Presented in 7 Chapters
by David Wilkerson
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- Chapter 6—Free To Choose
Now we get down to the nitty-gritty, the very heart of this book.
Will believing on Jesus Christ as Lord cause all my evil desire to go away? Will I no longer be tempted? If I repent and surrender my life to Christ by faith, will He change me? Will the passions that have an iron grip on me be broken? How can I have power to resist temptation? Can I really become a new person?
First, let me show you what the Bible says on the subject.
1. Faith in Christ Dispossesses the Sinful Nature.
Now if Christ does live within you, his presence means that your sinful nature is dead, but your spirit becomes alive because of the righteousness he brings with him (Romans 8:10 Phillips).
2. He Helps Cut the Nerve of Evil Instincts.
Then my brothers, we owe no duty to our sensual nature, or to obey our instincts. If on the other hand you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, you will live (Romans 8:13 Phillips).
3. He Breaks the Tyranny of Sin Once and for All.
Your old evil desires were nailed to the cross with Him; that part of you that loves to sin was crushed and fatally wounded, so that your sin-loving body is no longer under sin's control, no longer needs to be a slave to sin; For when you are deadened to sin you are freed from all its allure and its power over you (Romans 6:6,7 Living Bible).
Now we come to the big question—the question that has baffled the minds of God-loving believers from Paul the apostle to today. It is the question that haunts those who gave up on the Christian way, because it didn't seem to break their chains of sin. IF Christ makes believers dead to sin, if the nerve of their evil instinct is severed, if their evil nature is crushed—why do they still discover old evil desires popping up? Why is there still an evil presence in their bodies? Why are they still capable of doing sinful things like all other sinners? Why be a Christian, if it doesn't break the power of sin?
Believers do discover that old desires return, and they are forced to say with Paul:
I don't understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I can't. I do what I really don't want to—what I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong (Romans 7:15, 16 Living Bible).
Now if I am doing what I don't want to, it is plain where the trouble is: sin still has me in its evil grasp (Romans 7:20 Living Bible).
I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war in my mind and wins the fight and enslaves me again to the sin still in me. ...In my mind I want to be God's willing servant but instead I FIND MYSELF STILL ENSLAVED WITH SIN (Romans 7:22-25 Living Bible).
Paul wasn't talking about an experience before accepting Christ—because He states, "I love to do God's will." He also speaks of his "new life" that tells him to do right. That is not the testimony of a sinner. Paul, at one time, fought this battle after his conversion, and he opened to us his inner struggle. It has been the personal battle of all honest Christians.
It sounds almost like double talk. It sounds like Christians are no better off than sinners. It seems like the battle never ends. Not so! There is an explanation proving the power of sin is broken. Paul said,
Who will solve this predicament? Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ! He has set me free (Romans 7:25 Living Bible).
What discovery did Paul make that could cause him to rejoice and say, "There is now no condemnation hanging over my head" (Romans 8:1 Phillips)? What great discovery stopped him from saying, "I want to do right, but I can't"? How did Paul work his way through this dilemma?
He talks about A NEW PRINCIPLE OF FREEDOM. This new principle of freedom through Jesus Christ actually stopped the sin merry-go-round, plucked him off the endless ride, and freed him once and for all from its power.
Simply stated, here is how this FREEDOM PRINCIPLE works. Three great truths are involved.
Believers Are No Longer Slaves to Sin
We have no obligation to our sensual nature (Romans 8:12 Phillips).
Abraham Lincoln is said to have "freed the slaves" with the Emancipation Proclamation. This legal document declared slavery dead. All slaves were set free.
When this news first spread throughout southern plantations, many of the slaves would not believe it. They continued slaving for their masters, convinced their promise of freedom was a hoax. Numbers of unscrupulous landowners told their slaves it was a false rumor and kept them under bondage. But, little by little, the truth dawned on them as they saw former slaves walking about, taking advantage of their new-found freedom. One by one, they threw down their loads, turned their backs on slavery, and walked away to begin a new life.
Maybe you haven't heard yet, or maybe it sounds too good to be true, but Christ emancipated all the slaves to sin at Calvary. You can now "walk out" on the devil! You can throw down your load of sin, walk away from Satan's dominion, and enter into a new life of freedom.
