Dr. Creflo Dollar
Many people can’t handle the grace teaching because they think, if I’m saved by grace, then why resist sin? Romans 8:10 declares, “And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” What does it mean to be dead to sin? If you’re born again, you’ve been delivered from sin through your union with Jesus Christ. You no longer have the sin nature in you; you have the nature of God inside of you (2 Peter 1:4). You have the root to produce righteousness. So, if this is the case, why then do some Christians still sin? They sin because they don’t know how to win the battle of the mind, and the battle of the flesh. They have not renewed their mind with the Word of God.
Let me give you a practical illustration of how this works. Let’s say somebody in your family died, but you don’t have any knowledge of it. That being the case, would you have any emotional response to that fact? No. Why? Because what you know determines your emotional response. You can’t respond to something you have no knowledge of.
So likewise, this is why so many Believers continue in sin. They haven’t renewed their minds to who they are in Christ, so they’re still being ruled by their physical senses. They go along with whatever their mind and body tells them to do. They don’t want to sin. If they did, it wouldn’t be a battle, or a war. Romans 7:19-20, NLT, says “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.” The war is to do it, or not to do it. But until you have knowledge of all that’s been deposited in your born-again spirit—where God lives and which is now perfect—none of what God has promised you will appear or manifest. You will continue to sin, even though Romans 6:6, NLT, tells us we’re dead to sin. “We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.”
Before you got saved, your sinful nature made you serve sin. I don’t care how hard you
tried not to serve it. So the question becomes, now that are you saved, is it possible to be unresponsive to sin? Yes! Now, don’t get me wrong; every sin is a willful sin. Every time you sin, it is an act of your will. But now you’re dead to sin! You’ve been freed! Once you die to something, it can’t have dominion over you anymore.
This is why renewing your mind daily with the Word is a must! You have to learn all about your new life in Christ, and how to live from the life that’s in you. You’re alive through Jesus Christ! Your life has been nailed to the cross. You live your life through His life! I know a lot of Christians don’t know how to do that. But that’s the reason you have God’s grace! Every time you try to stop sinning by using your own will-power or self-effort, you’re trying to dig up your old self. Yielding to and depending on God’s grace is what empowers you to overcome your shortcomings and weaknesses. You don’t have to yield your body to sin’s impulses like you did before you became born again. Trust in Jesus! Sometimes all you may be able to say is, “Help me Jesus!” It’s enough!
“Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Romans 6:14, NLT).
In my popular teaching series Grace to Overcome the Flesh, I explain that many Christians put more confidence in their own willpower than they do in God’s grace, in an attempt to resist sin. Then they’re devastated when they miss the mark and sin in some area they thought they’d conquered. This resource outlines how to put all your trust in God’s grace and put no confidence in your flesh!
For deeper revelation on this subject matter, request http://store.creflodollarministries.org/p-8981-grace-to-overcome-the-flesh.aspx today!
