Can Christians Renounce Their Salvation?

Hebrews 6:1 calls one foundation of salvation "repentance from dead works." Repentance means "a change of mind." Repentance from dead works means you change your mind about dead works working, ie you don't live under the law.

Hebrews 6:4-6 says, "In the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance (changing their minds), since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame."

What do they "fall away" from? Grace. Paul said falling from grace was seeking to be justified by law. "You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4).

The NET translation notes that the crucifying & putting in Hebrews 6:6 can be understood as temporal which gives us this meaning.
"It is impossible to renew them again to change their minds WHILE they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again & WHILE they are putting Him to open shame."

Galatians 5 tackles this very thing. WHILE you are seeking to be justified by law you "have fallen away" you "have fallen from grace." When you give up on being justified by the law, as Paul tried to convince the Galatians to do, you will then be able to change your mind back to grace because you trust that the one time sacrifice of Jesus has taken care of everything. Hebrews 10 makes it clear that Christ only had to die once & that any physical sacrifice is worthless because Christ's did the job. Hebrews 6 addresses something almost identical except instead of talking about living by the law in terms of physical sacrifice rituals it regards living by the law in terms of "dead works." Hebrews 6 starts off saying "we'll stop laying the foundation of repentance from dead works.. IF God permits." God didn't permit it because the very next thing spoken of in v4-8 regards repentance from dead works. To summarize, it says that as long as you trust in dead works working you'll never change your mind about trying to be justified by the law. It is a sense of "until you know it is broke it is impossible to fix it."

This is why Hebrews focuses on the perfect sacrifice of Christ. It aims to show that we have no need to recrucify Him or offer animal sacrifices anymore. But we do have to leave the old covenant behind for us to benefit from God's grace. That is the same thing Galatians 5 says, putting yourself under the law makes you "severed from Christ." This is not severed in the sense of being separated from His love, we know that is impossible. "Fallen from grace" isn't a spiritual state, it is a mental & experiential state. You cannot benefit from grace experientially while you are living under the law. The two mindsets can't coexist.

Hebrews 6:7-8 goes on to say, "Ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned."

Now lets interpret this considering the context, "Ground (a person) that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if the vegetation yields thorns and thistles, the vegetation is worthless and the ground is CLOSE to being cursed, and the vegetation with thorns & thistles ends up being burned."

Why is the ground only CLOSE to being burned? Because it is living under "the curse of the law" but Jesus "became a curse for us" preventing the ground from being cursed. This is teaching something similar to 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 which speaks about men's works being burned up. In that text there are good works made of gold & the like which "build upon the foundation of Jesus Christ" then there are bad works (works that misrepresent God, such as works done for the law rather than by God) made of wood, hay, & straw that are eventually burned up. To summarize Hebrews 6:7-8 is saying that those who have fallen from grace produce thorns & thistles, living under the law experiencing life as though they are cursed. But they are not cursed instead their thorns & thistles (bad/legalistic works) are burned up while they are "kept safe" though their works go up in flames. [Visit this post for a full look at 1 Corinthians 3:10-15's take on this].

Some use these verses from Hebrews 6 to teach that Christians can lose their salvation. Others, who don't believe in loss of salvation teach that these verses mean a Christian can "voluntarily choose to reject God." Neither is true, this text is about "repentance from dead works" meaning the law. The law's works cannot produce life. John 5:24 says, "Whoever trusts in the Father has eternal life and WILL NEVER be condemned; that person HAS CROSSED over from death to life." How can God extinguish ETERNAL life? He can't. God will never condemn His children even if they try to willingly, knowingly, voluntarily reject Him. God will not abort His children & you can't commit spiritual suicide, God will not allow it. We are His forever but this life on earth is infinitely better lived by grace than by law & that's what these scriptures are about. Romans 8 says "No created thing can separate us from God's love," we are created things. We cannot pluck ourselves from God's hand. God is love, if you can't be separated from his love you can't be separated from Him. If we are faithless He is still faithful.


Related Posts
Why Be Afraid of Hebrews 10?
Saved Through Fire? (Linked above)
Inseparable & Unforsakable, Fellowship Never Broken

Fear Behind the Curtain

One reason people oppose the "grace message" is because they are afraid of God. They think He will be angry with them, punish them, or break fellowship with them if they aren't vigilant to avoid sin & diligent to obey Him.

Another reason people oppose the "grace message" is because they are afraid of sin. They don't believe that Christians are dead to sin or free from sin. They believe sin still has power over us. They think we have to avoid sin like perpetually falling acid rain. Romans 6:14 says sin is powerless against someone who lives under grace (the recognition that God desperately loves you no matter what, y'know like a loving Father would). It also says that when you put yourself under law you give sin power over you that it otherwise would never have.

If you fear either of these things you doubt or limit God's love for you. 1 John 4:18 says there is no fear in a relationship where you know that you are loved. Knowing you are loved actually pushes away any fears that may come up. Zechariah said the very proclamation of the coming of the Messiah was "Fear not, your King is coming." Zacharias prophesied, "The Lord God of Israel has granted us the freedom to serve Him without fear." Every Christian that believes in the power of sin also believes they must fear God. They are living as if Jesus has never come to this earth. If you reject the grace message, you at least in part are rejecting Jesus & the suffering He has done on your behalf.

God has not given us a spirit of fear. If you are fearful you are not walking by the spirit He has given you. The spirit He has given us causes our hearts to cry out, "Daddy! Papa! Father!" What father demands fear? What father angrily punishes? What father abandons you whenever you make a mistake? Not Jesus' Father. Not my Father. What child wants to run to a father that does those things?

Forcing Hate

You've heard "love the sinner, hate the sin." But striving to hate sin is a dead end that puts your mind on sin instead of on Jesus and loving others. Love the sinner, hate the sin says to people, "I love you but I'm gonna focus my hatred on your faults." Y'know because the smart way to love someone is to focus on their faults right?

1 Corinthians 13:5 says, "Love does not take into account a wrong." So it is impossible to love the sinner & hate the sin. If you hate their sin you've stopped loving them because you're keeping account of their wrongs to hate on. God's attitude toward sin is love's attitude. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says God doesn't hold any one's sins against them. God didn't ignore sin, He condemned sin in His flesh on the cross.

God will never make me feel shame or guilt for my actions. God will reveal truth to me & He still loves me so He will help me stop my harmful behaviors. There is no hate involved, just love.

