How do I get closer to God for good and never sin again?

How do I get closer to God for good and never sin again?

QUESTION:

How do I get closer to God for good and never sin again?

ANSWER:

Your question takes me back to Romans 7. You are facing the same internal conflict as Paul did when he wrote the passage outlined below. Before you read it, consider that in this very passage there are some important things to learn. I will expound on them below.

Rom 7:18-24 For 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. (19) For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. (20) Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. (21) I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. (22) For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: (23) But 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. (24) O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

So, what do we learn from this that can answer your question?

Number 1: The law of sin and the law of the Spirit of life

NOTHING good dwells in your flesh! You can want to do good, but you cannot perform it or maintain it. The reason for this is because sin dwells in your flesh. Paul even goes to say that it is a law in your members; the law of sin which brings you into captivity to its bidding over and over again, eventually bringing you to that expression of how wretched you are. This answers your question; that you will never be able to quit sinning.

Now, even though we cannot quit sinning in the flesh, because sin is in us, God has made a way for us to be righteousness unto Him. That way is Jesus Christ and specifically His cross work, Rom 4:25; Rom 5:1-2.

By hearing and responding to the grace gospel and trusting in the cross work of Christ, God destroys sin in us. We die to sin through the death of Christ, and we are resurrected to life by His resurrection. This new relationship we have with God is not in our flesh but in our spirit. This relationship of righteousness we have with God cannot be broken or tainted as it is based on the work of Christ, not our own. Paul emphasizes this victory over the law of sin in us in Rom.8:1-4,

Rom 8:1-4 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (3) 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: (4) That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Number 2: Obedience to the knowledge of the Word, Rom.6:16; 2Cor.10:5

The flesh is unsalvageable in this life. This is why we get a new body at the rapture/resurrection. Our work in this life is not to fix the flesh! We cannot. Our work here is to gain knowledge in Jesus Christ. We are to study the Word and have it renew our minds, Rom.12:1-2. It is the knowledge of God’s written Word that causes us to walk in the Spirit, or, as Rom.8 says, to walk according to “the law of the Spirit of life”. When the Word of God starts to live within us, and we give ourselves over to obedience to the knowledge of the written Word, that Spirit of life, we start to mortify the flesh, Rom.8:13. Our thoughts, our speech, and our actions will start to produce the fruit of the Spirit, Gal.5:22-23, more and more, thus bringing us closer to God, growing up in Him from babes in Christ to mature sons of God, Rom.8:14, who knows His will and who brings Him pleasure through the good works that He works within us, Phil.2:13, through….what?....yes…through the knowledge of His Word!! This is why God Himself tells us what His will is for us, which is (1) to be saved, and (2) to come to a knowledge of the truth [which is Hs Word].

1Ti 2:4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

To get closer to God and stop sinning, we are to get saved through the gospel of Christ and then to study His Word, gain in knowledge of it and then, in obedience to it, allow it to change your thoughts and actions to the glory of God.

God bless.