When a person gives their life to Jesus Christ, their sins are forgiven. But, just because their sins are forgiven, doesn’t mean they will never experience temptation again. There is an old expression that puts it like this;
“We are saved from the PENALTY of sin (death and hell),
We are being saved from the POWER sin (temptation),
We will be saved from the PRESENCE of sin (heaven).”
So, just because we trust Christ doesn’t mean that we will never deal with the power of sin again. Our sin is forgiven, but we still live in a world of sin and we still deal with temptation. We experience that temptation because our old nature and it’s weaknesses still exist in our lives. It’s called “the flesh.”
In the book of Joshua, the people of Israel were told to drive out the inhabitants of the land where they were going. The reason for doing this was, God knew these people and their false religion would be a temptation for Israel. But, Judges 1 says the people were not driven out. Judges 1:19 says, “The Lord was with the people of Judah, and they took possession of the hill country. But they failed to drive out the people living in the plains…” Those words are repeated throughout that chapter. So, while Israel took possession of the land, they didn’t drive out all the inhabitants and those people would be thorns in the side of Israel the rest of their lives.
The same is true for Christian. When we trust Christ, we should repent of our sin and turn our back on our old habits. But often, we don’t do it and our old habits… our old temptations… trip us. up.
Is there an old habit you need to give up? Have you kind of kept one foot in the world because you still like some of the things in the world and, you have one foot trying to live for Jesus?
You will not live a victorious Christian life like that. Don’t be like Israel and fail to drive the old sins… the old habits…. of your former life. Turn your back on them and press on living for Jesus.
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