I'm not saying it is wrong to have a distaste for evil. My beef is that "hate the sin" is phrased as a command. The idea behind the quote is that when someone does something "sinful" I am obligated to hate their sin, as if I am not allowed to love a sinner without hating their sin. All I remember Jesus doing was loving the sinner & confronting those who burden others.

God has never painfully shown me the truth unless that truth caused me to feel pain for another person because He revealed a piece of their heart to me. I honestly can't think of a time God even called me out for doing wrong. What happens in my life is God turns my mind naturally & immediately back to Him in most cases where I do something wrong. Not even in a, "Oh boy I'm thankful you forgave me" but more like I just forget about what happened (unless I need to reconcile with someone) & go on walking in the joy & peace of the spirit within moments of doing the wrong. That is the freedom of His love. I used to be burdened for days over screwing up now I am free & joyful in who God is even a moment after screwing up without even trying. He causes my focus to default on Him.

The context of John 16:8 says Jesus convicts those who don't trust in Him of sin. It says He convicts the people who trust Him of righteousness (a play on words that means he declares them "guilty" of not being guilty). "Convict" is a direct synonym of the word "condemn." Convict means "to declare guilty." Condemnation is a "pronouncement of guilt." Romans 8:1 says there is NO condemnation in Christ. God will not charge His child with guilt. (Accuse & convict are synonyms too). In the secular world "convict" is used to describe someone being found guilty in court & sentenced to imprisonment. So I wouldn't use that word because I feel it gives the wrong message to Christians & non-Christians alike.

God does refute us (sometimes translated as rebuke) which means He leads us out of false beliefs we have (such as "this isn't hurting anyone"). Hebrews 12 says that sort of thing can make us "sorrowful or irritated" but "afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." Personally I haven't felt sorrowful or irritated over God refuting me because the truth is so much better than the falsehood I believed.

People shouldn't have to strive to hate sin. If you do you do, if you don't you don't. To force yourself to hate some one's actions actually makes you less loving toward that person. The way I've heard the "love the sinner, hate the sin" quote used most often is to basically say, "You can be friends with a 'sinner' but you have to let them know that you don't condone what they do & that you hate their sin." It almost comes across as "You're not allowed to love a sinner unless you also hate their sin, if you don't hate their sin you're a bad Christian & susceptible to becoming like them."

The quote isn't even from scripture. 2 Corinthians 5:16 says, "Do not regard anyone according to the flesh." While I can hate evil & try to protect those I love from it that doesn't mean I should deliberately hate some one's actions as the quote suggests. That is a terrible idea that makes it harder to love people. Ask yourself, How can I forgive someone while hating their sin?

All the Specific Things the New Testament Labels as Sins

Do you expect a list of all the specific things the New Testament labels as sins to be astronomical?
Christians love labeling things as sin. "This is a sin.." "That is a sin.." For almost all of those things the word "sin" doesn't even appear in the same context. For example they say homosexuality is a sin & cite Romans 1 but the word sin doesn't even appear in Romans chapter 1. I'm not saying the bible doesn't describe certain things as harmful, destructive, or unloving. However, with the over the top slapping with the label of sin Christians do I think it would be interesting to see what specific actions the New Testament literally calls sins. Why just the New Testament? Because ALL old covenant law breaking would be considered sin (1 John 3:4). In the New Covenant the law is over. Romans 5:13 says, "Sin is not charged when there is no law." If you want to claim that all lawbreaking is still sin then you best get ready to keep the true sabbath starting at sundown on Fridays.

Even I was surprised at what I found. Remembering that sin is still talked about in a general sense, here are the only specific things explicitly identified with the label of "sin" in the New Testament:

• Mark 3:29, Blaspheming the Holy Spirit, which is basically saying Satan is responsible for the good God does.
• Romans 7:7, Coveting, although in context it is described such in relation to the law.
• 1 Corinthians 6:18, fornication is described as "a sin against your own body"
• James 2:9, showing partiality, although in context it is described such in relation to the law (The letter of James is addressed to the 12 tribes of Jews).
• James 4:17, "A person who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to that person it is sin." Of interest is the fact that it does not say this "is a sin" it says that it is a sin to that person. Just before this in verse 12 it says, "God is the only Lawgiver and Judge." Thus James 4:17 has similar meaning to what Paul said in Romans 14:22, "Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves." Essentially it means you have the option to condemn yourself about any good thing you aren't doing at the moment & see it is as a sin. Notice it doesn't say it is a sin to God. People do this sort of thing all the time, they say "I'm not doing enough. I'm not giving enough" etc. They "measure themselves by themselves" instead of exploring the immeasurable righteousness Jesus has given them.
• 1 John 5:17 says "all unrighteousness is sin." Here is the only thing specifically described in the New Testament as unrighteous, Acts 1:18, Judas getting paid off for betraying Jesus.

Again the word sin is used in the broad sense a lot so don't read into this saying I'm trying to make excuses for whatever. Just take an honest look at what the New Testament labels as sin.
   0. Coveting & showing partiality are sins against the law, which is over. I could have left those out.
   1. Fornication is sin against your own body.
   2. You can count sins against yourself by counting all of the good things you aren't doing at the moment.
   3. Saying Satan is behind the good God does is a sin against the Holy Spirit. Don't know of any Christian who has ever done that.

Just food for thought for the next time you want to label something as "a sin." You're probably doing it by your own "knowledge of good & evil." Most of Christianity pictures God as the tree of knowledge of good & evil & as the accuser (convicter) but God is actually the tree of life & the comforter. I say it is time to stop being sin conscious & start being love conscious instead. It is a lie that you have to understand evil to understand or appreciate good/love. Do I have to abuse my baby daughter for her to appreciate the love she gets? Absurd! Good doesn't need evil to be appreciated. Love is awesome like that. God is awesome like that.

Jesus Freed Us from Guilt & Shame

In SEVEN places God promises, “Whoever trusts in Me will NEVER be put to shame” (Isaiah 28:16, Romans 9:33, 10:11, 1 Peter 2:6, Joel 2:26-27, Isaiah 45:17, 54:4). Shame literally means disgrace. It is the opposite of grace. Shame is also a synonym for "a feeling of guilt." God will never make someone who is saved feel guilty.

2 Corinthians 2:11 says to be aware of Satan's schemes. Scripture says that Satan is the accuser of God's family (Revelation 12:10 & Zechariah 3:1). Accuser means "one who charges with guilt." Thus one of Satan's schemes is to make you feel guilty.

"Convict" is a direct synonym of the word "condemn." Convict means "to declare guilty." Condemnation is a "pronouncement of guilt." Romans 8:1 says there is NO condemnation in Christ. God will not charge His child with guilt.

