Jesus_is_Saint

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Roman7:20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Can I blame my wrongdoings on the "sin" inside me who "did the the wrong acts"?
In this case I can excuse myself, I am not obligated to the wrong I did.
How do you interpret it?
 

com7fy8

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I would say we are accountable for giving in to sin, even if we feel we don't want to. We can be corrected by God so that we do not give in. And it is so much better to be loving . . . busy with all God has us doing in His love so we are in His strength and ease to stay clear of wrong stuff. So, why would we want to be excused to fail????
 
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Soyeong

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Roman7:20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Can I blame my wrongdoings on the "sin" inside me who "did the the wrong acts"?
In this case I can excuse myself, I am not obligated to the wrong I did.
How do you interpret it?

The primary problem with that interpretation is that Paul did not conclude that he was not responsible for the sins that he had committed and made no attempt to excuse them, but rather he was speaking about God's Law being good, about his desire to do good, and his delight in obey God's Law, but contrasting that with the law of sin that was causing him not to do the good that he wanted. He was speaking about the evil inclination, which have been given the power to resist through faith in Messiah.
 
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Shempster

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Can we eliminate our evil nature in this life?
No.
However, we can ignore it to the point that it does not control us.
It seems that evil is some how connected to these bodies we live in. This strange anomaly resides in our thoughts. We all get evil thoughts and good ones.
Those with the mind of Christ are able to identify the origin of thoughts, whether good or evil. They (should) choose the good and ignore the evil. A consistent practice of this leads us to life, while following the evil thoughts leads to sin. It gets us all caught up in the scenario Paul lays out. In this passage, Paul is explaining that.
Jesus explained that sin comes from the "heart". This means that if we will follow evil the thoughts that we most closely identify with and act on them that it leads to sin and death.
But if we ignore them and act upon the nudging of God;s spirit within us that it leads to life and peace.

Its an active struggle that we must endure to test our true nature. The scariest part is that it takes place in the mind. We can have the appearance of being righteous, but if our thoughts toward others are actually evil, we deceive ourselves about who we really follow. It all takes place in the mind and at the judgement, every secret thought and motive will be exposed.
And yes, we are absolutely responsible for which path we choose to follow.

It is crucial to realize that evil thoughts COME FROM the evil one. I do not think we are at fault that the thought itself appeared, only if we coddle and embrace it.
Somehow our consciousness is like a radio receiving signals from everywhere.
It is our responsibility to tune into God's spirit and tune out the devils.
 
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com7fy8

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Is it my free will that sin?
I would say yes, but it is our character which makes us able to make our free will's choices.

Can we eliminate our evil nature in this life?
I understand that as God deeply corrects our nature and cures us in His love, more and more we have the nature of Jesus in us. So, we grow in strength of His grace which is almighty against sinning. And this grace has us loving, more and more maturely, instead.
 
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Soyeong

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Can we eliminate our evil nature in this life?

If we could, then we should be able to point to examples of other people who have stopped sinning. We have been set free from the law of sin, but it is a freedom that we must be trained to use. According to Titus 2:11-14, our salvation involves being trained by grace to do what is godly, righteous, and good, and to refrain from doing what is ungodly and sinful, so we have been given the freedom to overcome sin and are being trained by grace to do so, but it is something we have to do day by day.
 
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com7fy8

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Does God want us "to try our very best" to overcome the desire to sin?
Our own effort can be a way of avoiding real correction. Only God is able to truly change us.

How does the Holy Spirit help us on this struggle?
How God Himself corrects our nature > Hebrews 12:4-11.

How God works in us > Philippians 2:13.

But God does use us to help one another, for example >

Galatians 6:1.

And our example leaders (1 Timothy 3:1-10, 1 Peter 5:3) help to feed us how to become in Jesus so we are living His way of loving, instead of sinning.

God's love has His own almighty power to easily keep us busy with loving. And in His gentle and quiet love we have His own incorruptible beauty which makes us also more and more so we can not be corrupted by sin things >

"rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God." (1 Peter 3:4)

And while we obey how our Father rules us in His own peace > Colossians 3:15 > "the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7) so sin things can't get the better of us.

So, there are things we do together with the Holy Spirit in us having us succeeding, instead of bleeding.
 
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Soyeong

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Does God want us "to try our very best" to overcome the desire to sin?
How does the Holy Spirit help us on this struggle?

The Holy Spirit has the role of leading us to obey God's Law (Ezekiel 36:26-27). According to Matthew 11:28-30 and Jeremiah 6:16-19, the Law was intended as the good way where we will find rest for our souls, but if it were about trying to be good enough, then that would rob our souls of the rest that it was intended to give. Rather, it is about trusting God to guide us in how to rightly live, about showing our love for God, about being trained by grace, and thereby growing in a relationship with God.
 
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Ron Gurley

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All Mankind beginning with A&E has a "sin nature".

SIN NATURE = the natural-born innate capacity and "free will" inclination to do / not do those things that can in no way commend Man and his "works" to God....Present in angels and in Eden, the negative part of "free will".
The innate tendancy to turn away from God and toward self.
This natural tendency is SPIRITUALLY changed by the SALVATION / REDEMPTION EVENT, BUT it still rears its ugly head in the BODY / SOUL combo ("flesh") during the SANCTIFICATION PROCESS.

See: Jesus on the "heart of man" ...Matthew 15:15-10

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
 
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