Meditate On
The Power to Sin No More
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are
in Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:1, NASB
Today, I want to talk about how you can have a victorious
thought life. My friend, the solution to temptations, sinful desires and thoughts
is found in the very first verse of Romans 8: “Therefore there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (By the way, some Bible
translations, like the New King James Version, go on to say “who do not walk
according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” This was added by the
later Bible translators. In the oldest manuscripts of the New Testament
available today, the Greek simply states, “There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”)
You may experience temptations and sinful thoughts from
time to time, but right in the midst of that temptation, you need to know this:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Notice that this verse is in the present tense. Right now, even if at this very
moment, sinful thoughts are going through your mind, there is no condemnation
because you are IN CHRIST JESUS! Are we then to sit still and entertain those
sinful thoughts? Of course not.
Sin cannot take root in a person who is full of the
consciousness that he is righteous in Christ. You cannot stop birds from flying
over your head, but you can certainly stop a bird from building a nest on your
head. In the same way, you cannot stop temptations, sinful thoughts and desires
from passing through your mind, but you can certainly stop yourself from acting
on these temptations, sinful thoughts and desires. How? By confessing at the
very moment of temptation that you are the righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus!
The power of Jesus to overcome every temptation kicks in
when you remain conscious that even at the point of temptation, Jesus is still
with you and that you are righteous in Him apart from your works (Romans 4:6)!
When you do that, you reject the condemnation for the temptation that you
faced. You now have the power of Christ to rise above your temptation and to
rest in your righteous identity in Christ apart from your works. That, beloved,
is the overcoming life in Christ!
BLESSINGS
JOSEPH PRINCE
