they will somehow offset the sin demerits we sense accumulating against us. So it’s not hard to slip into the very thing true faith should avoid at all costs—works righteousness.

This link between good works and sin is really important, because it’s here that Satan focuses his efforts to destroy us. It’s his primary strategy to rob us of all God has to offer. When the devil convinces Christians to earn their way instead of simply walking in God’s free gift of grace, he handcuffs us, cheating us out of God’s great prize—freedom in Christ. And if Satan can accomplish that, he may just be successful in getting us to walk away from the truth altogether.