yes zeena, I understand that. we are no longer slaves to sin, rather slaves to righteousness, Jesus Christ. We are freed from sin in that we no longer "have" to obey sin. Cessation of sin is related to the death of the flesh. The only sinless people are dead in the flesh, dead to this world. Any of them who are alive in this world have sin in their life. In Romans, Paul says "I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh"
That is a ripped text in this context, for indeed, Paul did say in other place;
Galatians 6:14
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world
has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Zeena, as long as you're alive in this human body, you have a sin problem. And the only relief you're going to get is when you leave this body...when your flesh dies.
Galatians 5:24
And they that are of Christ Jesus
have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof.
As long as you continue to wage war against the flesh you are gonna loose, it's when you give up and reckon yourself dead to it that Christ will win on your behalf.
It's not until we die that we get that imperishable, honorable, glorious, powerful, spiritual, heavenly body.
Until then, does Jesus have the reigns, or do you?
And that's when sin is forever removed.
There's only one verse I can possible think of that can be taken out of context to imply that we still have sin, and that is;
1 John 1:8
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
But, just a one verse before this simple statement of fact [we HAVE sinned and ARE in need of the Blood of Christ to continually cleanse us from our past sins], John writes thus;
Vs 7 the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Are you implying that you are not cleansed of your sins by the precious Blood of Christ in your preceeding testimony?
Is Paul off his rocker in saying he has sin in his flesh when the Lord expressly states through John that the blood of Christ has cleansed him [and is continually cleansing him] from all sin? Or, is this a misreading of the Scripture?
Don't get me wrong, I too await my Glorified Body, but 'till then, I'll abide in Christ and;
Romans 8:11
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is
living in you,
he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Paul says in Philipians "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet...I haven't arrived, but one thing I do," I love this, "one thing he does." Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal. What's the goal? Christ's likeness. For the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The goal is Christ's likeness, we pursue it, we don't ever reach it in this life. But it becomes the prize that God gives us in the life to come. What is our goal here is our prize there. We will some day be made like Christ. Until that day when we receive the prize, we pursue that as the goal.
So, Paul is saying, "Look, I haven't arrived." There's no perfection here. He is not a perfectionist. He doesn't believe that you can reach a point where your sin is eradicated, where you no longer sin or transgress against God. That was not his experience, nor was that found in anything that he had received by way of revelation from the Spirit of God. So he is saying I'm in a pursuit and my life is boiled down to one thing, to be like Christ.
hope that helped ^^ love the song!
Ephesians 4:13
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ:
Ephesians 4:15
But speaking the truth in love, may
grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
You understand there comes a time when a Christian is mature, not needing milk any longer?
1 Peter 2:2
Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that
by it you may grow up in your salvation,
