We shall not be mastered by sin

There has been many adventurous ups and downs with Jesus since the beginning of this year. That said, my spiritual walk with God dipped quite a bit after coming back from a YEP recce trip to Sri Lanka. I'm not sure why too. But many praises to God, for He keeps sending friends along the way to lend some spiritual support. Guess I'm on the amazing race with Jesus again after a 2 week struggle. Recently, I have the chance to talk to this sister on a few Chrisitian themes, ranging from simple faith to our church distinctives. I suppose she got me interested on the notion of grace and works. I switched my QT focus from psalms and proverbs to more contemporary themes in the NT, and was prompted to look into 1 corinthians.

Somehow, this verse captured my attention:

1 Cor 6:18-20"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

This verse ends Paul's warning on sexual immorality in chapter 6, and is parallel to an earlier verse that says "everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything" (v12).

In a way, verse 12 summarizes the freedom that a believer is entitled to in the New Testament. In fact, the verse is repeated again in chapter 10 verse 23, when Paul talks explicitly about the freedom that Christians are entitled to by the covenant of Christ.

Perhaps, when we are given the 'freedom' to play with sins that come in shades of gray - that feeling of anger, to tell a white lie, a quick look at lewd movie posters or ads - we tend to use it to our own advantage; we are unable to say 'No' to sins.

But Titus 2:11-12 promises us that "for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions..."

Indeed, the discipline to say 'No' to sins is crucial if we desire to have an intimate relationship with God. But how do we master the discipline to say 'No'? Do we follow the laws written down, or simply claim the promise of grace that will lead us to an inner strength to say 'No'? By grace, it means that we do not have to do anything at all!

Romans 6:12-14 says that "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires... for sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." I looked into my NIV study bible, and it says that this verse does not mean that I'm freed from all moral authority. I have indeed been freed from the law; for law provides no enablement to resist the power of sin; laws entails a certain condemnation for the sinner; for it is only through the laws that he is made aware of his sins. On the other hand, grace enables, and gives us that positive freedom to discipline ourselves.

I suppose the bottomline is not to abuse this grace, which usually happens when one does not have a true experience of the reality of Jesus Christ, or does not press hard enough to seek Him. By seeking him, it does not mean that we are 'working' our salvation towards Jesus, but rather preparing ourselves to enjoy the banquet with Him when we are in heaven.

Through our faith in Christ, we are already sanctified; set apart for God. This is sometimes known as positional sanctification. But because of the holy spirit that is working in us through the positional sanctification, we cannot not do anything about our lives to discipline our spiritual walk. It is not so much of us working our spiritual discipline, but trusting in the holy spirit to continue to renew our being, otherwise known as progressive sanctification.

Thus, this is why although Paul has much to criticize about the immorality of the Corinthians, he still called them 'sanctified' (chapter 1, verse 2), because of their positional sanctification. It is their progressive sanctification that Paul is concerned, and it something that God is concerned in our modern society where vices and virtues are becoming indistinct and ambivalent. Like what Paul says in 1 Cor6:20, that we are not our own, we were bought at a price. I am not my own simply because I've been redeemed by the death of Jesus. All that He requires me to do, is to honor Him with my life.