I wanted to write about the subject of the internal struggle that comes after we are saved.
We are saved by grace through faith. Christ paid it all on The Cross. We only have to believe on Him for our eternal salvation.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3.16
"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
Acts 16.30-31
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
When you call on The Lord Jesus Christ as you're personal Saviour, you are sealed by
The Holy Ghost until the day of redemption.
When we are born again, we enter a new relationship with God, we are adopted into His Family.
We become a child of The King!
Spiritual rebirth takes place. All things become new.
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"
1.1 John
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
2 Corinthians 5.17
But while everything changes on the inside and on an eternal and spiritual level, everything on the outside, for the time being at least, remains the same.
When we get saved, God creates a new creature called the new man which lives inside us.
A struggle then takes place.
The Bible describes this in 3 different ways:
The new man and the old man Colossians 3:9-10
The spirit and the flesh Galatians 5:17
The inward man and the carnal mind Romans 8:5-8
When you are saved, your inner man cannot commit sin.
For inside us now, we have a new spirit, The Holy Spirit who cannot sin.
The flesh and the spirit become opposed.
The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit the flesh.
For the carnal mind is enmity with God.
Every person born into this world is a slave to sin. This goes right back to The Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve's sin.
We inherit this disease, but God has provided the perfect remedy for us all through His Perfect Son Jesus Christ and His Atonement on the Cross at Calvary.
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him."
John 3:17
The Born again Christian can no longer enjoy sin, I speak of this anecdotally!
It may provide a kind of numb feeling at best, but that which once seemed enjoyable and pleased the flesh, will now leave a vexed, guilty and convicted feeling.
It is impossible to stop sinning entirely whilst we are in the flesh.
The born again believer will still struggle with sin for the rest of his/her physical life.
The will to do what's right may be there but your body is still unregenerate at this point and has those same desires that will flare up if we are not vigilant.
Jesus Christ Himself, who was without sin and yet tempted at all points as we are,
said to His Disciples
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" Matthew 26:41
As hard as it is though, we need to try our best to walk in the spirit and not the flesh.
The backslidden Christian lives in a temporary state of misery, for one reason or another he/she gets out of touch with God and ends up out of fellowship with Him.
They are still saved, still a child of God, still a Christian...albeit a careless, disobedient, unhappy and ineffective one.
It's like the devil has a plan B for your life, his priority is to stop you getting saved, and he has a range of tactics he will use to achieve this, but once you enter into God's eternal family he doesn't stop there, his plan is then to slow down your Christian growth, show you what you used to enjoy, remind you of the 'fun' you once had and keep you chained to sin,
hence making you an ineffective Christian and denying you rewards in Heaven and here on earth for serving God.
The Christian who is walking with The Lord, enjoying the fullness of blessing in Christ and living a dedicated life is extremely satisfied and content.
The non-Christian meanwhile, can be happy to a point, blissfully ignorant of the measure of his/her downfall for they have never tasted the things of God and therefore do not miss them.
The backslidden Christian is stuck between 2 worlds, both not being able to enjoy his/her walk with The Lord and not being able to enjoy the world either.
Many Christians continue to live a life of sin...eat, drink and be merry, you've heard it said.
But God wants us to come out from among them, He wants us to be a peculiar people.
Not conformed to this world but transformed.
Us Christians must live a Christian life, read our Bible daily and get right with God.
We should take heed to ourselves. even a right hearted person needs to take diligent heed to God's warnings, establish rules and boundaries, meditate on God's word, increase our prayer life.
Try to go to Church at least once a week, sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs and cultivate our walk with God.
You may need to change your lifestyle, spend your time more wisely.
Look after your body for it is the temple of The Holy Ghost which is in You.
You're not your own, you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's.
When we become part of God's Family, our body becomes the temple for The Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ lives inside our heart.
Try and lead a good life, for the unsaved are watching, We are ambassadors for Christ and should be a good role model whenever we can.
The Bible says the prosperity of fools will destroy them.
We need to be sober, we need to be vigilant.
The Bible says that when we are saved our sins have been dealt with, forgiven, forgotten and paid for in full on The Cross by The Lord Jesus Christ.
However we will still be judged by our works, by our deeds, our contribution to The Kingdom.
Crowns will be rewarded according to our works.
Part of the great commission is to try and win people to Christ, you're literally pulling them out of the fire when you get someone saved. If you can't give them The Gospel, at least plant a seed, someone else may water it later on, for The Holy Spirit works in supernatural ways.
If you're a backslidden Christian reading this, you need to repent and start turning back towards God and walking in the light once again.
