A professing Christian who engages in such behaviour is obviously violating all the mentioned points which pertain to the actual walk of a Christian.
Points of Fact
- Peter teaches that Christians have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust (2Pet 1:3-4).
- Paul teaches that Christian’s have crucified their flesh with the passions and desires (Gal 5:24)
- James teaches that men are drawn into sin by the lusts of their flesh (Jam 1:14-15).
- Peter teaches that those who suffer with Christ have ceased from sin and that they no longer walk according to the lusts of men (1Pet 4:1-2)
- Paul teaches that if we walk after flesh we will die but if we, through the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body then we will live (Rom 8:13).
Jesus did clearly state that if you sin you are a slave to sin (Joh 8:34). Jesus did also say that He came to set people free indeed (Joh 8:36) from their sin.
Can one be free indeed if they are still yielding to the lusts of their flesh and sinning? The plain statements of Jesus clearly refute such a position.
Paul was in perfect agreement with Jesus on this matter for he taught that we are slaves to whom we obey whether sin unto death or obedience unto righteousness (Rom 6:16). There was no third option presented where the two somehow mix, yet most people sincerely believe that the two do mix.
Immediately after teaching that we are slaves to whom we obey Paul taught in the very next verse that obedience from the heart (Rom 6:17) was the method by which people had been set free from serving sin and had thus become slaves of righteousness (Rom 6:18).
There are many people today, who will read the above and deny it because of the implications it brings in regards to their own theology. Instead of addressing the very specific and simple points made they will, instead, brush it off with rhetoric and appeal to other isolated portions of scripture in an attempt to dismiss what the Bible plainly teaches.
I have found through experience that many will portray the theme expounded above and imply that somehow it translates to “saving oneself.” The fallacy here is that the dynamic of yielding to God is no more the saving of oneself than Noah was saving himself when he yielded to God’s instruction and built the ark.
There are many today who sincerely believe that God “makes” you do everything and that to imply that YOU have to actually do something is an infringement on the sovereignty and glory of God. Such a position is pure nonsense. Ask yourself as to whether Noah was glorying in himself by yielding to God through the action of building the ark? Of course he was not, and neither is a Christian who willingly walks after the Spirit in humble obedience to their Creator.
A vast system of error has completely overtaken what is nominally called Christianity today
The plain and simple teachings of Jesus have been supplanted by a vast system of theology which removes all human responsibility along with any fear of judgment.
The doctrine of Christ is according to godliness (1Ti6:3) and whoever sins and does not abide in this doctrine does not have God (2 Joh 1:9). One must abide in this doctrine to have the Father and the Son (2Joh 1:9) and this is why Jesus would teach the following…
Joh 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Joh 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
Joh 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have love you.