LIVING ABOVE SIN (PART 2)
Yesterday we established the fact that sin is a nature in everyone born into this world. We sin by default, and we are more inclined to wrong than to right because we were all born into sin. As a result, a new birth or nature is the only way to put away that sin nature.
Since the first nature came by birth, the second one will also come by birth as well.
Today I want to further explain why many born again Christians still have great difficulty living above sin despite their new nature, and our text says it all. To abide in God is to cease from sin; which means to detach from God is to sin. You were not created to live independent of God, rather, you were created to need God, you were created to abide in God.
Many people want to live good lives without the daily input of the Holy Spirit. Remember the word says “not by might nor by power but by the Spirit”, Zechariah 4:6.
In John 15:45, Jesus said, “abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can he except he abide in me. I am the vine and ye are the branches: without me ye can do nothing”. Let us carefully examine this scripture:
After you became saved, you became a part of God the way a branch is a part of a tree. You were a wild branch that became grafted into God the true vine.
Fruits come out of the branches only as long as they stay attached to the tree. A branch that is detached or cut off from the tree will dry away and will not resemble the tree anymore.
Without the tree, the branch can do nothing of itself. In fact, the branch is useless without the tree.
Fruit bearing is the evidence of the nature of every tree. Righteousness is the nature of God and you ought to have it as a fruit on your life. When you are not doing righteousness, you are automatically sinning. So sin is a function of detachment from God. You are as fruitful as your level of attachment to God.
So if you see yourself still sinning habitually or too often, blame it on the fact that you are not abiding in God.