Sin Stuck or Sin Freed by Ralph Harris

Not long ago I was involved in a Facebook thread in which people were discussing sin. One person became increasingly indignant with me—she was pretty much yelling via text—and insisted that, as a Christian, she would always be an “incurable sinner,” whose best hope was “sin in remission.” “Don’t you know that?!” she demanded.
Well, I answered, only if you think of yourself as the unchanged, old creation, the former creation, and as what you do rather than who you truly are in Christ, a new creation. Then you can you say that you are “a sinner.” You will be wrong, but you can say it. Essentially, you will be in error concerning what Jesus did for you and to you through the cross and resurrection. This error hurts you because, not knowing the cure of Christ, you will misdiagnose yourself and treat yourself as though you are sick. This will become a twisted and sickly caricature of Christianity; while perfectly cured, you will deny your health. You will frustrate yourself by looking for health—freedom from sin—based upon what you do, rather than upon what Jesus did. That won’t work. Never has. What He did is your cure and health, not what you do.
To the error-prone Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul wrote: “knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin (Romans 6:6-7).
So the big question is: “Did God’s cure work for you?” Through Jesus’ crucifixion, was your old self crucified with Him? Was your body of sin “done away with” so that you would no longer be a slave to sin? Since, in God’s thinking, you died with Christ, are you freed from sin? Is what He did your cure, or do you have another diagnosis and prescription? Who is the better Physician—you or God?
If you continue to believe that you are an unchanged, old creation and an old sinner-self, and that salvation “only” rescued you from sins and guaranteed you for heaven, your diagnosis will be wrong, because you will not believe the gospel and enjoy the perfect health benefits of the cross and the resurrection for you. One was for your sins, and the other was for your new life. Those in Christ are no longer “sinners” by nature, since through the crucifixion and being included in that, they’ve had a change of nature in Christ and now share in the Father’s. They are saints by nature, holy sons in fact, and already citizens of heaven—free from sin, as is everyone in heaven.
You cannot have dual citizenship. You are either born of this world and are of it, or you are born of heaven and are of it—alien to this world, and representative of heaven. Which one are you?
I love my citizenship and how I got there through the cross and resurrection with Jesus. I’ve never felt better about sin than after I knew the truth about the cross and resurrection and my being included with Christ. In Christ, I have died already, and sin has no power over me. In Christ, I have been healed and raised, and my nature is righteous—through and through. How about yours?
I hope this helps.
(This is a transcript of yesterday’s video, “Sin Stuck or Sin Freed?” and is for those who might rather read than watch.

He's Always Home - Ralph Harris

When you believe in Jesus, He brings all that He is to you—perfect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control—not eventually, not occasionally, not fractionally (“Sorry, but I’m holding a little bit of myself back.”) but all the way, at all times, at every moment, in every situation. Right now. He is the Treasure you’ve been looking for, He is the Reward for which you long, He is the Performer you’d like to be. And He is in you. Jesus is the Favor you want, the Success you were made for, and the Glory now in you.

If just now you’re suffering or enduring hardship, avoid the temptation to work up more fleshly strength (you’re already exhausted), and beware the thoughts that assign you to the failed scrapheap of humanity. That’s a lie. You were made for Jesus, and for Him with you. His glory, the incredible evidence that He lives within you, is best seen through suffering, most obvious in calamity, and most triumphant in hardship. I know.

So I talk with Him—sometimes I talk at Him more than I talk with Him—and He doesn’t mind. He knows that He’s my best friend, and He’s not threatened by my struggles. Right? He’s got quite a history with struggles, so I tell Him about my troubles, I talk with Him about my longings—even the fleshly, ugly ones—and the crazy things that go on in me. He knows that I weary of feeling the inside struggle that goes on between the Spirit and flesh, confusing me as to what to do.

And because I’m chatting at Him, whether silently or audibly, it equals what the Bible calls “offering myself to God.” The offering to God is not to “God out there,” or to “God, who will meet me over there,” when I finally make it or when I finally arrive. No. My offering is to “God in here” now, to God who has arrived in me.

The old way of offering our self to God, the Former Covenant way, was to think of yourself as separate from God, who would lead you because He was ahead of you or “over there.” He had to induce you to come after Him. The pressure was on you to follow, and to keep offering to follow. The New Covenant way of offering our self to God is to believe what God knows is true: “Jesus, you and I are together now; you’re in me. I don’t have to look for you over there, or just up ahead, because now you’re in here all the time. You don’t take vacations, and you don’t run off or find a better place to live. You’re being yourself with me in here, all the time. You and I are at home together.” How good is that?