Let me show you what the Bible means when it talks about dying to sin. When Lincoln emancipated the slaves, the "issue" of slavery died. Not the slave master—not the slave. The slave could walk away free, saying to himself: SLAVERY IS A DEAD ISSUE. THE OLD SLAVE IN ME IS DEAD. I AM A FREE MAN.
When someone receives Christ as Lord, what is it in him that dies? Sin doesn't die. Satan doesn't die. Nor does the evil tendency die. The "issue" or the "controversy" dies. Sin created a controversy in the heart of man about who was in control, and the battle between good and evil was the result. God simply emancipated the mind from sin's control, killing the controversy of slavery to evil.
When the Bible says, "We die to sin," it simply means that to us THE ISSUE IS DEAD! There is no more argument—THE MATTER IS NOT NEGOTIABLE—MANKIND WAS EMANCIPATED AT CALVARY! The issue as to who is in charge is dead!
Paul used legal terms to describe the Christian's freedom from sin's bondage. The same legal terms are used daily in Congress: THE BILL IS DEAD. THE AMENDMENT WAS KILLED. THE RESOLUTION DIED.
The Bible says, "...he that is dead is free from sin...Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe we shall also live with him" (Romans 6:7,8).
What that means is simply this: Since the matter of your slavery to sin is a dead issue, seeing that Christ has already declared you emancipated, you are now free to live as a new person in Christ. In other words, you have died to slavery, so why go back and pick cotton for the devil?
Now the slave could slip back into the field and pick a few more rows of cotton—perhaps through fear or instinct—but that, in no way, made him a slave again. He was free, but he had to exercise his freedom. The proclamation couldn't force compliance, and neither could the slave master force him to return. It was a matter of the will of the slave.
Christ can't make you do right, and Satan can't make you do wrong. Christ declares we are free by faith, but we must act as a free person.
Eons ago, in Hell's court, Satan decreed a law that, as prince of the world, all living souls were his subjects. God's supreme court KILLED THAT LAW OF SIN. It died because Satan could not enforce it anymore. God declared it unconstitutional and substituted His own law—THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT, giving Him all rights to the believer's body.
After years of trying to understand what Paul meant by DYING TO SIN or DEATH OF THE OLD NATURE, I now see how simple it all is. Sin doesn't die, only the SLAVERY to it dies! Its power over me dies. So now I don't have to go around trying to die or struggle to feel dead. Nothing in me dies except the law that held me in sin's control. Sin is still present in me, but I am no longer under its control.
Think of freedom from sin as an annulment. Christ takes the believer to His Father, the Judge, and gets an annulment from sin so that He can take that same believer as a bride to Himself. Christ loved us while we were still living with sin; He died to prove that love; and that gave Him the right to annul sin's claim on us.
This annulment makes us dead to the claims of the old affair, but it doesn't stop the old illicit lover from coming around to harass, seduce, or try to press a new claim. Satan never accepts such an annulment without a fight. He will come calling with threats, with compromises, with alluring offers. But legally, Satan no longer has a claim on any believer. Paul wrote, "...having died to that which once held us, we now serve in newness of the Spirit, and not in the oldness of the Law" (Romans 7:6).
No Christian can now say, "I can't help myself. I can't break from my sin." Paul was finally delivered from this kind of talk, and so must we be! Satan can't make you sin now; but your old slave nature can attempt to reassert itself. If Christ did not break the power of sin, the crucifixion was a hoax.
You will always be a slave until you quit excusing your weakness by claiming to be helpless. You are not helpless as a child of God. You are not the devil's patsy anymore, so get busy and discipline your wild, stubborn will. A Christian who says, "I can't" is actually saying "I won't." Pretending to still be a slave is an alibi Christians use to put off facing the responsibility of their freedom.
And so we should not be like cringing, fearful slaves, but we should behave like God's very own children, adopted into the bosom of his family (Romans 8:15 Living Bible).
Now Christ has made us free. Now make sure that you stay free and don't get all tied up again in the chains of slavery (Galatians 5:1 Living Bible).
