The Normal Christian Life part 5

God has provided for us all we need in Jesus.  He has given us a new nature and new identity.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. Romans 8:10

For in my inner being I delight in God's law;
but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. Romans 7:22-23

and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24

who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Philippians 3:21

But a Key Question, that we must ask ourselves (many do you know), if this is so true Why do I struggle with sin?  Why do believers often act as unbelievers? 

We can say that when an unbeliever acts in a sin, he is acting consistent with his nature.  On the other hand for the believer to sin IT IS CONTRARY TO WHO WE ARE IN CHRIST!  So what are we to do?  How are we to live?

We must first act in Knowledge.  This is why being in the Word is vital to living in Christ.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6:5-7
and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. Philippians 3:9

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21

Second we need to Reckon what God’s says as FACT… this is Belief, and without it not only can’t we please God, we are done for.

If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own. John 7:17

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 1 Timothy 6:12

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, Ephesians 1:17-19

And finally we Yield to Jesus Christ, who dwells in us.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. Romans 6:12-13

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

Consider the words of CS Lewis.

 “Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”  ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity