From the Book
The Logos is the Tree of Life
A Journey to Discover the Heart of God

To conquer sin, we must have a different law than the Law of Righteousness. Overcoming evil by controlling sin with knowledge will never cleanse us of sin. We will remain slaves to sin as long as we battle sin on this battleground.

Jesus Christ is the Master over sin, for He lived a perfect life as a man by the power of Love and did not sin. He meets the requirements of the Law of Righteousness. Since Jesus Christ offers to share the Life that overcame sin, those who take part in His Life live as He lives. Since He is the Master over sin through Love, we must admit that He would also be Master over sin in our lives. He cannot allow sin to continue in us, since He shares His Life with us; for He would be joining in the evil with us. If Jesus Christ was to join us in sin, how could He continue as judge over others who sin?

If He allowed sin to continue in us, He would be choosing to engage in our evil, He would no longer be without sin, and no longer Master over sin. How could He then judge the evil of sin if He is not Master over sin? The slave does not have authority over the master, but is under authority to the master. If He is to remain sinless, it is impossible for Him to take part in evil by allowing us to continue in our sin. We are unable to exercise authority over sin, for we are slaves to sin. Therefore, Jesus Christ, who is the Master over our sin, must be the responsible one in our lives by exercising His mastery over our sin. By doing so, He cleanses us of all sin. He has promised to exercise His authority over sin as our advocate, allowing us to live sinless lives through His workmanship.

Therefore it is not our responsibility to become masters over our sin. Pursuing our own mastery over sin shows unfaith in His mastery over sin. We would be calling Him a liar since we would be expressing our belief that He is unable to stop us from sinning. We would be rejecting His offer to be master over our sin and trying to carry out the work of obtaining mastery over sin.

Since we cannot gain mastery over sin, we remain in our sin. Since Jesus Christ is responsible for obtaining mastery over sin and is the only one who can, why do we fight to keep the responsibility? If we do not have the ability to gain mastery over sin and Jesus Christ has already gained mastery over sin, it’s logical to yield responsibility to Jesus Christ for overcoming our sin. He is the only one who can clean us from our sin and He has promised to create His goodness in us. We should trust Him to keep His promise and show faith by placing our welfare into His hands.

If Jesus Christ has the responsibility to conquer sin in our lives, it is no longer we who triumph over sin. Christ Jesus, who lives in us, will overcome sin in us. Since Jesus Christ has the responsibility and competence to overcome sin, any virtue that is in us is not ours but Jesus Christ’s who is overcoming sin and has already begun to overcome sin in our lives. It is no longer us, but Jesus Christ who is in us (Gal. 2:15-20).

We should no longer encourage people to work on their own to overcome sin, as if they have the power to overcome it. We must encourage people to allow the Spirit of God to exercise His authority over sin. Those who have Jesus Christ in them were once slaves to sin but are no longer slaves to sin. Instead, they are a part of the new way and are slaves to righteousness in Christ Jesus. Since all are not able to conquer sin, we must point them to Jesus Christ.

If we point them to the one who can overcome sin, we must also point them to the method by which He overcame sin. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is the only way to overcome sin! All must come to Him, admitting their need for cleansing from sin and He is faithful to cleanse them from all their unrighteousness (1 John 1:5-2:2). Remember we do not claim to have obtained the goal. Rather, we pressed on toward the goal (Philip. 3:8-15). We do not look at it as achieving the goal. Instead we recognize that it is Jesus Christ who achieves the goal by the Life He lives in us. His life, lived in us, is the narrow gate. No one comes to the Father except through Him.