II. Freedom From Sin's Slavery Must Be Accepted by Faith.
The whole thing then is a matter of faith on man's part, and generosity on God's (Romans 3:16 Phillips).
I have already stated in this book that faith is something you do about what you know. Knowledge means nothing unless it is acted upon.
The children of Israel received the good word that God had given them Canaan for a homeland. That information would have meant nothing at all to them if they had remained in Egypt as slaves. But the Bible says, "By faith...they forsook Egypt...by faith they passed over the Red Sea" (Hebrews 11:27-31).
The Israelites did not march to the border of Canaan, fire one volley of arrows, and expect all the enemy armies to drop dead. The land was theirs, but they had to possess it "one dead soldier at a time."
What does that have to do with my getting victory over the grip of sin? Everything! Christ settled the issue of slavery to sin by declaring me emancipated from its dominion, but I have to believe it to the point that I do something about it.
It is not enough to say, "Yes, I believe Christ forgives sin. I believe He is Lord. I know He can break the power of sin in my life." You are mentally consenting to what you heard. But faith is stepping out on that promise of freedom and acting upon it.
How? By breaking off with old friends who drag you down. By convincing yourself that freedom is, in reality, yours. Claim it! God said it, so act on it. Shake off your passiveness and move into your new life of peace and freedom with determination and assurance.
Face the facts. All your other methods to find peace and freedom have failed. You cried a river of tears; you made a thousand promises that you broke; you tried self-control, self-denial, and various self-help programs. After all you tried, you still ended up with unfulfilled longings you could not understand. You found yourself unable to stop sinning. You were, at times, driven into sin through sheer boredom and mental depression.
The problem is, you have not yet gotten to the root of your problem. You may have heard that Christ has emancipated you by dying on a cross, but you will never enjoy that freedom until you give God what he asks of you—and that is A TRUSTING MIND. He wants you to believe your prayers are heard and will be answered.
For without faith it is impossible to please him; for he that cometh to God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him..." (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith is simply taking God at His Word and acting upon it. The true believer is the person who can say, "God said, therefore I believe it. I'll stake my life, my future, my eternity on it. If God has decreed that I am a free person—if He tells me sin no longer has power over me—if He says my faith in Him makes it all possible—THEN I ACCEPT—I GIVE UP MY USELESS STRUGGLE—AND I YIELD ALL TO HIM. I DO BELIEVE!"
III. Believers Are Supernaturally Helped in Their Hour of Temptation.
There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it (I Corinthians 10:13).
This is the most powerful and encouraging promise in all of the Bible for believers who face temptations. God makes it very clear that no child of His is left alone to battle against lust, passion, or any habituating evil. Supernatural help is needed and provided.
Believers all over the world are becoming weak against temptation, and they are yielding to the flesh in increasing numbers. It seems as though some Christians now think of temptation as a kind of incurable disease that won't let go until it destroys its victim. They cringe in fear when temptation strikes, thinking, "Oh, no—here I go again. It's got me in its grip, and I just know I'm going to give in. I have no will power; I'm too weak to resist."
That is the defeatist thinking of believers who do not know how to claim their RIGHT to assistance. What is this RIGHT promised to all believers? IT IS THE RIGHT TO SUPERNATURAL HELP IN TEMPTATION.
Do I mean by this that Christ not only delivers a believer from the power of sin, but also helps keep him from going back to it? That is exactly what the Bible says.
When temptation rolls in like a flood, Christ exercises His lordship and does something supernatural to combat it. He "makes a way to escape," so that believers can survive the ordeal or, in other words, "bear up under it."
Temptation is a test of man's free will; therefore, God can't take away his alternative to sin without destroying that same free will. So God does something just as effective for all who trust Him. He does something about the OBJECT OF LUST. He works outside of us at the very source of temptation.
That is best illustrated by a mother doing something about her child's temptation to steal cookies from a cookie jar. She can't whip the temptation out of him—so she simply puts the cookie jar "out of reach."
It is further illustrated by a father who moves his family away from a drug-infested neighborhood to keep his children from being seduced by narcotic users and pushers.