One definition of the word righteous is "guiltless." Romans 5:17 says righteousness is a gift we receive. Romans 3:22 says we receive that gift by trusting Jesus (getting saved). God pronounces us as guiltless not as guilty. No condemnation means no guilt, he never charges us with guilt. 2 Corinthians 5:19 & Romans 4:8 say God doesn't even charge us with sin.

If you feel accused, shamed, or guilty, it is either your flesh or Satan himself making you feel that way. You can feel compassion, sympathy, & empathy for someone you've wronged without feeling guilt or shame. Romans 2:4 says, "It is God's kindness that leads you toward changing your mind for the better."

Romans 12:2 says to "be transformed by the renewing of your mind." You cannot trust your so called conscious if your mind is not renewed. 1 John 3:2 says that "our hearts condemn us." Unrenewed minds will accept the accusations of Satan & the condemnation of their own hearts as the voice of God. I used to do it myself.

No Rehashing
God has never made me feel guilt or shame for my old sinful ways. I used to think He did but I found the truth & realized that it was my own self-centered sense of shame doing it to me. One of the word's translated as "shame" in the New Testament carries the idea of "a turning in upon oneself." Shame is a self-centered pity party that moves you away from wanting to interact with God.

God no longer remembers the sins of His people (Hebrews 8:12,10:17) so He certainly hasn't shown me something about my "old sinful ways." He forgot them & there isn't an evidence in the world that I have to confess or repent of them to get Him to continue to forget them as I go on in life. His forgetting is part of the New Covenant.

Why would God want me to dwell on old sins anyway? He told us to dwell on good & pure things in Philippians 4:8 so what makes us think there is any good in seeing the wretchedness of something we used to do, heck or even something we've done yesterday?

Loving without Guilt
I'll either be blind to loving someone
OR it will be a process of me understanding a person & how to love them
OR God will reveal a piece of their heart to me to where if I hurt someone it isn't about ME feeling bad about what I'VE done, it is about me caring for the person I've hurt & reconciling with them. I will hurt inside in that case but I will be hurting for them not for myself & my performance as a Christian.

Yoked or Unyoked is The Issue of Mankind

Hebrew letters started as pictographs where each letter was a picture. Those pictures can give us insight into what Hebrew words mean.
The Hebrew word for "sin" consists of 3 letters with meanings of separate, clay, & yoke.

The word sin hides this message about what the spiritual condition of sin is:  "Man separated from the yoke of Christ"

This was amazing enough & such a dead on picture. But then I took the Hebrew word that is often translated as "forgive." It consists of 3 letters with meanings of life, two, & yoke. So when the bible talks of someone who is forgiven it pictures "The life of two in a yoke." You & Christ yoked together.

Those hidden meanings then make this scripture a HUGE focal point.

"Come to me, all you who are tired & burdened heavily, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is pleasant and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

So this saying of Jesus is perhaps the greatest picture of salvation & a relationship with God in all of eternity.

What does Jesus give?
Rest
Wisdom
Pleasantness/Ease

How does Jesus treat you?
With gentleness & humility

Where have you heard God pictured like this?
He walks & works with you while directly teaching you in a relationship.
He treats you with gentleness & humility, He isn't demanding or harsh.
What He wants you to have most as He lives with you is rest, wisdom, & ease.

This is mind-blowing to me, that the very Hebrew words behind sin & forgive point to this precise saying of Jesus & the beauty of what Jesus describes a relationship with God is like. And let me tell you, it is exactly as He described. If you aren't experiencing God as Jesus described it isn't because you are doing things wrong. It is because you are believing the wrong things about God. Believe Jesus' testimony about Himself. If you think God has treated you without gentleness & without humility you've mislabeled something else as God (probably your own sense of shame). Jesus gives you the rest of having a love relationship with Him. To be yoked with Jesus means He says to you, "We are yoked together but I will pull the weight and carry the burden."


Related Posts
Walking Under the Yoke of Jesus

Our New Creation in Christ & sin

• People are born spiritually dead with the condition of sin. It is the charge of the action of sin that does not currently exist (from God or the law). God holds nothing against anyone so they can freely experience the grace of His kindness which leads them to trust Jesus. Not everyone is born again but God makes it as easy as possible to be by removing sin as a spiritual barrier & having no wrath for the time being for anyone.
• Baptism is a picture of burial & resurrection with Christ. My understanding is that all spiritually died with Christ on the cross, "Christ died for all, and therefore all died" (2 Corinthians 5:14). However you are not raised until you first trust in Jesus. That raising is new birth. New birth is exclusively spiritual. Your new born spirit cannot sin because it is "one spirit with God" (1 Corinthians 6:17). The issue of sin was taken care of on the cross. We trust God and thank God that He has handled sin for us. Eternal life is about relationship. Jesus said in John 17:3, "This is eternal life, to intimately know God the Father and Jesus Christ whom He has sent."
• "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (1 John 1:8)
• 1 John 1 is a description of how to be saved in the first place. One must acknowledge their sinful state to recognize that Christ has already taken their sin upon Himself. 1 John 1 is not a continuing description of Christians whom God has rebirthed & cleansed forever. Christians have no sin. They are in Christ & "in Him there is no sin." (1 John 3:5)
• My stance on 1 John 3:6,9 & 1 John 5:18 is that it speaks of the Christian's spirit, their true identity. It says, "Whoever is born of God cannot sin."  The only part of us that is born of God is our spirit, Jesus makes that clear in John 3. There is no doubt to me that these scriptures speak of spiritual identity & not of temporal flesh based morality.
  
• If these scriptures meant "Christians cannot continually sin" how do you define continually? Is that to be left up to man's interpretation? How I see these scriptures don't leave a gaping whole of "how much sin is enough sin to be considered "continually"? The interpretation that this means "Christians cannot continually sin" points to man's performance in the flesh rather than the rebirth of the spirit through the work of Christ. It is utterly sin conscious.
• Can a disciple of Jesus Christ look at a woman lustfully?
  I would say no.
  
• The bible says to not regard anyone (including yourself) according to the flesh (2 Corinthians 5:16). The Christian's spirit is their true & sole identity & it cannot sin. It is "perfected forever by the one time sacrifice of Christ" (Hebrews 10:14).
  
