In this final section of our study, I want to draw focus to the center, most intimate part of ourselves… the dwelling place of The Spirit of Christ, Jesus. “The Tent”… not the permanent, eternal Temple, which will be brought back to earth soon, but the place where Christ longs to dwell right now – inside you and I… in our hearts. Most of us came to Christ as a result of coming to the end of a long time of living life the way “we” wanted to live, and the result was much heartache and ruin. And so, now, we have accepted Christ, and turned from our former life and believe that Christ lives within us. “What about dealing with these habits and ritual that are sin”? Well, I think we must first, look at another question… "What does it mean that Jesus fulfilled the law, but did not abolish it?"The key, is understanding that the Old Testament law was given to the nation of Israel, not to Christians. Some of the laws were to reveal to the Israelites how to obey and please God (the Ten Commandments, for example). Some of the laws were to show the Israelites how to worship God and atone for sin (the sacrificial system). Some of the laws were intended to make the Israelites distinct from other nations (the food and clothing rules). None of the Old Testament law is binding on us today. When Jesus died on the cross, He put an end to the Old Testament law (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:23-25; Ephesians 2:15). His sacrifice ended the work of temple priests and ritual... the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom“.
In place of the Old Testament law, we are under the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), which is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…and to love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). If we obey those two commands, we will be fulfilling all that Christ requires of us: “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:40). Now, this does not mean the Old Testament law is irrelevant today. Many of the commands in the Old Testament law fall into the categories of “loving God” and “loving your neighbor.” The Old Testament law can be a good guidepost for knowing how to love God and knowing what goes into loving your neighbor. At the same time, to say that the Old Testament law applies to Christians today is incorrect. The Old Testament law is a unit (James 2:10). Either all of it applies, or none of it applies. If Christ fulfilled some of it, such as the sacrificial system, He fulfilled all of it.
“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). The Ten Commandments were essentially a summary of the entire Old Testament law. Nine of the Ten Commandments are clearly repeated in the New Testament (all except the command to observe the Sabbath day). Obviously, if we love God, we will not be worshipping false gods or bowing down before idols. If we love our neighbors, we will not be murdering them, lying to them, committing adultery against them, or coveting what belongs to them. The purpose of the Old Testament law is to convict people of our inability to keep the law and point us to our need for Jesus Christ as Savior (Romans 7:7-9; Galatians 3:24). The Old Testament law was never intended by God to be the universal law for all people for all of time. We are to love God and love our neighbors. If we obey those two commands faithfully, we will be upholding all that God requires of us. And even in doing this, we must be dependant on Christ to achieve "through us". Oh, you may try to set out on a sinless, self-sacrifice journey if you want, but don't be loose all hope when you find you have failed. CHRIST JESUS LOVES YOU.
Overcoming sinful habits is a matter of surrendering our strong will... having it replaced with Christ's will. Overcoming sinful habits in our life is done now through our relationship of love… our Love of God, which allows Christ to work in us. The Bible presents several different resources that work within us in the process of overcoming sin. “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” – Philippians 2:13) In this lifetime, we will never see perfect victory over sin (1 John 1:8), but that should still be our goal. With God’s help, and by following the principles of His Word, Christ will progressively overcome sin and conform us more and more like Himself.
The first resource the Bible mentions is the Holy Spirit. God has given us the Holy Spirit so we can be victorious in Christian living. God contrasts the deeds of the flesh with the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:16-25. In that passage we are called upon to walk in the Spirit. All believers already possess the Holy Spirit, but this passage tells us that we need to walk in the Spirit, yielding to His control. This means choosing to consistently follow the Holy Spirit's prompting in our lives rather than following the flesh.
The difference the Holy Spirit can make is demonstrated in the life of Peter, who, before being filled with the Holy Spirit, denied Jesus three times—and this after he had said he would follow Christ to the death. After being filled with the Spirit, he spoke openly and strongly to the Jews at Pentecost. Even "with" The Holy Spirit, Peter thought he would set out on his own power to follow Christ. To follow Christ means 'following Him and not just His written Word'. "It is He] Who has qualified us [making us to be fit and worthy and sufficient] as ministers and dispensers of a new covenant [of salvation through Christ], not [ministers] of the letter (of legally written code) but of the Spirit; for the code [of the Law] kills, but the [Holy] Spirit makes alive." - II Cor 3:6
We walk in the Spirit as we try not to quench the Spirit's promptings (as spoken of in 1 Thessalonians 5:19) and seek instead to be filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18-21). How is one filled with the Holy Spirit? First of all, it is of God's choosing even as it was in the Old Testament. He selected individuals to accomplish a work that He wanted done and filled them with His Spirit (Genesis 41:38; Exodus 31:3; Numbers 24:2; 1 Samuel 10:10). There is evidence in Ephesians 5:18-21 and Colossians 3:16 that God chooses to fill those who are filling themselves with the Word of God. This leads us to the second resource.
