SIN’S POWER

“[O]ur sin is a burden that afflicts us rather than a pleasure that delights us” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p72).

“The Devil knows that if he can keep me tormented by sin’s guilt, he can dominate me with sin’s power” Milton Vincent (ref#60, p19).

“Sin is not primarily an activity of man’s will so much as a captivity which man suffers, as an alien power grips his soul. [W]hile the presence of sin can never be abolished in this life, nor the influence of sin altered (its tendency is always the same), its dominion can, indeed, must be destroyed if a man is to be a Christian” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p71).

“[S]in will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:14 ESV).

“There is a hard unyielding self, which stands up for itself and resists others, that will have to be broken, if we are to be willing for the disposition of the Lamb, and if the precious Blood is to reach us in cleansing power. We may pray long to be cleansed from some sin and for peace to be restored to our hearts, but unless we are willing to be broken on the point in question and be made a partaker of the Lamb’s humility there, nothing will happen. Every sin we ever commit is the result of the hard unbroken self taking up some attitude of pride, and we shall not find peace through the Blood until we are willing to see the source of each sin and reverse the wrong attitude that caused it by a specific repentance, which will always be humbling. This does not mean that we need to try and make ourselves feel the humility of Jesus; for we have only to walk in the light and be willing for God to reveal any sin that may be in our lives, and we shall find ourselves asked by the Lord to perform all sorts of costly acts of repentance and surrender, often over what we term small and trivial matters” Roy Hession (ref#97, p96-97).

“There is no such thing as salvation from sin’s penalty without an accompanying deliverance from sin’s dominion. This obviously does not mean we no longer sin, but that sin no longer reigns in our lives” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p70).

“How can we who died to sin still live in it” (Rom 6:2 ESV)?

“The death of Christ secured for us not only freedom from the penalty of sin, but also deliverance from the dominion of sin in our lives” Jerry Bridges (ref#192, p61).