You will never be able to stop committing sin completely in this life, but you can still lead a clean, diligent, loving and fruitful Christian life working hard for God and securing eternal rewards in Heaven for later.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23
We are saved by grace through faith. Christ paid it all on The Cross. We only have to believe on Him for our eternal salvation.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
John 3.16
"And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
Acts 16.30-31
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9
When you call on The Lord Jesus Christ as you're personal Saviour, you are sealed by
The Holy Ghost until the day of redemption.
When we are born again, we enter a new relationship with God, we are adopted into His Family.
We become a child of The King!
Spiritual rebirth takes place. All things become new.
"But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:"
1.1 John
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
2 Corinthians 5.17
But while everything changes on the inside and on an eternal and spiritual level, everything on the outside, for the time being at least, remains the same.
When we get saved, God creates a new creature called the new man which lives inside us.
A struggle then takes place.
The Bible describes this in 3 different ways:
The new man and the old man Colossians 3:9-10
The spirit and the flesh Galatians 5:17
The inward man and the carnal mind Romans 8:5-8
When you are saved, your inner man cannot commit sin.
For inside us now, we have a new spirit, The Holy Spirit who cannot sin.
The flesh and the spirit become opposed.
The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit the flesh.
For the carnal mind is enmity with God.
Every person born into this world is a slave to sin. This goes right back to The Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve's sin.
We inherit this disease, but God has provided the perfect remedy for us all through His Perfect Son Jesus Christ and His Atonement on the Cross at Calvary.
"For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him."
John 3:17
The Born again Christian can no longer enjoy sin, I speak of this anecdotally!
It may provide a kind of numb feeling at best, but that which once seemed enjoyable and pleased the flesh, will now leave a vexed, guilty and convicted feeling.
It is impossible to stop sinning entirely whilst we are in the flesh.
The born again believer will still struggle with sin for the rest of his/her physical life.
The will to do what's right may be there but your body is still unregenerate at this point and has those same desires that will flare up if we are not vigilant.
Jesus Christ Himself, who was without sin and yet tempted at all points as we are,
said to His Disciples
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" Matthew 26:41
As hard as it is though, we need to try our best to walk in the spirit and not the flesh.
The backslidden Christian lives in a temporary state of misery, for one reason or another he/she gets out of touch with God and ends up out of fellowship with Him.
They are still saved, still a child of God, still a Christian...albeit a careless, disobedient, unhappy and ineffective one.
It's like the devil has a plan B for your life, his priority is to stop you getting saved, and he has a range of tactics he will use to achieve this, but once you enter into God's eternal family he doesn't stop there, his plan is then to slow down your Christian growth, show you what you used to enjoy, remind you of the 'fun' you once had and keep you chained to sin,
hence making you an ineffective Christian and denying you rewards in Heaven and here on earth for serving God.
The Christian who is walking with The Lord, enjoying the fullness of blessing in Christ and living a dedicated life is extremely satisfied and content.
The non-Christian meanwhile, can be happy to a point, blissfully ignorant of the measure of his/her downfall for they have never tasted the things of God and therefore do not miss them.
The backslidden Christian is stuck between 2 worlds, both not being able to enjoy his/her walk with The Lord and not being able to enjoy the world either.
Many Christians continue to live a life of sin...eat, drink and be merry, you've heard it said.
But God wants us to come out from among them, He wants us to be a peculiar people.
Not conformed to this world but transformed.
Us Christians must live a Christian life, read our Bible daily and get right with God.
We should take heed to ourselves. even a right hearted person needs to take diligent heed to God's warnings, establish rules and boundaries, meditate on God's word, increase our prayer life.
Try to go to Church at least once a week, sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs and cultivate our walk with God.
You may need to change your lifestyle, spend your time more wisely.
Look after your body for it is the temple of The Holy Ghost which is in You.
You're not your own, you were bought at a price therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's.
When we become part of God's Family, our body becomes the temple for The Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ lives inside our heart.
Try and lead a good life, for the unsaved are watching, We are ambassadors for Christ and should be a good role model whenever we can.
The Bible says the prosperity of fools will destroy them.
We need to be sober, we need to be vigilant.
The Bible says that when we are saved our sins have been dealt with, forgiven, forgotten and paid for in full on The Cross by The Lord Jesus Christ.
However we will still be judged by our works, by our deeds, our contribution to The Kingdom.
Crowns will be rewarded according to our works.
Part of the great commission is to try and win people to Christ, you're literally pulling them out of the fire when you get someone saved. If you can't give them The Gospel, at least plant a seed, someone else may water it later on, for The Holy Spirit works in supernatural ways.
If you're a backslidden Christian reading this, you need to repent and start turning back towards God and walking in the light once again.
You will never be able to stop committing sin completely in this life, but you can still lead a clean, diligent, loving and fruitful Christian life working hard for God and securing eternal rewards in Heaven for later.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."
Galatians 5:22-23
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