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.

Our freedom in Christ doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do everything we can to say no to sin. It would be foolish to let sin run rampant in our body while waiting for change to happen within our heart. Only when we renounce sin in our flesh and then couple it with the pursuit of healing and change in our heart do we stand a chance of genuine transformation. These principles work hand in hand with each other.

God hates sin because of its destructive power in people’s lives. A fungus on a tree doesn’t simply live its life innocently on the bark. It feeds on the tree, invading it within while draining the life right out of it. This is precisely what sin does in people. Sin’s festering presence has the invasive power to bring about death, robbing God of the lives He holds so precious, and for which He has created such wonderful purpose.

We often get hope confused with faith in our thinking. Hope is different. Hope is first born in our heart when a promise is given. Hope is defined as a desire with some expectation of fulfillment. We only hope for what we want. Anticipating something you have no desire for would be senseless! And so would expecting that which has no chance of ever happening. Hope is the great motivator; no accomplishment—or even action—in life is possible without it first being there.

Hope first comes alive through the promise of the Gospel. Then God gives us the gift of faith by which we are able to act on that hope. We receive His promise through faith. Justification and redemption are ours solely by the grace of God as we act on His promise by receiving Christ. But ultimately the fullness of God’s promise is obtained through a lifestyle of obedience—the proof that our faith is genuine.

Faith is at the very heart of God’s plan for us. By faith alone we are saved. Through it we obtain His free gift of righteousness. But faith doesn’t come naturally to us. The problem is that God doesn’t reveal Himself in a way that our physical senses can perceive Him. I’m not suggesting that God doesn’t allow us to be aware of His presence; He does. But our experience of Him comes by spiritual means—not physical.

Why would God keep Himself hidden at all? Wouldn’t it be much easier to simply appear and tell us what He wants? Well, that wouldn’t require faith, would it? Our inability to grasp God by our natural senses makes faith indispensable. The Bible says that it’s impossible to please God without it. Yet because faith is so contrary to everything instinctive to our nature, believing God the way He wants will never be all that easy. Apparently He never meant it to be!

God’s law did not originate with the Law of Moses. Law was first introduced when God said, “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.” So, law was there in the Garden—just not “the Law” as it was later given. And sin was also around from the very beginning. But sin could not be charged unless law existed to identify it (Romans 3:20). The pursuit of righteousness through obedience to law is what Paul called the “elementary principles of the world” (Colossians 2:8).

Man has an inbred penchant for attempting to justify himself in this way. It’s absolutely fundamental to our thinking about God. And why shouldn’t it be? It just seems so right! But making people work for righteousness was never God’s intent for law. Even in the Old Testament, obeying God was meant to be an act of faith, not merely an attempt to accumulate enough points to somehow satisfy Him.

It’s sad that so many have been duped by Satan into believing that we must now earn our own way now that we’ve been saved. Think back to your desperately sinful condition when God reached down and pulled you out of that pit. God’s grace was overwhelming, wasn’t it! So how could you think that He might now abandon you just because you continue to struggle with sin in your life?

Good news! God has resolved the issue of your sin—past, present and future. It’s a done deal! Freedom from sin is God’s way of guarantying our hope of enduring intimacy with Him. Yet this doesn’t mean that the struggle between the appetites of the flesh and God’s desires are not going to be a battle for us (Galatians 5:17,18). This on-going conflict is precisely why the assurance of being freed from sin is so important as we go about living our new life in Christ.

“If I have truly died to sin, why do I still feel so alive to it?” This really is mysterious! Don’t think you’re alone here. It’s not an uncommon question by any stretch of the imagination. “Just what did happen to me when I became that new creature in Christ? What’s this life all about?” The answer lies in the fact that it’s not about what we do or don’t do. Rather, it’s about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done.

No, this doesn’t relieve us of all personal responsibility. Of course not! It does mean, though, that the foundation for our relationship with God has been laid by Him alone, not by anything we can do in and of ourselves. “Oh, I believe that,” you might say—but do you really? Do you really believe that your relationship with God isn’t somehow rooted in trying to be good?

It’s pretty common to think about sin merely as a response by our flesh to some outside stimulus.  “I wanted it, so I did it!” But in reality, sin is a symptom of a much more serious disease within. Sin is a barometer of the heart. It’s more than just actions; it’s rooted in our attitudes, intentions and motives.

In thinking that sin stems primarily from our physical body, we’re led to treat the symptoms rather than focusing on the true source of the problem. Sin is a heart problem rooted within the soul, so we need to start there. We know that our soul cannot change until it is influenced by a healthy spirit. And nothing happens until our spirit is first empowered by the life of God. But when it is, the soul, mind and body are all pushed automatically toward God’s purpose. This is the answer to the weakness of the flesh.

We deserved death for our sins. But Jesus was willing to go to the cross in our place. We pretty much understand the significance of His sacrifice. But Romans 6:6 tells us a whole lot more: “our old self was crucified with Him so that our body of sin might be done away with, that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”

 When Paul says that we are freed from sin, he uses a word meaning justified or made righteous. It can literally be translated: “For he who has died is acquitted from sin.” We all know what happens when someone is acquitted in a trial—he’s found not guilty! That is exactly what God did as Jesus took penalty for sin off our shoulders and laid it upon Himself. And because of this, experiencing God’s life consists of a great deal more than merely trying to maintain sinless behavior now that we’re saved.