Sin is a problem. In the world we live in, it has become “fringe” to consider anything a sin anymore, even among believers.
Many people who consider themselves christian do not think that they have to steer clear of sin after they come to faith. They think that since their Jesus died on a cross for their sins, that they can continue to live pretty much as they had before they came to faith. Today, preachers say that outright, especially the money-monger, ‘mega pastors’.
Sin is still a problem. However, Yeshua is indeed the solution to the problem, it’s just that most people do not know how to apply the cure.
It takes only a drastic attitude to conquer sin. Look at what Yeshua said concerning the sin issue:
23Then He said in the presence of everyone, “He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his stake every day, and follow me. 24For he who wishes to save his life shall lose it; but he who loses his life for my sake shall save it. [Luke 9]
The stake that Yeshua is referring to is the implement of His execution. Some people like to say this verse is referring to a staff, or cane. No. The Hebrew / Aramaic word here is צְלָבוֹ , ‘his stake’, ‘his beam’. Over and over throughout the renewed covenant scriptures, we are told that Yeshua carried a ‘stake’/’beam’ צלב , up the hill, and was nailed to the tree. Here, He is alluding to the manner of His death, and our spiritual participation in it that Sha’ul [Paul] speaks of.
5Mortify therefore your earthly members: immorality, uncleanness, intemperate desires, evil lusts, and covetousness; for these are idolatry, 6and it is because of these things that the wrath of God [Elohim] comes on the children of disobedience. [Col 2]
“Mortify” is ‘put to death’, ‘kill’; This is the picking up of the execution stake about which Yeshua was speaking. Sha’ul is writing to the Colossians and telling believers to put to death their sinful behaviors. We all have them.
All manner of sins fall under the nouns Paul lists there: immorality would encompass all the sexual sin, including fornication, or sex before/outside of marriage, adultery, and also same sex acts. Intemperate desires and evil lusts would also include the temptation toward those, but other things as well, like dependence on substances.
The idea that we do not have to get rid of our sins, to the best of our ability, defies all of the letters of the Renewed Covenant scriptures! Most of the “New Testament” was written for the purpose of chastening the congregations and encouraging believers to get rid of their sins! They were indeed forgiven by Messiah Yeshua, but also honor bound to live up to His call for righteousness!
People today feel defeated in this, because sin is so bountiful in our world: ‘everybody’s doing it’; yes, they are! In fact, today, people cheer on sin, and decry sanctification. But, we are not to be like the world, but to come out of it. As I contemplated this late last night, I desired to write something to encourage the Body of Messiah toward better living, what the scriptures call ‘sanctification’, or ‘holiness’, which is from the idea קדש , ‘set apart for a special purpose’, or ‘kadosh’. Kefa [Peter] informs us that this is not only possible, but also mandatory, and doable!
3 [Yeshua] who has given us all things that pertain to the power of Elohim, for life, and for the worship of Elohim through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His glory and excellence, 4whereby are given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the Nature of Elohim, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 5And besides this, giving all diligence, add to your absolute trust, virtue; and to virtue, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, patience; and to patience, the fear of Elohim; 7and to the fear of Elohim, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For when these things are found among you and abound, you are not empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Master Yeshua the Messiah. 9But he who lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10For this very reason, my brethren, be diligent; for through your good deeds, you make your calling and your election sure; and when you do these things, you shall never fall, 11for by so doing, an entrance shall be given freely to you into the eternal Kingdom of our Master and Savior Yeshua the Messiah. [2 Peter 1].
God has given us His power. He has done this by sharing the news of the death of His Son, Yeshua. We confess Him, and He gives us His ‘Ru’akh’, His breath, spirit. His power. By this power, we are able to partake in the Nature of God, which is embodied in Yeshua. When we confess Him, we escape all our corruption, which is covetousness, or lust. And then we are able to add ‘virtue’, ‘knowledge’, ‘self-control’, ‘patience’, the ‘fear of God’, ‘kindness’, and ‘love’ to our faith [absolute trust, not just ‘belief’].
Yeshua told us that we are to bear fruit. Kefa is saying that having those things is what makes us fruitful. It is by those things that we overcome the power of sin. Yeshua did die in our place, to cleanse us of all our sin. However, those who trust in Him still sin, and anyone who thinks they do not sin is a liar. Anyone who believes and yet knows they sin, and does nothing about it is BLIND, and has forgotten that he was cleansed! This is why Kefa says ‘be diligent, for through your GOOD DEEDS you make your ‘calling’ and ‘election’ sure. All of the deeds of the Torah are ‘good deeds’, as long as one is doing them for the right reason! This list of Peter is very similar to lists of the same nature from Paul, as in Galatians 5, concerning the ‘fruit of the Spirit’:
22But the fruits of HaRu’akh are love, joy, shalom, patience of spirit, gentleness, goodness of heart, absolute trust, 23meekness, enduring tolerance; there is no instruction against these.
