Romans 6:13-14 tells us to “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.”
We are born with the law of sin which is our human weakness.[1] This is why we all start out in life with sin having dominion over us; but, Galatians 5:16 tells us to “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” We receive strength over this law of sin with its accompanying lust by walking in the Spirit.[2] We need to interact with the Holy Spirit when He is within us in order to have victory over our tendency towards sin. Inner strength from God is part of the grace that sanctifies us and separates us from our own corruption. It is the fruit of the Spirit called temperance or self-control.[3] In the denomination of my youth, I had never heard that it was possible to overcome the recurrence of my sin patterns. I didn’t even know that it was possible.
Because of our human weakness, our attempts to perform religious laws and regulations cannot bring us to a place of righteousness with inner peace and strength from God. Jesus was able to have righteousness by performing the Mosaic Law because He could do it perfectly, which is required for its righteousness.[4] We are not able to do religious law perfectly because of our weakness; but, when we have Christ within us and walk in the Spirit, Christ shares His righteousness from the Law with us through our faith in Him.[5] A new covenant was put in place so that God’s law will be written in our hearts, and be strengthened through our High Priest, Jesus Christ.[6] Ultimately, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was required for lifting us out of sin because He is the only one who provides us with the sustaining power to do so. He takes from Jesus and makes it known to us.[7]
Trusting in God is the means for arriving at this place of strength. This trust is required because we are unable to arrive at it by using our willpower, and we need God’s power for this. This is another way of saying that we yield to God in order for His strength to flow into us, along with His peace that passes all understanding. In order to also have this inner peace, we are told to be anxious for nothing.[8] Casting all of our care on God is how we trust in God in order to get His peace and strength through the Holy Spirit, and to open up to grace.[9]
These fruits of the Spirit are also effective for dealing with our tendencies towards worry and anger. Excessive worry can even manifest itself in being overly scrupulous about the uncertainty of whether we have sinned or not. This often occurs in legalistic organizations where religious rules and regulations are promoted for keeping people in line instead of walking in the Spirit. Christianity is a religion of the Spirit and not of religious law.[10]
The best way that I found to deal with my personal worry and scrupulousness was to be anxious for nothing by casting all of my care on God. Until I read of this in the Bible, I didn’t know that God wanted me to trust Him to the point that I wasn’t supposed to worry about anything at all, and that He would give me inner peace if I did trust Him in this way. Even though I wasn’t taught this in my denomination, I tried it and it worked; and, to my surprise, He added inner strength as well.
Worry and trust in God are opposites. Because of this, we can conclude that worry is detrimental to our trust in God even if it is religiously motivated. This creates a dilemma for those who do worry about their relationship with God. In order to have a close relationship with Him, it becomes a choice between worrying about the relationship with God, and thereby, remaining alienated from Him; or, not worrying by trusting in Him in order to be close to Him.
Choosing to unconditionally trust in Him changed my whole approach to Christianity from self-reliance to yielding to God. This opened me up to peace and strength from God. It is now the most important aspect of my personal Christianity.
For more information and a FREE download of Peter Aiello’s entire book, visit http://www.hiddentreasure.website/.
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[1] Cf. Romans 7:21-23
[2] Cf. Galatians 5:16-25; 2Peter 1:4; Ephesians 3:14-21; 4:22;
Philippians 4:13; Romans 8:21
[3] Cf. Galatians 5:22-23
[4] Cf. Galatians 3:10-11; James 2:10
[5] Cf. Romans 8:1-13; Galatians 2:16; Philippians 3:9
[6] Cf. Hebrews 8:10; 4:14-16; 7:11-12; 24-27; 10:16, 19-23;
Colossians 1:11; Romans 5:6; 2Corinthians 3:3; 12:9; 2Timothy 1:7;
3:5; Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ezekiel 36:26-27
[7] Cf. John 16:13-15; 14:16-18
[8] Cf. Philippians 4:6-7
[9] Cf. Isaiah 26:3-4; 1Peter 5:5-7; James 4:5-10; Proverbs 3:5-6;
Matthew 6:25-27; 11:28-30; Psalms 37:7; 55:22; 30:15; 55:6-9;
Galatians 5:16-25; Romans 13:14; 6:13; 8:28; and John 6:63
[10] Cf. Romans 8:4
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