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"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." (Colossians 3:5-10)
It doesn’t happen very often that I get to write out a comprehensive Fiery Word response to a question that I received but that is what I have proposed to do this week and next. By ordination of the Holy Spirit, I received a question that falls squarely within the topic we are exploring and by God's grace I have attempted to provide answers that that draw upon biblical theology as well as my lived experience. My hope is that this format will bring this most important subject to life and its applications can be easily extracted.
The question I received is along these lines and I have paraphrased:
Jude, I’d like your thoughts on something. A person I know is journeying toward God but still struggling with certain habits and choices. In my own walk, I’ve faced struggles too, though not necessarily lifestyle-related ones like drinking or partying. For many believers, lifestyle misalignment seems to be the first and most persistent challenge. Why is it that even after encountering Jesus, these struggles don’t instantly disappear? In your own faith journey, was there a “Paul moment” of instant transformation, or has your experience been different? And for those wrestling with sin and lifestyle choices right now, what advice would you give them on how to overcome?
That’s quite a lot to unpack, but together we can break it down into clear, digestible questions. From the heart of the dilemma, I see four key threads that will guide our reflection:
Why do believers continue to struggle with sin and lifestyle attractions even after receiving Christ?
Why does sin express itself differently in each of our lives?
Is there really such a thing as a Pauline transformation, and what does lived experience teach us?
What counsel can we offer to those wrestling with the immediate weight of sin and lifestyle temptations?
Why Do Believers Still Struggle With Sin After Coming to Christ?
In Grace That Kills Sin - Part I, I cover this particular subject extensively and I encourage you have a read.
There are two relationships between accepting Christ's sacrifice for you and killing sin. The first is the legal relationship where sin has been killed by Christ's sacrifice and the second is where sin's earthly expression is being killed by Christ's empowerment.
The summary is that the relationship between the cross and sin is grossly misunderstood. Too many believers think that Christ's crucifixion abolished sin in its earthly form or destroyed our adamic nature but this is not so. This thinking has led some to expect radical and instantaneous physical change upon encountering and accepting Christ. The reality is where it matters most, there has been a radical and instantaneous change though most cannot see it or feel it. Spiritually, we have been crucified with Christ and we no longer live but Christ lives in us (Galatians 2:20).
Colossians 2:11-15 aptly summarizes this legal relationship. "In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross."
Today's anchor verse from Colossians 3:5-10 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature…" along with the anchor verse for this entire series from (Romans 8:13) "For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live" covers the practical relationship between the cross and sin. Through Christ's death we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to begin operating in sin killing mode. You may ask why the legal (spiritual) and practical implications of Christ's death mean different things as one is final and the other is an active and ongoing process. The simple answer is that one occurs in the spirit and the other in the flesh and consequently their expressions must be different. Galatians 5:17 tells us "the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh" so, as long as we have the flesh to contend with, the practicality of killing sin is ongoing but a day will come when it will be finalized.
For true believers, the practical relationship of killing sin merges with the spiritual and legal relationship of killed sin upon death. That is when we no longer have to contend with this body of indwelling sin. 1 Corinthians 15:24-24 captures this merging of relationships: "Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death." The last battle that Christ fought in the war against sin was death itself. For us believers, death marks the enforcement of our legally obtained judgement and victory against sin. This is not to be confused with condemnation in the way of the "wages of sin being death," but it is liberation in the sense that "the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23). It is this very merging of legal and practical victory over sin that is captured in 1 Corinthians 15:20-21 "But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man."
This difference between Spirit and flesh is why we must fight sin while bound in our earthen vessels. Paul contends with this reality of practical killing of sin while on earth and the goal of total victory against sin in heaven in Philippians 3:12-14 (AMP):
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."
