And why are we so free from sin? Paul says in Romans Chapter 6 verse 7 it is because dead people can’t sin. And since we have fully identified with Christ in His death, then of course we identify with Him in His resurrection and His new life. Yet while Christ’s death and resurrection is a completed happening for Him it is not that way for us. Jesus is no longer burdened by a fragile body nor the links and relationships of this world; but we, His worshippers, are.
Having been put to death with Christ and buried, we are dead to sin, but alive in God through Christ. This means that an entire new dynamic is possible for us and we need to be aware of it, and we need to take advantage of it.
So now that we have learned how we are to think and understand what Jesus’ death and resurrection means for the Believer on a spiritual level, the next step is to understand what physical, tangible actions we are to take as a result of this reality. And the first thing a Believer must do is to prevent sin from reigning in our lives. Before salvation we were fairly helpless against the power of sin; but now we have more control. Since the evil inclination is no longer our master and we its slave, then we shouldn’t behave as though it is still that way.
And what are those evil inclinations in our minds that Satan commonly uses to tempt us through and what he used to tempt Eve and even Jesus?
Lust of the Eyes: Coveting something so intensely in our minds that we become obsessed with it, we fantasize about it and we would do or give almost anything to have it. God says this is essentially idol worship. It is in reality loving something else more than we love God.
Lust of the Flesh: This refers to doing all kinds of sexually immoral acts and includes adultery, fornication and sexual perversion (homosexual acts, acts with animals, etc). Remember, lust starts in our minds so we must guard our minds first and foremost. Jesus said that lust in our minds is a sin before we do anything further.
Pride of Life: This falls into the category of self-love and seeking glory for oneself. It can manifest itself in social and workplace environments and other self-acclaiming situations. We should always be on guard and give the glory to God when we succeed in whatever we do and in whatever He has blessed us with.
All of these failings start as thoughts in our minds and as we dwell upon them, they grow and start to occupy our thoughts until we begin obsessing over them and then when it fully develops, we outwardly commit acts of sin.
These evil inclinations will always be with us because of the sin we have in our flesh but we can take control over them just as Paul shows us. We are alive in the spirit and dead to the flesh so God has given us the power to control those evil inclinations.
It’s a real battle for us because although we are in the world, we are not of the world but we are still constantly bombarded with books, newspapers, magazines, movies, internet and TV that evoke our evil inclinations in these Satanically controlled outlets. One very helpful step is to shun all of these media outlets. Don’t let yourselves be drawn into the hate and lust that is casually shown to us in an attempt to encourage us to think about and react to it.