1 Thessalonians 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
In order for us to understand the biblical truth about walking free from sin it is necessary that we have an understanding of the make-up of God’s creation called mankind. As revealed in the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul teaches us that man is made up primarily of three separate parts, i.e. spirit, soul and body. And so, when we are saved it is our spirits that are born-again for we receive new spirits from God (2 Corinthians 5:17). Our soul, which is our mind, is not affected by the new birth however. The bible refers to our minds as being carnal when we come into the kingdom, which is why God instructs us to renew our minds (Romans 12:2). The other part of man that is not affected by the new birth is our body. The bible teaches the believer to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12:1). We will all receive our resurrected bodies when the Lord returns to the earth, and those bodies will be created in the same likeness as the body of our Lord Jesus. However in this life, unlike our minds which can be renewed, our bodies do not change at all. The bible refers to the parts of man which are not changed at the new birth, as the flesh. And so we see that the flesh of man is comprised of the carnal mind and the body of man, and as we will see in the following section, it is in the flesh of the born-again believer that sin resides.
Romans 6:6-7 “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (7) For he who has died has been freed from sin.”
We have already discussed the fact that it is our spirits that are born-again and it is our spirits that become new creations in Christ Jesus. But that is not all that happens when we are saved, for there is something else that takes place just before our spirits are born-again, which is that our old man i.e. our old spirit dies. This truth is revealed to us by the apostle Paul in the passage of scripture quoted above when he teaches us that our old man was crucified with Christ. So what is Paul referring to when he says that our old man was crucified with Christ? Paul is referring to our old spirits. Before we were born-again our old spirits had the nature of the devil and the desire of our old spirits was to always commit sin (John 8:44). When our old man died however his desire to commit sin died with him, which is why those who have died with Christ have thus been freed from sin.
1 Peter 2:24 “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Peter confirms the same truth to us that the apostle Paul taught, i.e. that we have died to sins. The reason we have died to sins is because our old man was crucified with Christ, and therefore just as those who have physically died and gone to be with the Lord in heaven no longer experience any sin, for there is no sin in heaven, so it is that as born-again believers we too have been freed from sin because we too have died to sin. It is for this reason that the apostle Paul teaches believers to reckon themselves to be dead to sin (Romans 6:11). In other words Paul is encouraging us to change our mindsets through the renewing of our minds to the spiritual truth that as believers, we have in fact died to sin. Nevertheless whether we choose to believe it or not the spiritual truth remains, that those who are in Christ have indeed died to sin.
1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”
We have seen thus far that because our old man has died, we are free from sin. But our old man dying is not all that has happened to the believer, for the word of God also teaches us that we have been born-again. In other words we have received new spirits from God, for it is our spirits that have been born-again. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Peter teaches us that our spirits are born-again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. It is very important for believers to understand this particular truth because it means that our new spirits are thus incorruptible, and as such they cannot sin. And so the DNA, if you will, of our spirits makes it impossible for them to commit sin. Knowing this truth, we can therefore understand why the apostle Paul always encouraged the saints to walk in the spirit (Galatians 5:16).
1 John 3:9 “Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit through the apostle John confirms the same truth revealed to us by the apostle Peter, i.e. that our spirits are born-again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God, for he plainly states that he who is born of God cannot sin. When the apostle John teaches us that he who has been born of God cannot sin he is referring to our spirits, for it is our spirits that are born of God. The reason John gives us, as to why the one born of God doesn’t sin is because the seed of God remains in him. The seed that John is referring to in this passage is the same incorruptible seed of God’s word that Peter spoke about. And so, we see that the apostle John taught the church the same truth that the apostle Peter taught, i.e. that the born-again spirit cannot sin.
John 14:16-17 “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever-- (17) the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.”
It is because the born-again spirit cannot sin that under the New Covenant the Holy Spirit can reside in our spirits, for the Holy Spirit cannot reside in the presence of sin. Under the Old Covenant the Holy Spirit could not reside in the spirits of the saints because their spirits were sinful in nature. The Holy Spirit could come upon the Old Covenant saints as God sanctified them by His power but He could not dwell within them. This truth is confirmed to us in the passage of scripture quoted above, for in this passage our Lord told the disciples that the Holy Spirit was with them but He was not yet in them. And so the reason that the Holy Spirit was not in them at that time was because their spirits had not yet been born-again. The moment they were born-again however, the Holy Spirit took up residence in their spirits because their spirits now had the nature of righteousness and there was no sin present.
2 Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
Because the spirit of the born-again believer cannot commit sin, the instant that the believer under the New Covenant dies physically their spirits depart to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. That truth is revealed to us by the apostle Paul in the above quoted passage of scripture. That was not possible for the Old Covenant saints however, because when they died they could not go to heaven; they had to go to Abraham’s bosom (Luke 16:22). The reason for that was because their spirits were still sinful in nature, and because there is no sin in heaven they couldn’t enter heaven. And so they had to be born-again just like we do. This happened after our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, for the bible teaches us that Jesus went and preached the gospel to them and they were then born-again (1 Peter 3:19). When that happened, Jesus then led them into heaven to be with Him (Ephesians 4:8). And so we see that just as our old man has died thus freeing us from sin, so our new man has come and he cannot sin, for that is not his nature. This is why the Holy Spirit keeps encouraging the saints to walk in the spirit, for one who walks in the spirit will never sin because it is impossible for the spirit of the born-again believer to commit sin.
Michael E.B. Maher
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