• A disciple of Jesus Christ, through unrenewed parts of their mind (which is flesh), can offer their eyes (part of their flesh) to sin (Romans 6:13). God does not charge them with sin because of this. He doesn't add plus one to the sin ledger, He doesn't get offended (angry), He doesn't break fellowship, He doesn't condemn, disgrace, shame, or convict (convict means to declare guilty). He doesn't require you to ask for forgiveness or to "turn from sin."
  
• As a disciple pays attention to the Spirit God will walk them out of doing such a thing (it could take a very long time before the eyes are no longer offered to sin). God's loving kindness is able to change us without charging us with sin.
• Walk by the spirit which is your true (sinless) identity in Christ or walk by the flesh which causes you to treat others unlovingly through lies etc. My manifested actions do not change my identity nor are the sinful actions caused by it.
  
• 1 Corinthians 6:17 says, "He who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him." If you think a Christian's spirit can produce sin you believe God can produce sin. Is God's Spirit sinful?
• We have both the flesh & the spirit but I am only identified by one.
  
• "YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH BUT IN THE SPIRIT, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you."  (Romans 8:9)
  
• That means all Christians are exclusively in the spirit because all of us have His spirit in us.
  
• "Because Christ died for all we are to no longer identify anyone according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16).
  
• Our identity is our spirit, that is how God identifies us and how God wants us to identify ourselves.
  
• "Your new man (spirit) has been created in the likeness of God. You truly are right with God. You were made righteous, pure, guiltless, innocent, faultless, and holy" (Ephesians 4:24).
• I am not saying we do not have flesh. I am upholding the idea that we are to walk by the spirit/not the flesh. If the spirit is bad why walk by it?
  
• Sin is never sourced in or credited to our spirit, which is our sole identity. Our flesh (if we walk by it) produces sin.
  The flesh we have can produce sin but our spirit cannot. Our spirit is one Spirit with God.
  
• If you actually believe Christ is our new identity how then do you believe we can sin with that identity? Christ does not serve out sin (Galatians 2:17), we are in Him.
  
• If God sees us as he sees Christ WHY SHOULD WE SEE OURSELVES ANY DIFFERENT? Why should I not see myself with God's perfect eyes?
• Did Peter sin when he lied about not being with Jesus?
  
• Yes. Peter had not yet received God's spirit (John 20:22) & Christ had not yet been to the cross.
• Can a child of God sin?
  The answer is no.
  
• A child of God is an eternal spirit that temporarily lives in the flesh. They are responsible for controlling their flesh but are not condemned or charged with sin by God if they do a bad job.
  
• "No one who is born of God practices sin, BECAUSE GOD'S SEED ABIDES IN HIM; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (1 John 3:9)
  
• "You have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed" (1 Peter 1:23).
  
• Sin corrupts. Sin cannot touch our spirit.
  
• "YOU ARE NOT IN THE FLESH BUT IN THE SPIRIT, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." (Romans 8:9)
  
• This isn't talking about physical locality but identity.
  
• "Because Christ died for all we are to no longer identify anyone according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16).
  
• You empower sin by holding onto it as part of your identity.
• Perfect Spirits
• In spirit we are perfect but our consciousness resides in the flesh. Our mind is the bridge between the spirit & the flesh. When we allow God to renew our minds we walk by the spirit.
  
• His divine power has granted to us EVERYTHING pertaining to life and godliness, THROUGH OUR TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM (2 Peter 1:3-4)
  
• "Everything" means we lack nothing (are perfect) but we cannot experience "everything" or "perfection" unless we have true knowledge of Him.
  
• I say we are perfect in the spirit only. That does not mean we see perfect behavior come out of us all the time. Nor does it mean that our fleshly minds have perfect knowledge. Our spirits have the mind of Christ. Our spirits "know all things" (1 John 2:20) but we cannot access that knowledge & righteousness if our fleshly minds are ignorant (unrenewed).
  
• "The spirits of righteous men have been made perfect" (Hebrews 12:22-23).
• "I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want." (Romans 7:15,19)
  
• I once experienced the struggle Romans 7 talks about when I believed I was a sinner. But now that I truly walk by the spirit (which doesn't simply mean to act moral or obey the law, it means to know & focus on the spirit of God & what he has birthed as our spirit) I never experience the condition of Romans 7 but the freedom & empowered state spoken of in Romans 8 where I never have condemnation, guilt, or shame.
  
• Twice in Romans 7 (17 & 20) Paul says, "It is no longer I who sin but sin living in me that sins." He is saying "I no longer sin." "I do not sin anymore." "When you see sin come out of my person it is not me who is doing it. I am not the cause or the source. I no longer produce sin." This gels perfectly with 1 John 3:9 which says someone who is born of God cannot produce sin. I can rightly say, "I, being a child of God, no longer sin."
  
• "It is no longer I who sin but sin living in me that sins," has to be speaking of either the flesh, the mind (soul), the spirit, or some combination of those. Certainly it is at the very least talking about the spirit. IT MUST BE TALKING ABOUT ONE OF THEM or Paul is a liar & you must throw out his writings.
  
• I no longer sin. Sin in my flesh still produces sinful actions if I don't walk by spirit but I, in my new spiritual identity in Christ, do not sin. Why? Because a birth establishes a new identity. "Your new creation has been created in God’s image. It is righteous and holy" (Ephesians 4:24).
  
• "From now on we identify NO ONE according to the flesh (what else is there left to identify by but the spirit?). If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things PASSED AWAY; behold, new things have come." (2 Corinthians 5:16-17) That new creature is new because it has been recently born. Jesus said in John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." New birth exclusively concerns the spirit because "A man cannot be born when he is old. He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born" (John 3:4). Our new creation is our spirit, we are not to identify ourselves according to the flesh. Don't hold onto the flesh as part of your identity, doing so empowers the enemy.
  
• If "It is not I who sins but the sin living in me that sins," as Paul says in Romans 7:17,20, then who is responsible for the sins?
  
• While there are various instigators for unloving actions (sin, Satan, the law, the body, lies that are believed) the unrenewed mind, which is flesh, is ultimately responsible for those actions occurring.
• If you don't put to death the DEEDS of the flesh sin is going to come out of your body. If you don't mow the lawn it is going to continue to grow & get longer. Putting to death the deeds of the flesh is like mowing the lawn.
  
