One common mistake

One way to describe this mistake is to say that many people are superficial in their spiritual life, being satisfied with an external form of religion seen by regular Bible reading, family prayer, church attendance, church activities, etc. In many such cases, it indicates that they are Christians only in name, and they have not personally gone to the Saviour confessing themselves as sinners who are lost without Him (Jn.3:3). Such people may avoid some commonly known sins, but overcoming sin has not become a goal in their life because they have not yet faced the issue of being sinful before the holy God. But this note is not particularly about such people at this point. God is more seriously concerned about people who have truly been born again, having repented from sin and turned to Jesus as their Saviour and Lord, but who still take a somewhat superficial approach towards sin in their own life.

An easy way to describe them is to say that they are still living according to the Old Testament standards in their daily life, even while they believe in the New Testament sacrifice of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins! One outstanding difference between life under the old and new covenants is the law which rules life. The old covenant is characterised by the Ten Commandments. Under these commandments, someone could be seen breaking the law, brought before the judge and punished, because the compliance to the law and also the breaking of the law were easily observable. They were about external acts. If they started worshipping another god, committed adultery, stole, bore false witness, etc., witnesses could easily make out that they have sinned. Even in the case of coveting, it was really not about desiring to have someone else's things, but only about actually taking them, which could be observed and judged.

The difference with the new covenant is that now we have to deal with the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus (Ro.8:2). This law is what is written by the Holy Spirit on our heart and mind from the time we are born again (2Co.3:3). Jesus spoke about this higher standard which He was bringing, in contrast with the old covenant – for example, hatred in the heart that leads to murder, and lust in the heart to adultery. For Jesus, these were sins in the heart! The Holy Spirit is now working in the children of God at the root level, at the level of the heart, so that these sinful desires and tendencies are put to death before they can take external form as action (Ro.8:13).

The mistake is to continue to deal with our sinful nature only at the external level of action, while allowing sinful lusts, imaginations, planning and scheming to have free reign in our mind. We may think nobody sees it, and therefore nobody can judge us, or imagine that as long as we are not actually doing anything wrong outside, we have not sinned! This is what divides between people who live before other people and before God (Mt.5:8).