The Word of God, the Bible, says that God has given us His Word to equip us for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It teaches us how to live and what to believe, it reveals to us when we have chosen wrong paths, it helps us get back on the right path, and it helps us to stay on that path. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is living and powerful, able to penetrate to our hearts to root out and overcome the deepest sins of heart and attitude. The psalmist talks about its life-changing power in-depth in Psalm 119. Joshua was told that the key to success in overcoming his enemies was not to forget this resource but instead to meditate on it day and night and obey it. This he did, even when what God commanded did not make sense militarily, and this was the key to his victory in his battles for the Promised Land.
The Bible is a resource that we too often treat lightly. We give token service to it by carrying our Bibles to church or reading a daily devotional or a chapter a day, but we fail to memorize it, meditate on it, or apply it to our lives; we fail to confess the sins it reveals or praise God for the gifts it reveals to us. When it comes to the Bible, we are often either anorexic or bulimic. We either take in just enough to keep us alive spiritually by eating from the Word (but never ingesting enough to be healthy, thriving Christians), or we come to feed often but never meditate on it long enough to get spiritual nutrition from it. What we should desire is for Christ's will to replace ours. Whatever His Word says, should be what we say. Whatever He wants us to do, should be what we want to do. That is Love.
It is important that we develop a “good” habit of daily studying and memorizing God's Word, that you begin to do so. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” – Colossians 3:16 Some find it helpful to start a journal. Make it a habit not to leave the Word until you have written down something you have gained from it. Some record prayers to God, asking Him to help them change in the areas that He has spoken to them about. The Bible is the tool the Spirit uses in our lives (Ephesians 6:17), an essential and major part of the armor that God gives us to fight our spiritual battles (Ephesians 6:12-18).
A third crucial resource is prayer. Again, it is a resource that Christians often give lip service to but do not make “habit” of. We have prayer meetings, times of prayer, etc., but we do not use prayer in the same way as the early church (Acts 3:1; 4:31; 6:4; 13:1-3). Paul repeatedly mentions how he prayed for those he ministered to. God has given us wonderful promises concerning prayer (Matthew 7:7-11; Luke 18:1-8; John 6:23-27; 1 John 5:14-15), and Paul includes prayer in his passage on preparing for spiritual battle (Ephesians 6:18). In continuing the thought of our bodies as a tent, I am reminded of Joshua 7:22. So Joshua sent messengers, who ran to the tent, and behold, the spoil was hidden in his tent, with the silver underneath. We cannot hide anything from God within this tent of ours. In prayer, we have the perfect opportunity for admitting that these things, “which should be Christ’s to deal with”, are within us, and surrendering them over to Him. Let Christ have all of you.
How important is prayer to Christ for overcoming sin in our lives? We have Christ's words to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before Peter's denial. As Jesus prays, Peter is sleeping. Jesus wakes him and says, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). We, like Peter, want to do what is right but are not finding the strength. We need to follow God's admonition to keep seeking, keep knocking, keep asking—and He will give us the strength that we need (Matthew 7:7). Prayer is not a magic formula. Prayer is simply acknowledging our own limitations and God's inexhaustible power and turning to Him for that strength to do what He wants us to do, not what we want to do (1 John 5:14-15).
A fourth resource in Christ’s victory over our sin is the church (the body), the fellowship of other believers. When Jesus sent His disciples out, He sent them out two-by-two (Matthew 10:1). The missionaries in Acts did not go out one at a time, but in groups of two or more. Jesus commands us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together but to use that time for encouraging one another in love and good works (Hebrews 10:24). He tells us to confess our faults to one another (James 5:16). In the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, we are told that as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Proverbs 27:17). There is strength in numbers (Ecclesiastes 4:11-12).
Many Christians find that having an accountability partner can be a huge benefit in overcoming stubborn sins. Having another person who can talk with you, pray with you, encourage you, and even rebuke you is of great value. Temptation is common to us all (1 Corinthians 10:13). Having an accountability partner or an accountability group can give us the final dose of encouragement and motivation we need to overcome even the most stubborn of sins.
Sometimes we experience victory over sin quickly. Other times, victory comes more slowly, but Christ has promised that as we make use of His resources, He will progressively bring about change in our lives. We can trust Christ with the effort to overcome sin because we know that He is faithful to His promises. But our focus now only needs to rest on the Love of Christ, and how His love moves through us… into the lives of everyone around us. This is the good news of the New Testament.
Thank you for taking the time to study with me, here. I hope if you have questions you will share them here or write to me.
I love you, Preston
Two Tents - Part I - Part II - Part III - Part IV
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