• Renewing your mind is like uprooting the grass & plowing the dirt so sin will never grow there again. The less renewed your mind is the more unloving actions will show up in your behavior.
• Truly it is not you, as a spiritual child of God, sinning. If sinful actions come out in your behavior it is your unrenewed mind that does not cut them off. Your mind is the bridge between the flesh & the spirit. The unrenewed parts of your mind are paved with old flesh. The renewed parts of your mind are paved with spirit.
• Your mind can be used as a lawnmower, plow, or seed sowing hand. The unrenewed mind lets the grass grow. A partially spiritual area of the mind only mows the grass. A renewed area of the mind plows the land to prevent grass from growing in that area again. A fully renewed area of the mind sows good seed into the soil for fruit bearing life.
• The love of the spirit, through renewed parts of the mind, takes responsibility for the unloving actions caused by the flesh & makes amends with the parties harmed. Christ made amends for our actions & relationally He continues to do so through us who walk by spirit.
• So our spiritual identity in Christ isn't a false excuse to "get off the hook" for how we behave. It is our reborn identity perfectly loved by God that, given the opportunity, flows out only good things. It is our true self, our eternal self. It is not self-centered nor does it make excuses for the flesh's behavior. It is one spirit with God(1 Corinthians 6:17 & Ephesians 4:4) . It is God living in us, & with us, & through us. I will accept nothing less than the identity I know I was born into by the Spirit of God. I am not a sinner. I am perfected forever. I am perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect. I am one with God because He wanted to love me & I let Him. The fact that nothing can separate you from His love means you are already in His love. Absolutely nothing ever stands between you & His love. Trust Him & let Him love you as He wants to love you.

Saved? Saved from What?

Christians will tell you that they are "saved" or that "you should be saved." Well, saved from what? Most would say hell or God's wrath. So is God saving you from Himself? Does God really want to kill you & to save you at the same time?

The bible says, “The wages of sin is death,” not “The wages of God is death if you sin.” Sin has earned you death. Because of sin your body will die & if you are not somehow rescued you will face a second, eternal death in the lake of fire.

The bible speaks of "the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8). God says in Revelation 3:5, "I will not erase the name of the man who overcomes from the book of life." Overcome means to conquer; to have victory; to win. "Whoever is born of God overcomes. This victory comes by trusting in Jesus. Who is the one who overcomes? He who trusts that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:4-5). People are born again by trusting in (believing in, having faith in) Jesus. Every Christian is born again. Everyone who is born again overcomes, they are victorious.

What then do they overcome? “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The victory is over sin & death. Jesus broke the power of sin & death. "Christ Jesus, the savior of the world, broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News" (2 Timothy 1:10). Jesus saves people from the power of sin & death. The victory is a gift of God. Overcoming is a gift from God to those who trust His Son.

Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who trusts in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and trusts in Me will never die." (John 11:25). "For those who have trusted in Jesus the fact of sin & death has been replaced by the new reality of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. You are free from sin & death. You have been released from the reality of sin & death and born into a new reality of the spirit, the reality of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).

"Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14-15). Going back to what God said in Revelation 3:5, "I will not erase the name of the man who overcomes from the book of life." Notice that God talks about erasing people from the book, not adding them to it. Every one's name is in the book of life by default. You must refuse to trust Jesus at every opportunity, refuse to join in His victory party over sin & death to have your name blotted out.

So does God really want to kill you & to save you at the same time? "God is patient with everyone. He doesn't want anyone to perish (die or be destroyed). He wants everyone to come to changing their mind to trust in Him" (2 Peter 3:9). He so doesn't want people to perish that He starts every one's name off in the book of life. Why then do people perish? "God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son so whoever trusts in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but to save the world through Him" (John 3:16-17). God cannot make up your mind for you. You have to freely choose to trust in Him. He sent Jesus to save the world, not to judge it. He wants everyone to change their mind to trust in Him. You have to be willing to be rescued.

The Judgment scene in Revelation 20 interestingly makes no mention of the words, "sin" or "law." The lake of fire is the consequence for rejecting Jesus as your savior not a punishment for sin. Imagine you are in a burning building & you are hopeless to save yourself. If you reject the fireman who seeks to save you from the fire you will burn to death. Rejecting a savior results in death. The lake of fire is described as "the second death." If you aren't in the book of life you face death. Someone isn't erased from the book of life unless they choose death by rejecting life. Jesus is life, Jesus is The Life, Jesus is the life of those who trust Him. Those who choose death will be judged for their deeds but they are not judged because of their deeds, they are judged because they have rejected Christ.

"It is finished! I am the Alpha and the Omega—the Beginning and the End. To anyone who is thirsty, I will give the water of life without cost. It is a free gift. He who overcomes, that is, He who trusts in me will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for those who didn't trust me, their destiny is the lake of fire and sulfur which is the second death" (Revelation 21:6-8).

"Whoever trusts in me has victory over sin & death, he will not be hurt by the second death. I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also was victorious and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Revelation 2:11, 3:21).

"I have set before you life and death. Therefore choose life, that you may live!" (Deuteronomy 30:19)

This is Part 1 of 2, See Part 2:  Eternal Torment, Annihilation, Ultimate Reconciliation? How about a little of each?

Is the law sin?

"Whatever is not from trust is sin" (Romans 14:23). "The law is not from trust" (Galatians 3:12). "Is the law sin? Certainly not!" (Romans 7:7)

Most take Romans 14:23 to mean, "Whatever is not from trust is counted as a sin" but it actually is saying "whatever is not FROM trust is FROM sin." A person cannot operate by trust & by law at the same time. Galatians 3:12 is saying, "Obedience to the law does not come from trust in Christ because Christ has freed you from the law & He will not put you under it." The law itself is not sin & the law does not come from sin but from God. However obedience to the law is not based on trust thus sin is who convinces a person to keep the law.

From sin's point of view "Rules are made to be broken." From God's point of view "Rules were made to show you that you are broken." Trust in Christ fixes you permanently. Sin seeks to make you feel broken by convincing you to put yourself under the law. Under the law sin uses the law to produce evil desires in your flesh.

The law came from God. You cannot adhere to the law & trust in Christ because He has ended the law & you have been released from it. If you feel as though you must keep the law it is not Christ giving you that feeling but sin itself seeking to deceive you & produce evil desires in your flesh that will hurt you.

How to be a slave to sin

Those who seek to be justified by the law must seek to justify the law when faced with grace. They must reason that it was never nailed to the cross & that Christ never took sins away. Why would someone want to be an enemy of their own freedom?

People talk about grace being "a license to sin" but those who put themselves under law "give a license to sin" to allow it to dominate them. They are saying to sin, "please make me constantly aware of you, I need to focus on you, I need to feel every bit of guilt and shame I can religiously conceive a reason to have."

"Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey?" (Romans 6:16).

