Overcoming Sin

A true Christian will not live in sin.

• 1 John 3:6,9 No one who lives in him (Christ) keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.

By nature we are all slaves to sin, but Jesus sets us free.

• John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Christ, dwelling in us enables us to overcome sin.

• Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We are being transformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

• 2 Corinthians 3:18 we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

A believer can overcome sin because he is a new creature.

• 2 Corinthians 5:17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

God has given us all we need for life and godliness.

• 2 Peter 1:3 His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

God enables you to do so; you need not go it on your own.

• Philippians 2:13 It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

God is able to make all grace abound to you, to enable you to overcome any specific sin.

• 2 Corinthians 9:8 God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

Drunkards (addicts), homosexuals, idolaters, and others caught up in wickedness can overcome sin by God’s power and grace.

• 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 Surely you know that the people who do wrong will not inherit God’s kingdom. Do not be fooled. Those who sin sexually, worship idols, take part in adultery, those who are male prostitutes, or men who have sexual relations with other men, those who steal, are greedy, get drunk, lie about other, or rob – these people will not inherit God’s kingdom. In the past, some of you were like that, but you were washed clean. You were made holy, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Paul, Titus, and others were set free from the power of sin. God gave them victory through the Holy Spirit.

• Titus 3:3-7 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

The truth sets us free.

• John 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Use the infallible Word of God.

• 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God requires you to work out your salvation in every area of life.

• Philippians 2:12 Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

Don’t be mastered by any sin.

• 1 Corinthians 6:12 “Everything is permissible for me” – but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me” – but I will not be mastered by anything.

Get rid of everything that might hinder you. Persevere!

• Hebrews 12:1 Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Don’t just abandon sin, this will leave a vacuum. In the same way that you dedicated yourself to your sin, dedicate yourself to good, using your body to serve only the Lord.

• Romans 6:13, 17-19 Do not offer the parts of your body to serve sin, as things to be used in doing evil. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have died and now live. Offer the parts of your body to God to be used in doing good. In the past you were slaves to sin – sin controlled you. But thank God, you fully obeyed the things that you were taught. You were made free from sin, and now you are slaves to goodness. I use this example because this is hard for you to understand. In the past you offered the parts of your body to be slaves to sin and evil; you lived only for evil. In the same way now you must five yourselves to be slaves of goodness. Then you will live only for God.

You must keep working at breaking sinful habits and developing new and godly ways.

• Ephesians 4:22-24 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
• Colossians 3:9-10 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Like a runner in a race, keep pressing on until you have gained the victory.

• Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Don’t keep dwelling on past failures; nor should you get discouraged and give up after you have failed. Hang in there!

• Philippians 3:13-14 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do:
• Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Jude mentions four things that are necessary to remain faithful to God.

• Jude 20-21 You, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and, Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life