The regenerated, justified, adopted, reconciled, sanctified, believer who has the Holy Spirit indwelling them, has been given the spiritual gift of repentance from God, by His grace. It’s one of the spiritual blessing earned in, by, and through the work of Christ at the cross, just like all the other spiritual gifts. The Spirit of God is always working these blessings in the believing elect, who have been given a new heart, as promised (Phil 1:6). This powerful activity of the Spirit, in the heart/mind of the believer, is always done by God’s free and sovereign grace, from start to finish.
The believer (the saint - one sanctified, or set apart) still has a sin nature, and still sins daily. The sin nature is not removed. This problem is described in Romans 7, toward the last portion of that chapter. This is the life long conflict inside the believer’s mind. This will not end until the physical death of the believer, and we know in glorification the problem will end. This battle is a spiritual battle that is fought in the mind.
In the meantime, believers sin everyday, multiple times a day. Whoever denies this is blind and does not understand the standard of perfection. Believers still sin willfully when they sin. Whoever denies this is a liar. Believers also sin habitually. Since they sin daily, this cannot be anything other than habitual. Whoever denies that doesn't know definitions of words, and is, at best, ignorant, or at worst, self righteous. Believers practice sin. The sin they practice is violations of morality. These are the sins that, even the natural conscience detects and knows better not to do. This means that believers break the whole Law everyday, since James says to break one is to be guilty of the whole.
These multiple, daily, immoral transgressions, which are willful, and are habitually practiced, are the things that are deep-seated in the mind, before they manifest outwardly. Again, these things believers do everyday. These things should be confessed (say the same thing God’s word says about them) to God. There are verses in God’s word that get specific about a certain sin that believers no longer willfully do (Heb 10:26), nor practice (1 John 3). Those sins (are related to each other) that they have be given repentance from that they don't practice habitually is works-righteousness for justification and sanctification, which are against the gospel itself. Dead works and spiritual idolatry that were against the gospel, is what they have been given grace to not habitually practice. In this sense, repentance is towards God (Acts 20:21) and repentance to the acknowledging of the truth (2 Tim 2:25).
Believers now, trust Christ, and have no more confidence in their self righteous flesh (Phil 3:3). Saints, before they were converted to the truth, knew they sinned in immorality, but now when they sin those immoral sins, they deal with them differently than they did in their unbelieving state. The remedy is completely different. They know now that the remedy is always the merits of the cross of Christ. This is seen now with the cleansed conscience, and is no longer defiled with self righteousness. Before believing, we would deal with immorality by attempts of self justification, self reconciliation, self sanctification, thinking we can DO things to improve out acceptance with God by doing those “good” things.
But now, when the believer sins, they are humbled in knowing several things (Not in any particular order, and just to name a few) -
- My sin is wrong.
- It's my fault.
- It's against God.
- That only Christ paid for, and put away the sin, not me.
- I shouldn't have done it.
- I really should never do them again.
- The sin is not okay to do, just because I still have a sin nature. No excuse, in other words.
- I need to confess it to God.
- Nothing I can do can earn forgiveness of it.
- My sin should not make me doubt my salvation.
- I realize I will never be sinless in this life.
- I should seek to avoid all manner of sin.
- I could either despair because of sin, or do what God says to do - I have an Advocate, and should approach the throne with boldness in time of need (life is short and FULL of trouble).
Ongoing repentance, and confession of sins, as far as changing our mind about immortality goes, should take place in the already forgiven believer’s daily life. It's obvious that believers, with God's Spirit, should not allow themselves to not care about their sins. Chastisement will be a loving reminder to God’s people (Heb 12). Sin is to be battled with the God-given means of prayer, being strengthened by God's word, and fellowship with other believers, all for growth, maturity, and instruction. Now, since believing, the FOCUS and EMPHASIS is not our sin - It's CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED. This is the truth that they have now been caused to love and depend on in light of every biblical doctrine contained in God’s word. They always, still, need the gospel, even after initial conversion. So, the gospel is your tool for resisting and killing sin, knowing that Christ has paid your sin debt in full, once and for all time. Faith is how the justified believer lives, as they walk in the Spirit, and that faith always looks to Christ for acceptance, forgiveness, completeness, and assurance, rather than looking to ourselves for some sort of fix.
Is there some secret formula that you can get become, progressively, some super-Christian that stops sinning? Will there be a time when the recipe of your battle plan will increasingly allow you to conquer sin? We need to face the fact that sin is ever present. The word of God tells us that the faith we were given by God, which is the same faith we live by (faith in Christ - THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS) is what overcomes the world. So, we fight the battle (the inward one of Romans 7, like Paul), knowing that the historic battle at the cross has ALREADY been won by the Lord Jesus Christ, when He purges our sins and sat down at the right hand of the Father (Heb 1:3). When we sin, we are gladly reminded He said that the work it took to put that sin away forever was FINISHED BY HIM ALONE! We are now IDENTIFIED only in Christ. So, the purpose of remaining sin in the life of the believer is to keep us looking to, and dependent upon Christ as their only hope of acceptance, based on His accomplished work.
Believers are ONLY and ALWAYS accepted in Christ - THAT is your motivation for cheerful, loving, service to God, by faith IN CHRIST. Believers, definitely, will grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, as they seek Him in His word and the Spirit guides them unto all truth. Their minds will be renewed by that same word (2 Cor 4:16, Eph 4:23, Col 3:10). This will reflect the way our minds have been changed, as compared to the former, idolatrous, wicked, stony, deceived heart we had before God gave us faith to understand and trust Him.
Lastly, believers should know that Legalists operate out of their sinful, self righteous flesh. They say, and don't do. They require more from you than they do of themselves. They are always accusers. They start out sentences with, “If you have sin in your life today...”, as if they don’t. They are prideful, and hateful. They seek to motivate by fear, control, bondage, dread, competition, gain, pride, and accusation. Beware of them. Mark them. Avoid them. They cannot and will not help you. They hate God
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