Step by Step
“Principles”
How many times have you ask yourself the following question; how do I know what is the next step to achieve spiritual growth after accepting Jesus as my savior?
It is very interesting and at the same time concerning that must of the time the churches do not take the time to educate the new believers and quite possible old members of their congregation on this crucial matter. If we do not take the time to teach and instill the principles of the gospel, we are going to keep seeing new believers come and go, because they do not understand the process they are living.
Must of the time they get frustrated because they try to live a pious life on their own strengths (which is impossible) and because they fail or get tired of fighting they simply give up and return to their old way of living, but this time with a negative view of the gospel and of Christians.
Knowing Jesus and acknowledging Him as our savior and king is just the beginning of a lifetime journey. The most important part of this relationship starts the moment we accept Him as our savior, but once we do that; what really happens?
We need to start by explaining why do we need Jesus in the first place:
1- We are the creation of a loving and all powerful God who loves us unconditionally.
2- We rebelled against God and for that reason we lost our position before Him and now are sinners.
3- We did not have a way of redemption on our own.
4- God in His own initiative devised a plan to save us from death and restores us back to our original position in Him.
5- Jesus fulfilled that plan and for that reason He is now our Savior who paid our debt in full and restored us to our position before God.
6- Jesus is the only way to the Father.
Now, all that said; what happens when we accept Jesus as our Savior?
As explained before, we by nature, are born sinners. That is something we inherit automatically from our parents. Is part of the consequences of our ancestors actions and rebellions in the Garden of Eden. That sin nature is what predispose us to sin. In other words, no matter how hard I try not to sin, I will sin no matter what. God knew that from the beginning, that is why He sent Jesus who is the all powerful God, incarnated as a man and died a perfect man on the cross and raised from the dead to become our savior and king. Here is where the truth and power of the gospel rest and every Christian should learn:
We are saved by grace and by the merits of Christ who made possible to change our sin nature into a holy nature through Him. Once we accept Him as our savior the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send to us comes to live within us as our Helper. This Spirit takes our sin nature out of us and because the Spirit is Holy we become a holy creature. Now because of that I am back in my spiritual position before God. God is looking at us through Jesus and all He sees is the presence of Jesus in us.
Romans 5:18 NLT
“Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.”
Now, we do not have a sin nature anymore, but let me explain, we still live in an imperfect body which even though is now holy by the presence of Christ in us, is still inclined to sin. That is why we need the presence of the Holy Spirit to guide and make us grow in our relationship with God:
Romans 8:10-11 NLT
“And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.”
What all this means to a new Christian or any Christian?
This means that I do not have to prove to be capable of living a Christian life with my own strengths. We are saved by grace and hence it is Christ in me who will guide me, protect me, empower me to be able to live a holy life. It is Him living through me, not me fighting the world and my own sin nature. We have to rely in Christ to overcome any obstacle or temptation, it is faith in Him and His faithfulness. When we put our will on His hands and stop trying to do our own plan, and use our own strengths; He will take control of everything and will show us step by step what we need to do. This is a personal relationship between Christ and every Christian and for that reason He will work differently with each one of us.
We are going to see triumphs and defeats but we must keep our focus in Christ. He is merciful, loving and above all, faithful to His people and will never leave us even when we sin. He will forgive and will keep working with us without giving up. Also, we need to understand that once we accept Christ as our savior we become His. He is now in control of our life with the only purpose of guide us to a better life. A life full of His presence, and that means changes are going to be part of that plan. The life we left behind is no longer priority, the life He planned for us is the life He wants us to live.
This might sound a little scary for some because this means giving our life’s control to another person, but if we compare; who can compete against an almighty, omnipresence, omniscient and loving God to plan a path for us?
What is then my next step for my spiritual growth?
Principle 1
Surrender my will and life to Christ so He could live His life through me.
Principle Two
Now that we have re-established our relationship with God and we know that it is of supreme importance to surrender my will and life to Christ, it is also necessary to understand what “sin” is. If we do not have a clear understanding of this word, we will be stumbling for a long time and our progress is going to be hindered.
The word sin has a tragic origin and the consequences of it are vast, all we have to do is look around us, and see how much pain sin has brought to our society. Must of the time people think that sin is the violation of one of God’s law. It is also the failure to do something right, something good. But sin also includes people, we sin against people with our acts of unkindness and lovelessness. At the end we rebel against God.
Again we need to look back to the beginning of the human history in the Garden of Eden. Is there where the tragic word “sin” started. We find Adam and Eve which were without any flaw but at the same time very inexperienced and fragile. Satan uses a very uncommon animal to tempt Adam and Eve by first questioning God’s wisdom and later to rebel against Him. The first thing that Satan does is; introduce doubt of the love and goodness of God in the mind of Eve, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Genesis 3:1). The serpent proceed to describe the forbidden fruit and to describe the knowledge that by eating the fruit she will get. That is the nature of sin, the tendency towards something that looks good and attractive.
If we look at the Bible we can see the same reasoning in every sinner’s mind, they were looking for security, pleasure, something good or reputation. But behind the atraction and the good image of sin, there is a big battle between obedience and rebellion. What shall they do? Obey God the Creator or a creature? Will they listen to God or themselves? They both chose to disobey, they chose to follow their own wisdom and ultimately they rebelled against God, considering themselves above God.