Almost every Christian offers his or herself as a bondslave to sin, not by actions but by mindset. They are freed by Christ but they choose to go back to sin and focus on it ad infinitum. If you ever sit around thinking, "I have sinned" or "Is this a sin or is that a sin?" you are sin conscious thus you don't believe Christ cleansed you. Sin consciousness makes you a slave to sin. Christ took sin away on the cross & He credits no one with sin. I am sick of seeing people make excuses to make their entire life about whether they sin or not. You have almost no idea how much God loves you. It is literally beyond all you can ask for or imagine.

So How Are We to Think of Sin as an Action Today?

There is the condition of sin that is in human DNA.
There is the condition of sin that is in the lost man's spirit.
There is the entity of sin (possibly Satan) that wants to devour people (Genesis 4:7, John 8:34, Romans 6:14, 7:14, 1 Peter 5:8).
There are the actions of sin that were all laid on Christ.

The law is over, sin is not charged where there is no law (Romans 4:15,5:13) & because of Jesus' death God no longer charges people with the action of sin (2 Corinthians 5:19). While the flesh of lost & saved people still produce actions of sin & the dead spirits of lost people still produce actions of sin those sinful actions were charged to Jesus instead of mankind and judged at the cross so the sins were "taken away."

God did something magical at the cross, He took whatever past present and future sin we could have been charged with and condemned them in the body of Christ. Judgement for our sins happened before we were formally charged in our lifetime, thus we are not charged in our lifetime. His mercy was so great that He reversed the chronological order of judgement for the people who live after His death!

So how do we think of the action of sin today? That is a question I often ponder. Here is how I see it..
1. Just like an ex-con who has served His time still committed the crime in the first place to earn that time today's actions of sin were still laid on Christ. Knowing that always points us back to Him with gratitude which is the best thing to help us live more lovingly in this world.
2. There is to be no sin consciousness because we have been cleansed for all time by the sacrifice of Christ. I take "sin consciousness" to mean "a counting of our own sins" & "labeling our actions as sin." The opposite of sin consciousness is being "dead to sin but alive to God." Alive to God is key, it means you love God & love others. You don't have to be sin conscious to be love conscious.
3. We are to regard no one according to the flesh. The flesh is the only part of the Christian that produces sin. Lost people have a dead spirit that needs to meet Jesus to be reborn.

In my mind sin is an optional label you can put on unloving actions to hold those actions against yourself or others. I think sin is a completely unnecessary label for actions unless:
1. You are recognizing what Jesus took for you on the cross.
2. You are pointing a non-Christian to the fact that they have the spiritual condition of sin so they will come to trust Jesus for the cure.
3. You are trying to make a Christian aware of their harmful behavior towards other people so that they will walk by the spirit and not by the flesh.

Amazingly the only "consciousness" of sin that is appropriate is the kind that points to the finished work of Christ on the cross. If whatever you think of sin or call sin doesn't easily point to the cross I think you are looking at sin the wrong way. Christ became sin, doing so didn't just bring salvation but it also made it so any legitimate (biblical) thought of sin points you to Him. People have gone "label happy" labeling or viewing most things as sin and thus they miss what it means for Christ to have "taken away the sins of the world." Yes, a lie is still a lie & a lie is still unloving but I don't think it is appropriate to label it as a "sin."

If sin is not charged to us for two reasons (because there is no law to do so & because God refuses to do so) & it has already been judged how can we call an action sin? If there is no law, if the judge refuses to charge you, & any debt you could possibly incur has already been over paid how can you call something a crime? Our lives are not about sin, they are about our relationships with God & others. God can & does look at you apart from your actions. God still lovingly walks us out of destructive behaviors. Sin truly is taken away & for Christians it is as far as the east is from the west. In reality sin as an action is a dead concept for Christians, that is why we must CONSIDER ourselves dead to sin.

It is kinda hard to wrap our minds around because we are desperately trained to call out sin as we see it. God doesn't see all sins the same because He has no eyes for sin at all. He cannot look upon sin because it is gone. What is there for Him to look at? All that is left is trust or unbelief. Truly it is finished.

"The Messiah has finished the transgression, made an end of sin, made atonement for iniquity, brought in everlasting righteousness, & given His holy people His Holy Spirit." (Daniel 9:24, New Covenant Paraphrase)

God's approach is different than ours, He helps you up without saying "that was stupid." He is loving enough to not charge you with fault yet still realize your need. Like the prodigal's father He never breathes a condemning word about your short comings. To charge someone with sin is condemnation. We think we have to be charged with a crime first to prevent repeating it. May we all learn how untrue that is! God doesn't require flesh based efforts to invoke change in how we behave. His loving kindness captures our hearts & that is all we need, to have our heart in His hand.

God is not mocked. - Avoid Flesh Renovation

God is not mocked.
Galatians 6:7, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, he will also reap."

Most take this to mean, "You better not mock God by sinning or He'll punish you."  But I think "God is not mocked" shares meaning with 2 Corinthians 5:19, "God does not count sins against you."  Literally God is not mocked.  God is not counting anything you do against you, but you will still receive the consequences of your actions.

It goes on to say in 6:8, "The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life."  Jesus said in John 17:3 that eternal life can be defined as "knowing God" or "relationship with God."  So if you sow to the spirit (trust in God, set your mind on the spirit) you will know God more & grow an ever improving relationship with Him.

Avoid Flesh Renovation
"The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6).

The flesh is your physical body & mind. It is what produces sin.  Your spirit is "born in the likeness of God" (Ephesians 4:24).  It cannot produce sin (1 John 3:9).  You don't want to attempt a flesh renovation, not even based on the commands of scripture.  Attempting a flesh renovation is "sowing to your flesh."  Focusing on the negative qualities & behaviors of yourself or others will cause you to lack peace & reap corruption (an inferior, harmful life).  Focus on God & who He has made you in your new born spirit & as Philippians 2:13 says, "God will work in you to desire & to act according to His good pleasure."

The Truth About Sin

If You, Lord, kept a record of sins, who could stand? (Psalm 130:3)

Jesus came in the flesh to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26).

God does not count sins against anyone in the world during this age. (2 Corinthians 5:19)

Those who refuse to trust Jesus store up wrath for themselves for the day of judgement in the next age. The sins that Jesus "put away" are returned to them. (Romans 2:5)

Those who trust Jesus enter into an eternal covenant of peace with Him that He made through the blood of His cross. (Colossians 1:20, Matthew 26:28, Isaiah 54:9-10)

To those who trust Him God says, "I will never remember your sins and lawless deeds" (Hebrews 10:17, 8:12). God takes their sins away forever (Romans 11:27, Psalm 103:12), freeing them from sin (Romans 6:6,7,18,22, 8:2), cleansing and purifying them from their sins forever (Hebrews 1:3, 13:11-12, 1 John 1:7,9).

