People often talk about “struggling” with some particular sin. What they want you to believe is that they are really trying to stop doing X, but keep being overcome by the sin despite their strong desire to the contrary. It’s not their fault; sin made them do it! While there is no question that we genuinely struggle with sinful desires, when we sin, we always sin by choice. So the next time someone wants to make excuses for their sin by labeling it a struggle, call them on the carpet. What they are really struggling with is the conviction they feel whenever they choose to sin. To lessen the guilt they call it a “struggle,” and claim to be sin’s victim rather than its perpetrator. Do they want to stop sinning? But if one continues in the same sin, it is probably due to the fact that their desire to keep sinning is stronger than their desire to stop sinning. None of us is forced to sin. Paul said God will always provide a way of escape when we are tempted. We sin by choice. Let’s not try to kid ourselves or others by continuing in our sin and labeling it a “struggle.”
October 14, 2011
Struggling with Sin?
Posted by Theosophical Ruminator under Hamartiology, Sin, Theology[5] Comments
Thinking to Believe 
October 16, 2011 at 5:34 am
Jason,
When Jesus wanted to pick grain on the Sabbath, He was called out for sinning. Jesus replied that the Sabbath was made for man, and man wasn’t made for the Sabbath. He was teaching us a lesson about following rules about “sin” instead of doing what is right. Over and over, he repudiated a literal reading of Scripture in favor of doing what seemed right in His own heart.
If you continue to struggle with a “sin,” it’s probably not a sin at all.
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October 17, 2011 at 11:10 am
Jesus was not teaching people to follow their own heart on moral issues. He was correcting people’s misunderstanding and abuse of the law (which is not the same thing as repudiating a literal reading of Scripture). The Pharisees had turned a law that was intended to help people into a law that hurt people. The law said to honor the Sabbath and do no work, but it did not define work. The religious leaders defined what work was. And in many cases, they went overboard, losing sight of the purpose of the law. Jesus used a literal reading of the Scripture to correct their misunderstanding of Scripture. And to top it all off, Jesus said what his disciples were doing was allowable if for no other reason because Jesus was the Lord of the Sabbath. If he wanted to change it or make an exception, he could. And why not given the fact that it was merely a ceremonial law? He was changing the covenant, and hence changing the law.
I don’t know what to make of your last sentence. So if someone continues to struggle with fornication, then fornication probably isn’t a sin?
Jason
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October 17, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Jason, Just a question for clarification. Romans says that we are or were slaves to sin before coming to Christ. A slave doe not have a choice. So we may have been slaves before we were saved but is there something to the idea that sanctification is a process and a person may struggle with the application of their freedom from sin? We are also told that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, that tells me that there is a process of changing what we think about sin and how we let sin dominate us.
I amy not be getting my point across very well. I do agree that at times we all make excuses for ourselves but I also think that there is a process of learning that we are free and how to live that out in our lives.
I would appreciate your thoughts.
Tim
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October 24, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Tim,
No doubt about it (see Romans 6-7). We do not become sin-free when we are saved. But what we do become is enabled with the power to overcome sin. We will still sin, but we don’t have to sin. Sanctification is the process by which we become more like what we have already been declared to be in justification, not a process in which we are gradually empowered to overcome sin.
Jason
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October 27, 2011 at 1:16 am
I think part of this “struggle” mentality is due in part from a lack of understanding the doctrine of substitutionary atonement.
Verses that tell us that God made Christ to become sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21) and how Paul wrote that God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh (8:3) should help us realize that as far as our sins are concerned, they’ve been thoroughly atoned for and can be remitted by the Blood.
It seems to me the real struggle is with our flesh and our ability to truly trust of God did on the cross through Jesus Christ. But if we had more teaching on substitution and atonement, and a greater willingness to embrace this truth (since faith comes by hearing the Word of God) perhaps more people could be, in a sense, delivered, from the mentality you’ve addressed.
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