In Colossians 3:1-5 (AMP), Paul comes full circle and connects our legal relationship to sin with our practical relationship to misdeeds of the body and ungodly lifestyle attractions. He gives us a responsibility to keep seeking God and continuously deprive the power of evil longings until we no longer have to:
Therefore if you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, sharing in His resurrection from the dead], keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind and keep focused habitually on the things above [the heavenly things], not on things that are on the earth [which have only temporal value]. For you died [to this world], and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. So put to death and deprive of power the evil longings of your earthly body [with its sensual, self-centered instincts] immorality, impurity, sinful passion, evil desire, and greed, which is [a kind of] idolatry [because it replaces your devotion to God]."
The Many Faces of Sin: Why Our Struggles Are Not the Same
I need not say more than every formidable opponent poses a myriad of tools and tricks which are deployed at the most opportune time to press an advantage. Sin is no different in that it is the very definition of a formidable opponent with a buffet of weapons and tactics. Galatians 5:19-21 shows us as much:
"The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."
If you’ve read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, a satirical look at human life and sin told through the letters of Screwtape, a senior demon, to his apprentice Wormwood, who is tasked with corrupting a young man, you’ll have a sharper sense of the relentless war being waged and the countless strategies deployed to secure sin’s victory at the cost of salvation. In a letter, Screwtape writes "You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it—all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition."
What is sin if not, in Lewis’s words, “admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition”? Its endgame is nothing less than what Romans 1:24 describes, God abandoning us to the very shameful desires of our own hearts. The sobering truth about sin is that it is precise, patient, and targeted. It rarely reveals its full hand until the moment it seeks to consume. Like a hidden virus, it searches for cracks in the soul, exploiting unseen openings until the victim finds themselves only steps away from destruction. Sin knows your history, it studies your background, identifies the fault lines in your faith, and crafts strategies for collapse, even as the Holy Spirit equips true believers with escape routes from temptation. For the youth prematurely exposed to intimacy outside the guardrails of marriage, sin presses its advantage, turning desire into an idol, leaving one foot in God’s house and the other in the streets. For the young professional shaped by poverty—or even by abundance—sin seizes the rationalization of money’s power and twists it into greed, leading to compromise both spiritual and moral. For Moses, anger once unchecked in youth resurfaced decades later at a crucial moment, barring him from the Promised Land.
As long as we remain in the flesh, sin works overtime. Even when it appears dead, it often only hides, lying dormant until it resurfaces in another form or through another doorway. This is the relentless persistence of sin, always adapting, always seeking, always pressing for advantage. Paul captures the breadth of this reality in Galatians 5:19–21, listing the "acts of the flesh" which are plural, sprawling, and unending. In contrast stands the "fruit of the Spirit" which is singular, yet whole, eclipsing every fractured expression of sin. Against the onslaught of sin’s many forms, there is only one sufficient response, the Spirit. This is why Paul exhorts us, “If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
Our battles may vary, but the adversary never changes. Sin is the enemy.
The Reality of Pauline Transformation: Myth or Truth?
I say with conviction that there is no such thing as a Pauline transformation, only a Pauline encounter with Christ. Some of us may experience the most radical encounters with Jesus, and we may even come to a sudden, piercing awareness of our sin. But the killing of sin is not a one-time event; it is a lifelong journey, a continual passage from the worldly to the godly that never ends on this side of eternity. Transformation is not sealed in a flash of revelation but in the daily surrender that makes us new.
More on this next week…
Prayer
Lord Jesus,
I thank You that on the cross sin was judged and defeated once for all. Yet I confess that in this body of flesh the battle still rages. Sin hides, waits, and presses its advantage, but Your Spirit empowers me to put its misdeeds to death.
Holy Spirit, teach me to walk daily in sin-killing mode, fixing my eyes on things above and refusing to be ruled by what is earthly. My struggles may look different from others, but the enemy is the same and only Your fruit can overcome the endless acts of the flesh.
Father, let me never mistake a single encounter for final transformation. Help me instead to surrender daily, trusting that the work You began in me You will bring to completion. Keep me pressing forward until I stand in the fullness of Christ’s victory.
Amen.