No More "Back and Forth": Rest in Your New Life in Christ

Getting saved is as easy as believing:

"Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." (John 6:29)

and

"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." (Romans 10:9)

The challenge for many Christians once they get saved is learning to recognize their new identity in Christ. It gets very easy for us to get caught up in the unnatural thoughts and feelings, i,e. the sinful tendencies in our flesh, the bad habits which we may think that we have to shake off in our own effort.

Consider what Paul the Apostle went through:

"18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." (Romans 7:18)

and then

"21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin." (Romans 7:21-25)

Consider also what TrueLove.Is testimonial Jaime Wong shared about her struggle with pornography:

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Notice that challenge, this "back and forth" that Paul writes about, that Jaime describes as she was able to break free of her addiction.

What is the solution? Our efforts? Our willpower?

NO! It is Jesus!

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." (John 8:36)

and

"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus," (Romans 8:1, NIV)

It is so important for us as children of God to know who we are in Christ:

"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

We are not trying to overcome sin. Sin has been condemned in the flesh already! 

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:" (Romans 8:3)

and

"20I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 21I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:20-21)

Let's stop trying to overcome what we do not like in our flesh. Let us recognize that we are dead to sin and aive in Christ (Romans 6:11)

Let us let Him rest us:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)