Here is where sin uncovers its true nature, we do not want to recognize that we are creatures of God and the hierarchy in which we were established. As created creatures we are bound to obey our Creator, but we elevated ourselves above God by deciding to go in our own way. The consequences of sin started to present almost immediately after the fall; “Separation”. Separation from God, from ourselves, from others and from the creation itself. Adam and Eve found that they were naked and hid from each other and from God. They started to blame each other for what had happened.
God established the consequences of that rebellion and brought to light the separation of humans from Him by expelling them from the Garden, separation from the creation by establishing that women will bear children with pain and men have to toil and work the earth in order to get its fruits. That curse not only have them expelled from the Garden but introduced death also. It all started by the illusion of getting something good and better, freedom and dignity and at the end brought them loses and destruction.
The Bible teaches us that the actions of the first couple not only affected them but, us also. (Romans 5: 12-21). In Cain’s sin (Gen 4:1-14) we can see the heritage already affecting the human race. Cain was not tempted by an external force or creature, he made his choices, premeditated on how to kill his brother and did it. He was so rebellious that he didn’t listen to God. He even complaint about God’s justice when God judged him for what he had done. Sin is so virulent that from the very moment Adam and Eve sinned everything got corrupted. Humans grew more and more rebellious and cruel, to the point that God decided to finish everything with a flood. Then after some more time God had to divide them by changing their languages when they were building then Babel Tower.
Even the people chosen by God had the same sin problems like the others. We can see that in the history of Moses. God’s love and care were manifested in manners that no other people has seen before, miracles in their way, God’s hand protecting them from the enemies and food falling from the sky, but they preferred to follow their own path. When they reached Sinai, they learned that sin is transgression against God. It is a movement into God’s territory. The law given to Moses unmasked sin and now what was hidden is exposed, what I thought was good now is bad. The law brought light over sin, disclosing the true nature of our thoughts and actions.
(Romans 7:7-25)
“Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” But sin used this command to arouse all kinds of covetous desires within me! If there were no law, sin would not have that power. At one time I lived without understanding the law. But when I learned the command not to covet, for instance, the power of sin came to life, and I died. So I discovered that the law’s commands, which were supposed to bring life, brought spiritual death instead. Sin took advantage of those commands and deceived me; it used the commands to kill me.
But how can that be? Did the law, which is good, cause my death? Of course not! Sin used what was good to bring about my condemnation to death. So we can see how terrible sin really is. It uses God’s good commands for its own evil purposes. So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.”
Sin is a grave action. The Bible never dismisses any sin because it was committed by a young person, or an ignorant one, on the contrary God established rituals to clean His people. Sacrifices they have to perform in order to clean themselves from sin. Sin offends God and the law requires an atonement for it. Through those sacrifices blood is spilled and a price is paid; a life is given. All these rituals were the preamble for Christ; who came to the world as a sacrificial lamb to pay the atonement needed to suffice God’s law and restore men and women to their proper position before God.
To simplify the understanding process, these are some of the definitions for the word “sin” from the Hebrew language that can be found in the Strong’s Concordance:
1- to sin, miss, miss the way, go wrong, incur guilt, forfeit, purify from uncleanness.
(Qal)
to miss
to sin, miss the goal or path of right and duty
to incur guilt, incur penalty by sin, forfeit
(Piel)
to bear loss
to make a sin-offering
to purify from sin
to purify from uncleanness
(Hiphil)
to miss the mark
to induce to sin, cause to sin
to bring into guilt or condemnation or punishment
(Hithpael)
to miss oneself, lose oneself, wander from the way
to purify oneself from uncleanness
From all these definition we can then establish that there are three aspects of sin:
1- The breach or disobedience of the law
2- Violation of relationship with people
3- Rebellion against God
Sin hides itself under the appearance of good. The first temptation sin was an offering of good things like knowledge and food. Satan tempted Jesus using the same offerings. That is the way sin works, pride and boasting seeks recognition, fornication promises bodily pleasure, by breaking vows and promises as a way of getting away from troubles people look for hope. People will make any kind of defenses for their actions, because at the end they though they were doing something good.
Sin is also irrational, why a creature like Adam and Eve would rebel against their creator when there was no need to it? We can find all sort of references in the Bible about the rebellion against God.
Isa 1:3:
“Even an ox knows its owner, and a donkey recognizes its master’s care— but Israel doesn’t know its master. My people don’t recognize my care for them.” Isaiah 1:3 NLT
Sin is powerful and makes people do evil things that they don’t want to do like the Apostle Paul explains in Romans 7:14-20. When it gains control of the soul it always move the subject to think only on his or hers interest first, they turn selfish and that heart is open to rebellion, cursing, slander, lies, envy, greed, sensuality, godlessness and most of all pride (Romans 1:18-32)
Adams sin consisted in yielding to the temptation and ultimately eating the forbidden fruit. By doing so two things were introduced into the creation:
1- Unbelief which virtually made Gods a liar.
2- Guilt of disobedience to a good and protective command.
Sin is what God hates the most, not the sinner. God hates what sin does to His children, but at the same time He cannot condone or accept sin. Sin opposes God, where there should be love sin brings hate, where there should be trust, sin brings doubts, sin destruct instead of help and love.
The only way a Christian can overcome sin is by letting Christ empower their life with His guidance and love. He is willing to forgive us every time we fail and sin. The closer we get to Him the stronger we will be to overcome the temptations and trails life will bring in our path.
Principle 2
Our intimate communion with God through Christ is the only way to conquer our rebellion and unbelief.