Blessed is the person whose sin the Lord will never take into account! He will never charge that person with sin! (Romans 4:8)

My post The Sins of the World Taken Away & The Wrath of God goes into more detail.

What is the correct way to speak against sin?

Disarm the shame it causes by telling of God's love and His removal of sin as an issue between God & men. That is the gospel, and as people walk with our truly loving Father they will become more loving towards others and themselves. God's kindness causes us to change our minds about the way we see things and how we live life (Romans 2:4). God incites the change and we cooperate with Him to bring about the change. Acts 3:26 tells us "God raised up Jesus and sent Him to bless you by turning every one of you from your sinful ways."

Aside from knowing that Jesus took away sin a consciousness of sin doesn't do anyone any good. If you see people being hurt confront the person who is causing the pain (Paul did this a lot in his letters). If the person is hurting himself follow the Spirit's guidance and offer the him help, reasoning with him as to why what he is doing is harmful. Love keeps no record of wrongs. God doesn't count sin against anyone (2 Corinthians 5:19) but He still protects the people He loves. Jesus didn't run through neighborhoods screaming "Stop sinning!" That doesn't work, love works, God is love.

The Sinless Spiritual Identity of Every Christian (In 100 Words)

1 John 3:9 tells us, "Everyone who has been born of God does not commit sin, because God’s seed resides in him, and thus he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God." I've studied & "does not commit sin" can be translated as "does not produce sin" or "does not bring forth sin." Why is this so? Because we are born of God. As Jesus talks about in John 3, our flesh is not born of God but our spirit is. God identifies us by our "new creation" which is our reborn spirit. That spirit cannot sin.

Romans 6 - We who died to sin cannot still live in it.

Paul wrote in Romans 6:1-7, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 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 live a new life. 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, 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; for he who has died is freed from sin."

Most people reference only the first verse which says, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? May it never be!" This context is not about "trying hard not to sin because we are under grace." It is about how we died to sin and are totally free from it! Paul uses the same language in Romans 7:7, "What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be!" That doesn't mean "the law should try hard to not be sin," nor does it mean "the law does not want to be sin," it means the law is not sin, it cannot be. "May it never be" does not mean, as it is so often taught, "Don't do it!" It literally means that it may never be, it is impossible. Here are some even more obvious examples.
    Is the faithfulness of God nullified by the unbelief of men? May it never be! (Romans 3:3-4)   
    Is God unrighteous? May it never be! (Romans 3:5-6)
    Has God rejected His people, has He? May it never be! (Romans 11:1)

The dominant interpretation of Romans 6:1 is "You better not sin just because you are under grace!" But continuing on in the chapter we see that is not the meaning. Paul asks, "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Most take the meaning as "Don't sin!" but in fact it means you cannot live in sin because you died to it. You are now in Christ! "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" We shall not because He cannot! We cannot live in sin & in Christ at the same time. We are forever in Christ! "Our old self was crucified with Him (it died to sin), in order that our body of sin might be done away with." Our body of sin is done away with. How shall we who are full grown men go back to having the bodies of children? It is not possible. Your young body is gone. Likewise your body of sin is done away with.

We can never continue in sin, it can never be because we died to it and are now alive in Christ. God does not see us as sin stained flesh but as His children. Our identity is our spirit. Our spirit has been born of God, our flesh has not. A spirit that has been born of God cannot sin (1 John 3:9; 5:18). You as a child of God cannot sin.

Romans 6:1 is about spiritual identity, not about behavior. When the bible says "in sin" it does not mean what our religion has taught us "in sin" means. It does not mean "continuing to manifest similar sinful actions." It should be obvious to anyone that a Christian's flesh can "continue in sin" in that sense. People have used this scripture & others to measure people's morality claiming it is impossible for a true Christian to "continue in sin" by which they mean sin with the flesh "too much." But how far is far enough to "continue" & how much is "too much" is never definable & it makes people judge others by their own knowledge of good & evil.

The phrase "In sin" in the bible means the locality of your identity being "in sin." Our identity is now "in Christ." We cannot be in both, we cannot be sinner & saint at the same time. We "cannot continue to live in Sin Town" while living in Christ Town at the same time because we have permanently moved into Christ Town. It may never be, it is impossible.

I am not saying we cannot behave unlovingly. That is why Romans 8:13 says, "By the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh." The deeds of the flesh are destructive, harmful, & unloving but we must understand that we are not the flesh. We are identified by God as His perfect and holy children. May we see ourselves as He sees us!

"We are not in the flesh but in the spirit because the Spirit of God lives in us. We belong to God. Christ is in us. Our flesh is dead because of sin, yet our spirit is alive because of righteousness" (Romans 8:9-10). "Because Christ died for all we no longer identify anyone, including ourselves, according to the flesh" (2 Corinthians 5:16).

Romans 6 doesn't concern our behavior under grace but our identity in Christ because of grace. We are the sinless children of God. We cannot continue in sin. Our old sinful self was crucified with Christ and because of that our sin was done away with. We died and are freed from sin. We cannot produce sin. Our spirits are in Christ and in Him there is no sin (1 John 3:5). We are in Him! He has exchanged our life for His (Colossians 3:3-4).

Another interpretation of Romans 6:1 by grace teachers is that "grace is not a license to sin" or "it is still not ok to sin just because you are under grace." But that is not what this context is about. They also teach from this scripture that when you are saved your desire to sin decreases so you won't continue in sin. While it is true that grace lessens our desire to do harmful & destructive things that is still not what Romans 6:1 is saying. If you want a scripture that teaches us this refer instead to Titus 2:12 which says, "It is the grace of God that trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. The grace of God makes us eager to do what is good."

Allow your mind to be renewed by the truth of your identity in Christ and the deeds of your flesh will dwindle. Marvel at how much He loves you and you will marvel at how much He can love through you. "Set your minds on the things of the spirit and you will walk in the spirit. The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:5-6).

"Your new spirit has been created in the likeness of God. You truly are right with God. You were made righteous, pure, guiltless, innocent, faultless, and holy" (Ephesians 4:24).

For Related Posts see my Sin? Forgetaboutit! Page
See also my explanation of why the law is not sin

Can God Look Upon Sin?