Romans 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. (Those desires are not like you. They’re not your desires.) 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. (Italics mine.)

And where is that grace centered? Where is that at home? In you and in me.

So offer yourself to Jesus. And where is He? That’s where you make the offering—to the inside, to Jesus who has made you His home. Listen for Him and look for Him there.

He’s great company, and He’s always home.
(This is a transcript of the video, “He’s Always Home,” and is for those who might rather read than watch. To see the video, click http://youtu.be/4IhuxfXrZG4. You may also subscribe to these regular videos at that link.)

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The Aliens Have Landed by Ralph Harris

“Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.” (1 Peter 2:11)

God’s purpose for our Christian kids is far greater than whether they get along in class, do well in school, find good jobs, or become upstanding citizens in a world in need of role models. Because His purpose and plan is much higher than those things, he has already changed them. They won’t “get there” sometime after middle school, high school, or college—they’ve already arrived! And they’re in a nasty, very confusing storm. By His grace and through the truth, our daughters will know the nature of the storm in which they live. Your kids should too.

Our kids are aliens (John 17:16; 1 Peter 2:11). That is an incredible fact, and it’s going to hurt, which is why they have a built-in need for us. Intimacy with my daughters does not come from the daily Bible-teaching I’m supposed to do with them, and it does not come out of any moral instruction I may have for them either. I achieve intimacy with them by sharing in their uncomfortable and impossible fit in this world. I know the terrible struggle, I know the tempting lure, and now they do too.

It hurts. But the pain keeps us from depending on the false comforts and techniques of this world that would cover up and diminish our “alienness.” Knowing why our fit in this world hurts makes the pain understandable and perhaps tolerable. The pain Sarah and I have is the very same pain Ellen and Emma have, and it’s there for a reason. When I forget who I am, that pain eventually gets my attention so that I repent and go back to God for a reminder.

I can’t simply treat my kids as God would. I must think of my kids as God does. When I see what He sees, I fit with Him and feel it! When I do not, I give Him some work to do—on me. Our Christian children are aliens, and we live together in a land that’s not our own. If we can get that, our approach to them will be vastly different and uniquely invigorating, and it will keep us living on the edge of the visible world and invisible. And for us, that’s pretty normal.

The devil wants our “alienness” to seem impractical. If we fall for that, we will remain undetected to ourselves, deceived from knowing how incredible and valuable we are. That’s the scheme against us and our children. As soon as we’re born again, our new identity marks us for the grace of God, but it also marks us as targets for the enemy—and he is merciless. The best strategy of the devil is the one least noticeable, the one which slowly ensnares its victim. It’s even better if the victim likes the fit.

While the Holy Spirit, Sarah, and I work to raise our girls in the knowledge of God so they can really live, there is a carnival of activity vying for their attention and allegiance. The big attractions are which television shows to watch, which fashions to wear, which recreational activities to choose, which cell phones to have, which foods to eat, and which boys to like. That’s because visible life all around them demands their attention.

The more opinionated my girls become about visible life, the less opinionated they become about invisible life. The more Ellen and Emma grow passionate about how to clothe themselves, the less they care about the clothing they have already in Christ (see Galatians 3:26-29). The more engrossed they become in what makes up the right boy, the right food, and the right cell phone to have, the more deeply they dive into the pursuit of trivial nobility (Chapter 2). That’s the snare. If the visible world becomes my girl’s dominant passion-lighter of life, they will exchange true life for a fake. And the cover-up will be complete. Getting them to make the proper exchange later can prove terribly difficult because their expectations will have been lowered. They will try to appease their appetite for the bread of life by stuffing themselves with bread that does not satisfy. I have; haven’t you?

We won’t win by dressing them in frumpy duds, forbidding them to like boys, or throwing the television into the trash. We believe we are working in concert with the Spirit when we are building them up in Christ by reminding them who they are and pointing out what friction with this world really means. They are incredible aliens! We don’t want that covered up. They’re not only human—they’re alien. It takes discipline to remember their “alienness” because the devil daily lies to them about their identity.

(Excerpted from my book, “God’s Astounding Opinion of You,” chapter 12: “Aliens Have Landed—The Proper Care and Feeding of the Everyday Foreigners in Your Family. For more information and to read reviews by Steve McVey, Andrew Farley, David Gregory, Malcolm Smith and more, go to http://lifecourse.org/Ralphs_Book.html, to amazon.com, or you can find it at your local bookstore.)