Parents have moved to a new continent to keep a son or daughter away from corrupting influences and friends.
These parents all acted in love, hoping their temporary intervention would allow time for their children to learn obedience from the heart. Although the time must come when children decide issues for themselves, a loving parent cannot stand idly by and allow an immature child to be overtaken by some evil influence. A concerned parent will either move the child away from the temptation or somehow put it out of his reach.
The Bible illustrates how God can put objects of temptation out of the reach of His children. For example, the children of Israel began to murmur against Moses for leading them out of Egypt. They wanted to go back to their old lifestyle. Freedom seemed too costly. So God arranged to open the Red Sea and allowed the Egyptian army to chase them across on dry land. Then He closed up the Sea—blocking any chance of return. God did that only in answer to the fervent prayers of Moses and other Israelites who wanted freedom.
Just as Jesus did, believers are to resist temptation with the Word of God. Most temptations can be defused by focusing the laser of truth on them. But there are other temptations that are so engrained, so furious and tenacious—they cannot be endured without supernatural intervention. The severest of temptations are often the result of a direct and person attack by demonic powers.
Paul speaks of "fightings without, and fears within" (2 Corinthians 7:15). Satan actually declares war on certain converts who desert his army because they once best exemplified his power to possess. In his anger at losing such a "prize," he fights them from without by pounding on them with one severe temptation after another, to sift them as wheat. Jesus said to Peter, "Behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat" (Luke 22:31). In other words, so shaken, you will hopefully break down.
Are you a believer who is being pounded by a recurring temptation that seems beyond your strength to resist? Is it a habit you can't control? Those involved with illicit secret lovers are especially overwhelmed by crushing temptations. So often, they yield and are soon swallowed up in remorse, guilt, and feelings of helplessness. If they are believers, they don't doubt that Christ has freed them from all obligations to obey the lust of their flesh. And, in many areas of their lives, they have seen progress and victory. Yet, there remains one besetting sin—one overpowering temptation to give in to a certain lust.
Thank God, there is a way of escape! God is a "miraculous intervener." It took a storm and a whale and a lot of supernatural intervention to get Jonah out of trouble. God has been known to turn water "bitter" and to cause manna to "stink," in an effort to make obedience less difficult.
God, in answer to fervent prayer, can make your object of lust become an abominable stench to you, and He can make yielding to sin become so bitter, you will hesitate ever giving in again. He may detour you; He may remove people from your life; He may cause the object of your lust to turn against you; He may throw up all kinds of road blocks; He may throw up a "Job wall" of protection; He may simply draw you irresistibly into the secret closet of prayer; He may send someone to warn or correct you—but in one supernatural way or another, God will answer prayer and intervene, making it possible for believers to overcome their most violent temptations.
Those who, deep inside, don't want to give up their lust and who secretly hope to keep on indulging it can never receive this miraculous intervention when being tempted. God moves in to make a way of escape only when the heart is fully committed to a life of separation and purity.
If there is not such a commitment, it won't work. God is not obligated to intervene when someone really doesn't want deliverance.
Flirters with secret sin are left to fight temptation with their own strength. Then when they yield to sin, they blame God for not "pulling them out." They say, "I waited for God, but He just let me go ahead and do it."
But the believer who honestly wants to be free from sin's bondage can be assured his loving Father sees his struggle and will use all the power of Heaven to assist him.
When severely tempted, ask God for His supernatural intervention, and ask in faith, believing He will do it.
God has promised to "DELIVER US FROM ALL EVIL." Here is proof of God's help in time of temptation:
Ye that love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked (Psalm 97:10).
We have escaped with our lives as a bird from a hunter's snare. The snare is broken and we are free! (Psalm 124:7 Living Bible).
My eyes are ever looking to the Lord for help, for he alone can rescue me (Psalm 25:15 Living Bible).
So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him (Isaiah 59:19).
I need no longer fear slipping or falling. He will keep me, love me, and bring me to glory by His power.
And he is able to keep you from slipping and falling away, and to bring you, sinless and perfect, unto his glorious presence with mighty shouts of everlasting joy (Jude 24 Living Bible).
To Chapter 7
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