How He Rids Sin from Our Lives

[An excerpt from the “Introduction” of the book The Unveiling of the Sons of God]

Our old sinful nature must die with Christ, our sin sacrifice, on the cross with Him. How do we get rid of the old heart that breaks the Ten Commandments? How does God eradicate sin in our lives? 

For the answer to the sin problem is the knowledge that we have everything we need to completely overcome it in Him. He is the head of all powers in heaven and in earth. He has power over evil spirits and wicked intents. He is totally in control of Satan, who is the prince and power of the air. Satan could only do what God allowed him to do in the first chapter of the book of Job. When His Spirit lives within us, then we have everything needed to completely overcome sin in our life. And you are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power.  Colossians 2:10.

He conquers sin in us when we just believe by faith that He has taken out our old hearts and given us new hearts.  When we believe the word of His apostle that He has performed a spiritual operation on us, we are delivered from sin. For through the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, God has performed an invisible spiritual operation on our old carnal heart and has gotten rid of our old sinful nature thereby.  The operation is a spiritual circumcision. “Circumcision” means “cutting all the way around.” First, He cuts our old sinful heart out, all the way around. Then we are buried with Him in the baptism into His death. In God’s eyes, He buries you with Christ, interring our old carnal nature with the sacrificial Lamb. Then, we believe that we are raised up with Him to walk in a brand-new life with His Spirit as our life within.

This is all by faith. We cannot see Christ literally dying and being buried, and we cannot see our old carnal, sinful self die, either.  We must simply believe having not seen these things, receiving this truth by faith.  When we do this, God looks on us with approval, for faith pleases God. “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead. And you…hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:11-13).

Belief in the Resurrection is the Key

Our victory hinges on our faith in the resurrection of the Savior—not just that the resurrection historically happened, but that along with Him, we were raised up from the dead as well. Then we can believe that we, too, can “walk in a newness of life.”  We can then believe in His resurrection in us! His resurrection is our resurrection, for it is now Him living in us. All we have to do is believe it.

Our belief in this truth puts us right with God. He looks down on us and says, “Well done,” and then He imputes our belief as righteousness onto our account with Him. He “reckons” us as righteous. He counts us righteous in His sight, apart from our clamoring around trying to keep the law. Only Christ can keep the law. Therefore, when we believe that it is Him living in us, we then in God’s eyes are right with Him.  We believe having not seen with our eyes, and this pleases God.

We can never please Him by trying to clean up our old carnal nature and thereby trying to keep the ten commandments on our own strength. This does not please Him, for it cuts Him out of the action and does not acknowledge Him for our deliverance. It is an attempt to clean up our lives without Him and His way of doing it. After realizing that we cannot keep the law successfully, we must confess our sins and surrender to our own deaths.  We must put our old lives on the cross with Christ.

We then believe in God’s word when He says He will give us a “newness of life” where old things are passed away and where all things are become new.  How can we fulfill that if we are still a slave to sin and sinning? This newness of life comes as we believe that it is in us. All we have to do is believe what has already been done by Him for us.  We cannot “do” anything for this new life. It is a gift from Him. We can do nothing for this new life, except believe in what Christ has done for us, and now in us.

For the culminating spiritual feat of Christ is Him coming down into our inner being, giving us a new heart, a new spirit. This is what God wants for us—a new life. But it won’t come by us working for it. It will not come as a reward but as an undeserved gift. All of our striving here on earth to “do this” and “don’t do that” in order to please Him will never work. For the deeds of the old-natured man cannot please Him. It is our walk of faith as Christ in us doing this or that—that is what pleases God. We must die to bring the life of Christ to life within us. This is what God looks down on and is pleased. In His eyes, this is what really counts.

And yet, this is only the beginning. This right state with Him is just the first step on the road to completeness in Him—on the road to full spiritual maturity, which is the perfection that Christ spoke about.

Since we are now risen with Him, we are in a position to seek those things that are above.  If we listen carefully, we just may be able to hear Him say, Come, let me show you a more perfect way… [Send for my book, The Unveiling of the Sons of God. It is free with free shipping. Just send your name, mailing address and the name of the book to my email: wayneman5@hotmail.com] Kenneth Wayne Hancock