Jesus Christ became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). The idea that God can't look upon sin is silly. Habakkuk 1:13, which seems to speak of this, refers to God not being able to look upon sin with approval. If God could not look upon sin then He would have never looked at the earth again after the fall. Jesus looked at sin over and over when He lived as a man on earth. To say God cannot look upon sin is like saying Jesus is not God.

Jesus is God. Is He less holy than the Father? Holy means pure and unmixed. People claim God is too holy to look upon sin. I say God is so holy that He can become sin and still stay pure and unmixed. That is a holiness beyond what we can imagine.

The good news is that because of Jesus, "God no longer charges people with sin" (2 Corinthians 5:19). God is not blind to help those in need out of sin or out of sinful ways yet He does not count people's sins against them.

Related Posts
God's View on Sin
Who's Counting? The Honest View of Christians & Sin in The New Testament

What Happened to Christians on the Cross and at Salvation

Every Christian knows what happened to Jesus on the cross, but not every Christian knows what happened to them. Because of this they’re striving to become someone they already are and they’re fighting to obtain something they already have.

1. What did I lose at the cross?
    My Old self, my sinful nature (Rms 6:6)
    All my sin (Ps 103:12)
    Any need for punishment or fear of punishment from God (1 Jn 4:18)
    My inability to please God (Rm 8:8)
    Any relationship I might have had with the law (Rm 7:6)
2. What did I retain after the cross?
    My physical body (Rm 8:23)
    Most of my way of thinking (Romans 12:2, Eph 4:23)
3. What did I gain after the cross?
    Peace with God (2 Cor 5:19, Col 1:20)
    Complete forgiveness (Col 2:13)
    God's acceptance (Eph 1:6)
    A relationship with God the Father and the Son (1 Jn 3:1)
    My New self, a God-born living spirit (2 Cor 5:17)
    His life: Christ is my life (Col 3:4)
    His Spirit (Rom 8:11)
    His righteousness (Rms 1:17)
    His holiness (1 Cor 1:3)
    His eternal perfection (Heb 10:4)
    The ability to stand on Christ's trustworthiness (Gal 2:20)
    The ability to think the thoughts of His mind (1 Cor 2:16)
    The ability to approach God with confidence knowing His favor for me (Heb 4:16).
    New desires and aspirations (Gal 5:18)
    The full rights of sonship (Gal 3:26)
    Everything I need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3, Php 4:19)
    Every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3)

The instant you were born again, God did an amazing work in your life. He gave you a glorious new past and a completely new life. He changed just about everything there is to change about you. But one thing God left unchanged was your mind, your way of thinking. Only you can change that.

Given that there is one part of you that did not change at the cross, what do you think is the key to living the victorious life that God wants you to live? That’s right, you need to change the way you think.

Everything we need pertaining to life and godliness comes through our knowledge of Him who called us (2 Pet 1:13). If you want to see breakthrough in your life, look to Jesus, look to the cross, and change the way you think:  “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rm 12:2a)

Now repeat after me: “On the cross I died and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the trustworthiness of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” This is the glorious beginning of your new story!

This post is my summary of a post by Paul Ellis titled Your Glorious New Past

What is the Remission of Sins?

Jesus's blood was shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28).

"Remission of sins" means:
 • His blood was shed as a payment for our sins
 • Forgiveness of sins as if they had never been committed
 • Pardon of sins as if they had never been committed
 • Release from bondage to sin
 • Release from imprisonment to sin
 • Release from the penalty of sin
 • Release from the debt of sin
 • Cancellation of the debt of sin
 • Deliverance from sin
 • Freedom from sin
 • Christ takes people out of sin, He takes it away from them, and then places those who trust Him in Himself

Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. Now you have been united with Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:13)

God's Old Target, Our Own Targets, Jesus's Victory Party

The Target of God's Law Before the Cross
Sin means "to miss the mark." The law is like a target with multiple marks to hit that hangs close above your head. Whatever you shoot at it that misses the marks falls back down as sin. No human being has the skill to hit every mark every time and will in fact miss most of the time.

The more laws you know the more marks you see on the target. The target lowers the more you miss the marks. Jesus came along and taught the law to the fullest. Those who thought they had always been hitting the "not committing adultery" mark every time found out the mark was much smaller and harder to hit because adultery is "looking with lust." The majority who seemed to easily hit the "do not murder" law found out that they had been missing it most of the time when Jesus said "hate is murder in the heart." At this point people are being crushed flat by the target with no room to shoot or even lift up their bow. When that happens the law fulfills its purpose by getting people to cry out "Help me Lord! I can't do this by myself!"

This illustrated the experiential reality of the law. It was meant to crush self-righteousness out of people so they would appeal to God for His mercy. The spiritual reality was if you missed one mark one time you would be as guilty as one who missed every mark every time.

Our Targets of Rules After the Cross
God's law target was removed at the cross because Jesus hit all the marks Himself. There are no God imposed marks on a target to hit. Christ took away the sin of the world so there is no more hit or miss mentality with God. There is just an open armed invitation of "Trust me to experience the abundant life of my love."

If you trust Him Jesus puts you under grace. Grace reaches high into the heavens and sends down beams of love. Where you stand under grace is high off the ground from where the law was. If you build a new target (a set of laws, rules, principles, obligations, & expectations) you experientially fall from grace, stand on the ground, and put the target over your head. The target blocks many of God's beams of love and grace and you feel down and lowly. You keep yourself from experiencing God by putting yourself under a law target. Under your own law you keep your own score. You condemn yourself (feel guilt and shame) by keeping score. God is not counting anymore because His law was fulfilled by Jesus.

Some people put themselves under law as a means of inflating their ego. They choose what they are good at & put that up as a target. Then they look down on others who don't have the same target with the same marks. Having any target makes you self-righteous because you aren't relying on God's grace or the righteousness of Christ.

The Victory Party
Jesus hit every mark every time. The archery contest is over and Jesus has won! He invites you to share in His victory. Jesus did all the work and you get the same benefits of the victory as He does! You could say that salvation is trusting that Jesus really did win and accepting His invitation to His victory party.

The apostles were whipped and beaten and they rejoiced about it (Acts 5:40-41). Paul and Silas sang praises while bound in a horrid jail (Acts 16:25). For these men Jesus' victory was so great that even persecution was a party! The law is taken away so this party has no rules! Who needs rules when you're partying with the most loving guy in the universe? His good company improves our character!

Party on, Christians! Party on, Jesus!