Let us see ourselves as God sees us -- sinless and righteous. If we continue to dwell on the "sins inside us" we remain in the world and under the bondage of guilt and shame. To think we have to deal with the problem of sin is not having faith in our victory through the gift of grace. Great faith is in believing we are already made holy and righteous in Christ and not trying to live up to His holiness and righteousness. And in that faith we are empowered to live out the true obedient life that is obedience to the holy spirit. Obedience in grace is not to a set of commandments but to the spirit. Sincerely as one may be, thinking it is our part to make the effort is trying to justify grace, which voids it and makes it powerless to help us bring about the change we want in the first place. In our effort to obey we go back to the law.
A Christian is not to be reminded by the holy spirit of our sin and trying to do better.we don't need the gospel for that. The law does a great job of convicting us of sin all by itself. The holy spirit only convicts us of our righteousness in Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation in grace. And grace is not to convict us of sin but to take it away. We must filter all commandments through grace once Christ died and was resurrected. The holy spirit can't contradict Himself by convicting us of both sin and righteousness. We have to believe one or the other. And if we believe He constantly reminds us of sin then we are hopeless for then He is in agreement with the devil who never tells us how good we are in Christ! No, a believer does not need more reminders on how sinful he/she is, but the entire church is impoverished of faith in how holy and righteous she is in the sight of God!
A Christian is not to be reminded by the holy spirit of our sin and trying to do better.we don't need the gospel for that. The law does a great job of convicting us of sin all by itself. The holy spirit only convicts us of our righteousness in Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation in grace. And grace is not to convict us of sin but to take it away. We must filter all commandments through grace once Christ died and was resurrected. The holy spirit can't contradict Himself by convicting us of both sin and righteousness. We have to believe one or the other. And if we believe He constantly reminds us of sin then we are hopeless for then He is in agreement with the devil who never tells us how good we are in Christ! No, a believer does not need more reminders on how sinful he/she is, but the entire church is impoverished of faith in how holy and righteous she is in the sight of God!
"Victory in the Lord" in the new covenant is literally letting the holy spirit do all the work, and we just trust Him to do it in us. That is why faith in grace is so important because we are not called to do anything on our own anymore. In the Old Testament we earn (try to) righteousness by our good works, but in the New Testament we receive through faith the righteousness Christ gave us by grace to live out the holy life. If that is the case then it is not about our trying and doing anymore but trusting and hearing the gospel, for faith comes from hearing only the word of Christ.
We don't do good by the motivation of being a testimony for Him, but the testimony naturally witnessed by the good results of only listening to the message of grace (words of Christ). And it is not our obedience in behavior that testifies to His resurrection and salvation, but the obedience of faith we hold on to no matter the accusation of the world, the church, other believers -- and even our own conscience -- that we have been made, and always will be, holy and righteous. For it is not only the right behaviors seen, but the joy in the righteous behaviors felt that moves hearts and minds, and testifies for Christ. And no amount of effort to do right can earn us the true joy of Christ but only resting in Him and His grace.
Under grace -- and all grace -- we serve out of the overflowing joy in our hearts, and by such no need to be reminded to serve but only listen,... listening to the heart of God.
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