Is it possible to stop sinning?

This has been a topic laid heavily on my heart for some years now. I have been very reluctant to write about this topic, but God has been leading me to do so.  I pray that while you read you let the Holy Spirit direct you and open up to His will and purpose and to His truth. There is so much regarding this topic that the Holy Spirit has revealed to me that I might have to do future parts to this.

I can’t tell you how many times I have saw the saying “Don’t judge someone because they sin differently than you do”. It really makes me just shake my head in amazement. Many times people like to use quotes, but they skip around the scriptures that tell us to live Holy lives that are pleasing to God. They fail to quote scripture, yet they are quick to quote a man so that it will make them feel better about their sins.

I would like to start this post off by saying first thing first. There is no one on this planet earth who hasn't ever sinned before. All of us have sinned and fallen short. Jesus is the only person who has lived on the planet earth without ever having sinned. We all need him as our savior.

That being said after receiving Jesus as our Lord and savior there becomes a transformation. The scripture that so many people like to use as an excuse to stay sinning, that we all have sinned and fall short of the glory is using past tense. That is not the state of a renewed believer in Christ. Once we accept Christ and repent it’s through him that we can get a clean slate. It’s through Christ that he picks us up from our fallen state and it’s through him that we can sin no more. So yes it is possible to stop sinning, but only after receiving Christ and God’s power and grace to do so.

2 Corinthians 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.

So from these scriptures and many others it is saying that we become new creatures when we accept Christ. We become reborn. We have to stop identifying ourselves with the old nature, the nature to sin and to justify our sins. There is no excuse for sin and God has it in His word how much He hates it.

Psalms 5:4 For You [are] not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You. 5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You HATE all workers of iniquity. 6 You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

God really hates sin, so much that he doesn't want it in His sight nor His presence. We have to start thinking like Him and accepting that new heart and spirit He gives us when we become His. When we start hating sin as much as God does, the thought of it alone will make us just as angry as He is about it and we won’t want to do it because we love God and don’t want to disappoint Him.

Jesus tells us to go and SIN NO MORE.

Remember the popular verse people use about not judging others about the lady committing adultery, but they fail to read farther where Jesus says to go and sin no more? For starters when Jesus asked the crowd he who is without sin to throw the first stone we have to look at his audience, they were teachers of the law and the Pharisees, who were trying to trap Jesus anyways, in order to have a basis for accusing him.-John 8:6 It is clear that the Pharisee’s were hypocrites, but does that mean that you have to be one as well? As a matter of fact Jesus tells us not to be like the Pharisee’s.

Matthew 23: Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: ² “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. ³ So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Jesus also used this as a means to show that we are supposed to display forgiveness to an individual and not condemn them to death like it were their customs to do back in those times.

But Jesus did in fact still let her know what she was doing was wrong and that she needs to go and sin no more. – John 8:11

He also told the same words to another man he healed earlier in the book of John.

John 5:14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.

Why would Jesus give us a command that’s impossible? Why would Jesus give us false hope? That is not something that He would do, because He is not a man that He should lie. If God tells us to do something then it’s possible. All things are possible through Christ who strengthens us. God also doesn't give us false hope. There is nothing false about GOD. All of His ways are true and pure. If He gives us a command it’s because it can be kept!

1 Corinthians 10: 13 And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

God is faithful, He provides a way out every time, it’s just up to us to accept His power or will we succumb to the ways of the world because we believe what man tells us vs. what is in God’s word.

I remember I too used to believe that it was impossible to stop sinning and usually when I tell people what the Holy Spirit has taught me they look at me like I'm crazy. It can be pretty discouraging and I have to continually fight for the seed God has placed inside of me.  I trust God because I personally know where He has taken me from and I also trust His word vs. the opinion of a man.

You see, God is much more powerful then sin can ever be. He is able to keep us as long as we trust Him and obey Him. God wouldn't tell us to do something that we couldn't do. Let God mold you into the person He is calling you to be. Trust Him, because His ways are always better and they work!

God’s Grace is limitless,