Faith Inspiration - Oswald Chambers - Our Great Capacity for God - Part 4: Sin's Effect on Our Capacity for God

Now that we have looked at sin’s beginnings, and the truth laid out in God’s Word about sin we need to talk about how sin affects our capacity to know and believe God. Obviously, sin is all around us. We are human and frequently fail to resist temptation, or find ourselves giving in to the sin nature in the form of anger, envy, gossip, or even over indulgence. Does the occasional sin keep us from this great capacity that Oswald was talking about?

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The first thing we have to acknowledge as truth is that we have sin in us as long as we walk in the flesh. While we obtain salvation and are fully redeemed when we believe in Jesus we don’t automatically stop sinning. Won’t it be nice one day when sin no longer appeals to us: the lure of things that only momentarily satisfy, and the pull of wrong thinking? The key is to not allow sin to reign in us. Look at the following Scriptures.

“5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”

— 1 John 1:5-10 (NASB 1995)

“1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7 for he who has died is freed from sin.”

— Romans 6:1-7 (NASB 1995)

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If we have given our lives to Jesus sin no longer has ownership over us. We are no longer slaves to sin. That being said, it is a daily choice to live a sinless life. In fact, sometimes it is an hour by hour or even a moment by moment choice. As we saw above in 1 John 1:9 we have a pathway to deal with our sins. When we fall, we confess, and Jesus who is faithful and just will forgive us. What a blessing.

Sin affects our capacity to know and understand God in the following ways:

1 - It keeps us in the dark. Look back at 1 John 1 again. Sin, when regularly allowed to have sway in our lives puts a veil over our ability to know God’s truth and dig deeper into His layers. We will find ourselves stumbling in the dark because we are not making use of the light He has given us.

2 - It prevents us from having full fellowship with God. It is in this intimate fellowship that we really begin to understand this Almighty Being who created us and loves us. When we walk in the light and we keep short accounts of our sin by confessing to Jesus, we start to engage in a relationship that is so much more than just believing words written in a book. It becomes vital, essential and real.

3 - It warps our thinking. We will look at this more in the future, but for now we know that our old self was crucified with him, in order that our body of sin might by done away. In order to live a victorious life we must bring our thinking into line with the truth we find in His word. In addition, we must allow the Holy Spirit to have sway in our thinking so that we are living according to Him rather than our flesh.

Next month we will begin our descent into the depths of wrong thinking and how that affects our great capacity for God.

As always thank you for following along as we journey deeper into the layers that are God!

Mulling it Over - Romans 8:12-13

This week’s Mulling it Over passage is going to continue to look at Romans chapter 8. The book of Romans is full of doctrine that relates specifically to our standing before God without Christ and with Christ. It deals, in detail, with the flesh versus the Spirit and how that plays out in our lives culminating either in the devastation and destruction of the one (flesh), or the fullness and life of the other (Spirit).

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Today I am only going to look at two verses.

“12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—
13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. ”

— Romans 8:12-13 (NASB 1995)

Verse 12 tells us, “…we are under obligation…” What does it mean to be under obligation? Being obligated means I have a duty or responsibility to someone or something. In this case Paul is telling us we have a responsibility “…not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.” We are duty bound to not be living according to the flesh. That sounds pretty serious, doesn’t it? The next verse tells us why.

Verse 13 begins with a devastating statement. “For if you are living according to the flesh, you must die…” Whoa! Now wait a minute. How can we not be living according to the flesh? We are, after all, walking in our skin, or flesh. In a manner of speaking we are always living in the flesh.

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The idea of “living according to the flesh” isn’t speaking just of the physical, fleshly body we are stuck in while on this earth. Living according to the flesh, means that we are letting our flesh rule our lives. We are living for our desires, our passions, our lusts and our self. We want what we want, when we want it. If you are a Christ follower and think you no longer live according to the flesh, don’t fool yourself. We are in a constant state of dying at all times. Look at the rest of verse 13.

“…But if, by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the the body, you will live.” The tense of the word “putting” means we are doing it on a regular basis. If it had been in the past, it would have said, “…if, by the Spirit you put to death…” This would have changed the meaning making it that we only had to put our flesh to death once.

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Before you get discouraged let’s remember what Christ did on the cross. Verse 3 of Roman’s 8 reminds us that God sent his own Son to condemn sin in the flesh. Jesus was made flesh for us and then put to death for us. The moment we align ourselves with Christ we have His blood covering us and giving us the ability to die to sin, and flesh. We are dead, because of what sin has done, but alive because of what Christ has done.

How do we put this flesh to death on a regular basis? If you are like me, you might find yourself easily sliding into old habits like feeling sorry for yourself, thinking you are not enough, turning to food or purchasing items to make you feel better. These are all “fleshly” rather than “Spiritual” forms of coping. I am learning, to battle and put to death the flesh there are several things I need to do.

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1 - Keep short accounts. Checking in with God regularly helps me to keep my mind and heart where it needs to be and keeps me from focusing on the flesh.

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2 - Find some accountability. I have a good friend that I know I can text any time and she will pray for and with me. I also have a group of women I meet with virtually once a week for a Bible study, that I know I could check in with any one of them if I am struggling with my flesh.

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3 - Memorize God’s word. This is one I don’t do nearly enough, in fact hardly at all, and of that I am ashamed. God’s word is our sword, and if you want a quick way to put your flesh to death, the sword of the Spirit is it.

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4 - Pray without ceasing. You all know this from 1 Thessalonians 5:17, but we need to make it a reality in our lives. Praying doesn’t have to be an on your knees posture. It isn’t about physical posture, but heart posture, although, getting on my knees or even flat on my face on the floor does wonders for my prayer life and for my dying to the flesh.

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5 - My sister-in-law gave me some great advice, which she had gotten from a book she was reading, take life 24 hours at a time. When you wake up in the morning, before you even get out of bed, dedicate the next 24 hour period to God, submitting to His divine appointments. Sometimes, life just doesn’t go as planned, but when we begin to see that each 24 hour day is a gift from Him, even the bad stuff can be used for our growth and His glory. This is Spirit living, not flesh living.

Believe me ladies when I say, I am struggling right now to live in the Spirit rather than the flesh, but even taking the time to mull over these two verses has brought me back to His center, and that is the only way we can really live.

Next month we will delve deeper into Romans 8.