Most Christians don't give Satan control on purpose who are being oppressed (2 Timothy 2:24-26). Sin gives Satan the legal right to hold man captive. Yet, considering that Jesus atoned for all sin at the Cross, past, present, and future, at least for those who will believe, how can Satan hold Christians in bondage? How can a born-again Christian be freed from the bondage of Satan?
If it's not faith in Christ and what He did for us at the Cross, then it's faith that God will not recognize. The apostle says, "Christ shall profit you nothing" (Galatians 5:2). He says, "Christ is become of no effect unto you" (Galatians 5:4). That's the terrible problem that affixes itself to most Christians. They are trusting in things other than the Cross, making Christ of no effect. This guarantees spiritual failure. In fact, when the believer do this, they fall from Grace. In other words, the goodness of God, which, in effect, is the Grace of God, can no longer be extended to such Christians. The end result of such a position is bleak indeed!
Justification delivers us from the penalty of sin, while sanctification delivers us from the power of sin.
Our battle is not against acts of sin, but the fight is to keep our faith in who Christ is and what He did on the Cross, i.e., "The Finished Work," i.e., "The Blood of Jesus," so we stay in His death, burial, and resurrection and are, therefore, victorious. That is the only way we are triumphant in Christ (II Cor. 2:14). And that is the only way He can work in us both to will (change our desires), and to do (give us the power of the Holy Spirit) (Phil. 2:13), so we can overcome sin. This is the only way believers can yield themselves as God’s servants (slaves) of obedience instead of being slaves to sin unto death (Rom. 6:16).
...and have no confidence in the flesh (in things other than the Cross, which alone is the guarantee of Salvation and Victory.) Philippians 3:3
JSM
If it's not faith in Christ and what He did for us at the Cross, then it's faith that God will not recognize. The apostle says, "Christ shall profit you nothing" (Galatians 5:2). He says, "Christ is become of no effect unto you" (Galatians 5:4). That's the terrible problem that affixes itself to most Christians. They are trusting in things other than the Cross, making Christ of no effect. This guarantees spiritual failure. In fact, when the believer do this, they fall from Grace. In other words, the goodness of God, which, in effect, is the Grace of God, can no longer be extended to such Christians. The end result of such a position is bleak indeed!
Justification delivers us from the penalty of sin, while sanctification delivers us from the power of sin.
Our battle is not against acts of sin, but the fight is to keep our faith in who Christ is and what He did on the Cross, i.e., "The Finished Work," i.e., "The Blood of Jesus," so we stay in His death, burial, and resurrection and are, therefore, victorious. That is the only way we are triumphant in Christ (II Cor. 2:14). And that is the only way He can work in us both to will (change our desires), and to do (give us the power of the Holy Spirit) (Phil. 2:13), so we can overcome sin. This is the only way believers can yield themselves as God’s servants (slaves) of obedience instead of being slaves to sin unto death (Rom. 6:16).
...and have no confidence in the flesh (in things other than the Cross, which alone is the guarantee of Salvation and Victory.) Philippians 3:3
JSM
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