Before that verse, he had written in very similar fashion as did Kefa:
16This I say then: walk in HaRu’akh [Breath/Spirit], and you shall never submit to the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh craves that which is harmful to HaRu’akh, and HaRu’akh opposes the things of the flesh; and the two are contrary to one another, so that you are unable to do whatever you please. 18But if you are led by HaRu’akh, you are not under the Torah [subject to punishment]. 19For the works of the flesh are well known, which are these: adultery, impurity, and lasciviousness, 20idolatry, witchcraft, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, stubbornness, seditions, heresies, 21envyings, murders, drunkenness, reveling, and all such things; those who practice these things, as I have told you before and I say to you now, shall not inherit The Kingdom of God [Malkhut HaElohim]. [Gal 5]
We are supposed to overcome our own base desires. There are several places where we are told to destroy our own ‘passions’. Today, those passions have been defined as addiction and even disease. They are not: they are chosen behaviors: alcoholism, homosexuality, fornication, adultery, gambling, fits of anger, all of these have been relegated to the realm of psycho-analysis, justified, and even medicated. For the unbelieving world, those are probably the best solutions, to keep people from utterly destroying their earthly lives. But, those solutions do not deal with the root cause: self. And they are not the solutions a believer in, or one who trusts in Yeshua, should seek.
Mankind is born in a state of sin. Mankind is born selfish. Yeshua said to ‘deny yourself’. Literally He said ‘deny SOUL’. That is your human nature! That is what was left of Adam as dead when he sinned in the garden. That is human nature. We who trust in Yeshua are given the DIVINE NATURE to partake in, IF we deny the soul! IF we execute that human nature, daily! Sha’ul said in 1 Corinthians 15, “I die daily”. The renewed covenant scriptures state in many places that this death is self-inflicted:
24And those who belong to Messiah have executed their flesh with all its weaknesses and passions. [Gal 5]
7Do not be deceived; Elohim is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. 8He who sows things of the flesh, from the flesh shall reap corruption; he who sows things of HaRu’akh, from HaRu’akh shall reap life eternal [Khayei Olam]. [Gal 6]
13For if you live after the flesh, you will die; but if you, through HaRu’akh, subdue the deeds of the body, you shall live. [Rom 8]
So, ‘how’ is this done? Paul explains exactly that:
5For they who are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh; but they who are after HaRu’akh mind the things of HaRu’akh. 6To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is LIFE and PEACE [Khayim and shalom], 7because the carnal [fleshly] mind is enmity against Elohim; for it is not subject to the Torah of Elohim, because it cannot be. [Rom 8]
The mind of flesh is what rejects His Torah! “Hates” it!
This is also echoed in Colossians:
2Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, 3for you are dead, and your life is hidden with Mashi’akh in Elohim. [Col 3]
The carnal mind is the mind that is distracted by all those things listed in Galatians 5 and Romans 8. A spiritual mind IS SUBJECT to the Torah! It is the Torah that teaches us what sin is! It is the Brit Khadashah [NT] that tells us that breaking the Torah is sin, and that we are supposed to conquer it, to overcome it.
4Whoever commits sin breaks Torah; for every sin is the transgression of Torah. [1 John 3]
It is the Torah that tells us that all those forms of sin are what they are, and are wrong. It is the NT that is confirming the Torah. [Mat 5:17]
We are not supposed to sin. We are going to, but we are assured that when we do, Yeshua advocates for us before God against the accuser, who tries to condemn us because we sinned. We overcome that condemnation AND the future temptation to sin again in that same manner by confessing Yeshua and adhering to His Word in regard to the behavior we are supposed to exhibit. It is our trust in His blood and our confession of His resurrection that gives us the confidence of victory:
“Now the deliverance, and the power, and the kingdom of our Elohim, and the power of His Mashi’akh, have been accomplished; for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before Elohim day and night, is cast down. 11And they have conquered him by the blood of The Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” [Rev 12]
Yeshua told us to overcome sin, not live in it and dismiss it, nor give in to it because we feel we have no power over it. We have that power, we are just many times not aware of it, or not loving God enough to want to wield that power. The short way to say all of this is, “Admit it and quit it.” We quit it by replacing the passion of the flesh with passion for God. That is why Yeshua said that the greatest command is to love God. IF we love Him, we want to do what HE says for us to do, and His instructions are clear to us, and not too hard to attain:
11“For this Mitzvah which I command you this day, it is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?” 13Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it?” 14But THE WORD [HaDavar] is very nigh unto you, in your mouth, and in your heart, that you may do it.” [Deu 30]
6But the righteousness which is of trust says this: “Do not say in your heart, ‘who has ascended to heaven and brought Mashi’akh down to earth?’” 7And “Who has descended into the abyss of She’ol and brought up Mashi’akh from the house of the dead?” 8But what does it say? “THE WORD is near to you, even in your mouth and in your heart;” that is D’var HaEmunah [Word of Saving Trust] which we declare; 9so if you will confess with your mouth Adoneinu Yeshua and will trust in your heart that Elohim raised Him from the dead, you shall live. 10For the heart which trusts in Him shall be declared righteous, and the mouth that confesses Him shall be saved. 11For the scripture says, “Whoever trusts in Him shall not be ashamed.” [Rom 10]
That confession is reflected in reality in our behavior, whether or not we actually follow Yeshua, by dying to our flesh daily. It does not matter what the sin issue is, if we kill it every day, and do not let it have the rule over us. “Do not be weary in doing well.”