BAD THEOLOGY KEEPS SAINTS IN BONDAGE TO SIN.

written by charissa griffith

Those who are supposed to be slaves of righteousness are remaining slaves of sin because we continually teach them
that the power of sin is greater than the power of God to deliver them from that sin! (Romans 6)

We arent depraved, godless, sinners if we are in Christ.
We have been born again, of the Spirit of God (John 3:6, 1 John 3:9).
We are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17).
We have been given a new heart and a new spirit.
Our heart of stone has been removed and we have received a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
We have become obedient from the heart to the standard of the law and we are bent towards righteousness (Romans 6:17).
We have become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).
We are slaves to righteousness. We have died to sin.
We are alive to God. We are no longer slaves of sin. Sin has no dominion over us (Romans 6).
We have a new life in the Spirit that we can walk in. Sons of God are those who walk by the Spirit of God (Romans 8).
We are partakers of divine nature and have escaped the worldly corruption of sinful desire (2 Peter 1:4).
We have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
We have a new self made in the likeness of God’s holiness and righteousness (Ephesians 4:22-24).

There are so many scriptures I could continue to list.

We are not sinners in Christ, but saints. We are not unrighteous people desiring unrighteousness. Can Christ be joined to unrighteousness?
We have been made righteous and we desire righteousness in our inward parts. And we can walk righteously by the empowerment of the Spirit.
If we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16)! 

We have been born of the Spirit and we can walk by the Spirit.
When we do this, we won’t gratify or obey the flesh, because we aren’t walking according to it,
but according to the Spirit of God.

We have been made righteous and we can walk accordingly.
We get to walk in the grace of God that empowers.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Titus 2:11-14 NIV

Our old man is dead. The new creation is alive. We once walked in darkness, now we walk in light (Ephesians 5).
We were once dead in our sin, walking like the world, subject to elemental spirits, and to the desires of the flesh and disobedience,
but now we are alive and raise with Christ and no longer subject to these things (Ephesians 2).

We have got to correct this theology if we want to see saints free
and growing up in God and moving on from the elementary things!

If saints are taught they are still sinners by nature and they will always be bound to sin in this life,
they will have strongholds in their mind that keep them from walking in the freedom from sin God’s blood has purchased for us.

Death is not our savior from sin, Jesus is!
If we are not free from sin until we die, death is what delivers us from sin.
But the scriptures say we have already died to sin and sin has no dominion over us!

We have got to correct this if we want our testimony
of Jesus who sets free to be a living reality in the ones proclaiming it!

What are we saying Jesus has set us free from if all those following Him are still slaves to sin?!
We are not slaves to sin, but slaves to God!

We need to correct this faulty thinking and language if we want born again believers
to actually be different than those who are in the world and dead in their sin!

Born again believers don’t love sin. They love righteousness.
And born again believers don’t have to live in bondage to sin they hate.

Sin doesn’t get dominion over us.
God gets dominion over us.

Sin doesn’t rule over us.
Righteousness rules over us.

We don’t have to present our members to unrighteousness.
We can present them to righteousness.

“For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Romans 5:6-21 ESV