Multitudes of Christians struggle and get discouraged over the fact that, no matter how much they strive to resist temptation, they still fall into sin. For some, Satan has prepared the lie that they don’t need to worry about obeying the divine law because “the law was nailed to the cross and we’re under grace now.” For other Christians, they fall into the trap of legalism. Like the Jews of old, they form man-made rules to limit their opportunities to sin, thinking that if they live strict enough lives, they will be acceptable to Yah.
The truth is, believers sin because we continue to struggle under the Old Covenant agreement as ratified by the Children of Israel: “All that Yahuwah has spoken we will do.” (Exodus 19:8, NKJV)
The problem is, we can’t obey in our own strength no matter how much we try. Paul expressed it best. “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” (Romans 7:14-15, NIV)
Regardless of how much we long to reflect Yah’s image, we still fall short. “So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in Yahuwah’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:21-24, NIV)
The good news of the gospel is that Yahuwah understands the problem and has provided a way of escape. “I thank Yahuwah — through Yahushua Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25, NKJV) The problem, of course, is that we all still have the fallen natures inherited from Adam. This fallen nature is the other “law” working in our flesh that keeps us sinning even when we don’t want to. To counter-act this law of heredity, Yahuwah gives believers a down payment of the Holy Spirit. To all who desire to honor Yah, this earnest of His Spirit is sufficient to transform haters of the divine law into lovers of the divine law.
This token of the Holy Spirit is insufficient to replace the fallen nature with the divine nature, so believers continue to strive earnestly against sin and will continue to do so until gifted with a higher nature. Falling into sin does not mean they are not genuinely converted. It simply means they still have a fallen nature. However, with the gift of the Spirit, believers now love the divine law they used to hate, and loathe the sin they used to love. Yahuwah has a special promise for all who allow this gift to transform them into lovers of the divine law: the establishment of a new and different covenant.
Behold, the days are coming, says Yahuwah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says Yahuwah. (Jeremiah 31:31-32, NKJV)
Yahuwah is here promising to do for us what we have never been able to do for ourselves.
Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God. (Ezekiel 36:25-28, NKJV)
This is the New Covenant! He will cleanse us and put a new Spirit within us. He will remove our stony hearts (the fallen natures that keep us sinning despite our best efforts under the Old Covenant), and He will put His Spirit within us. Then He will enable us to walk in His statutes and do them. Yahuwah is promising here to recreate His people, giving them new, higher natures that are patterned after His own. This is what is necessary to truly live without sin. Under the Old Covenant, an earnest of this recreation has been given, but it will be experienced in its fullness when Yahushua returns to set up Yah’s kingdom on earth.
For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to Himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. (Colossians 1:19-22, NKJV)
If you feel discouraged because you find yourself still falling into sin, take courage. The very fact that you want to stop sinning is proof of the Spirit’s work on your heart because the natural heart does not love the things of Yah.
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. (Romans 8:5, 7-9, NKJV)
Continue to surrender to Yahuwah. Cling to His promises by faith and someday soon when Yahushua returns, you will be filled with the fullness of Yah’s Spirit as a new creature—which you already are—in Him. This will be the reality of life under the New Covenant: perfection in Yahuwah, filled with His spirit.
