| Romans 7:14-25 |
reveals the awful struggles that Christians face in the battle between the flesh and the spirit. |
| Romans 8:1-4 |
shows the victory over sin that we have through Christ. |
| Romans 8:5-8 |
explains that if we were left to struggle against sin with only the flesh (human will and desire), we would never make it. |
| Romans 8:9-13 |
tells us that born-again believers have Christ's Spirit within them. That Divine Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead resides in us and we can...we must overcome the rule of sin in our lives. See Romans 5:21. |
Romans 6:21 asks the question, What fruit was there in those things, that now make you ashamed? for those things lead to death. Note three things: Fruitlessness, shame and death.
- Sin robs the believer of joy and sweet communion with God (Psalm 51:1-12; 66:18; Isaiah 59:1-2; James 4:1-3; I Peter 3:7).
- Sin robs us of opportunities to serve God and to receive reward (I Corinthians 3:10-21; II John 8).
- Sin is destructive and, if unchecked, will lead to death (I Corinthians 11:27-30; James 1:12-16; I John 5:16-17).
There is a sense in which God can use our sins to make us more fruitful in our lives. Sin is always evil and we have no right to deliberately sin, but in the loving, sovereign hands of God the believer's failures can be used to teach us and motivate us to become stronger people. Augustine said, "God would never permit evil if He could not bring good out of evil." See Psalm 76:10.
The next page is a list of gracious affects of sin which God uses for the good of a penitent believer. When sin occurs in our life we should resort to this as a checklist. We want to be sure that we are responding properly to God's grace and not being presumptuous or careless (Psalm 50:7-23; 85:1-8; I Corinthians 6:9-12; Ephesians 4:17-32; I John 5:1-5, 18-21; Jude 4, 20-25).
In what ways can God use the sin in a believer's life?
Romans 5:19-21; 8:28, 31-39
- Sin requires us to judge ourselves.
We are to confess our sin (agree with God). Psalm 51:3-4; I Corinthians 11 31-32;
I John 1:8-10.
- Sin provides a reason to examine ourselves; to search our souls.
This is for the purpose of prevention of future failure. Psalm 139:23-24;
II Corinthians 13:4-5; Hebrews 3:12-13.
- Sin is humbling.
There is no room for pride or presumption in God's family. Romans 7:14-24; I Timothy 1:15; James 4:6-10.
- Sin makes us weary of this life.
Romans 7:24; 8:18-23; II Corinthians 5:1-10.
- Sin causes us to focus on spiritual warfare.
The world is a battlefield not a playground (A.W. Tozer). Romans 12:1-3; James 4:4; I John 2:15-17
- Sin causes us to focus on spiritual growth.
We cannot coast through our spiritual journey. It's an up-hill bike ride! Psalm 119:59; I Corinthians 9:24-27; II Timothy 2:1-7; II Peter 1:5-8.
- Sin reveals our weakness and makes Christ more precious to us.
Romans 3:23-24; 5:6-8; 6:23; 7:24 - 8:4; I John 2:1-2.
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