It is easy to get all excited about the theology of the New Covenant. But what does it do for us in practice? Does it really make a difference in how we live? If you have been reading these posts for some time, you know the answer is a spectacular YES!!! I believe the provisions of the New Covenant as described in Scripture are literally a “cure” for sin. C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “God’s love for us does not come and go. It is not wearied by our sins, or our indifference; and therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him.”
My pointed question to you is, “Do you really want to be cured?” I have to ask because in my interaction with fellow believers I sometimes wonder if we really want to be cured. When we marry our own disappointing experience with sin’s power with our misinterpretation of Romans 7 believing there is a biblical basis for being overwhelmed by sin, we get dragged down to a place where a cure seems out of reach. When I think of the word power in the lives of believers, I feel like discussions of a woe-is-me acceptance of sin’s power is much more common than expressions of our experience of the Spirit’s power to influence our lives; even though the New Testament is clear in its teaching that the power of the Holy Spirit is far superior to the power of sin in the life of the believer. It makes me wonder, “Do we really want to be cured?”
In our flesh mode, sin is comfortable. The apostle Paul called various sins by the term “deeds of the flesh.” Sin fits our fleshly desires. But in a breakthrough of supernatural dimensions, God says we no longer have to live according to the flesh. For the believer there is a “cure” for sin.
The cure is the new identity. The cure is walking in your new identity. The cure is walking in the Spirit’s power. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Gal 5:16). Sin is “crouching at your door” as it has been since the time of Cain and Abel. But you do not need to answer the door. You do not need to open the door. You do not need to invite him in. For the believer, sin cannot crash the door down. He must be invited in, and you have the power to say to the crouching sin, “No thanks, just move along, there is no one here that you would be compatible with; you are no longer my master.”
Sin is not an incurable disease for God’s children. May you experience His cure in your life today.