Welcome to Grace Christian Church’s newly launched blog! Periodically, GCC’s leadership team will be posting life-transforming truths about the Gospel of Grace, so stay tuned!
Today, I want to deal with the topic of overcoming sin in a believer’s life. For years, I believed and was taught in church that in order to overcome sin, I needed to identify my flesh. I needed to repent of my fleshly desires which caused me to sin, confess and ask for forgiveness of the particular sin, and do this every single day. This was the formula for keeping me Godly and to ensure a vibrant Christian walk. This was the formula for walking in the Spirit, to being a Spirit led believer. What I discovered was that this formula produced in me a feeling of spiritual deadness; I felt like I had no Spiritual power in my life, no vitality, and very little spiritual fruit. It was a daily routine that I believed kept me in a right relationship with God. I wanted a vibrant Spirit-led Christian walk, but I wasn’t experiencing it.
After several years of this, God revealed to me that I had the wrong formula. I was miss-applying Galatians 5:16, and I had it backwards. I believed that if I didn’t carry out the desires of the Flesh, by default I would be walking in the Spirit. But it doesn’t work like that! The verse shows the true order of progression in the NASB: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh”. That was my “Ah Ha” moment! Walking in the Spirit is the answer to overcoming my fleshly desires, to overcoming sin. What I really needed was to learn how to walk in the Spirit. I needed to make this my priority; I needed to be Spirit-led. But how? I needed someone to teach me how to live this way, but whom? I discovered it was Grace. Grace will teach me to be a Spirit-led believer. Grace in the person of Jesus Christ. Titus 2:11-12 in the NASB says: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age”. Grace will teach me how to walk in the Spirit and live sensibly. That was 10 years ago, and I have by no means arrived; I am not a Spiritual giant, but I am on my way to living a consistent Spirit-led life. Old habitual sins have disappeared. Now, I don’t dwell on my sin, but on Grace. If you would like to learn more about the Gospel of Grace and the truths described here, come join us at Grace Christian Church!
In Him,
-Rob Parlante
Elder/Grace Christian Church
