Many believers wrestle with a persistent, ugly, habitual sin and wonder why it still holds such a grip. If God has saved them and is all-powerful, why doesn’t He simply remove this struggle? The silence after prayer can feel like condemnation, leading to doubts about whether salvation was ever truly received.
It is important to understand from the outset that ongoing struggle is not evidence that God’s plan has failed. Rather, it reveals that His plan is deeper and richer than commonly taught. The religious system often sells a lie—that sanctification is merely behavioral improvement, a gradual moral upgrade where one sins less over time. This is not Christianity; it is religious self-help with a Jesus sticker. Such teaching only leads to frustration and despair.
The system points to commands like:
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4).
While the command is true, it does not satisfy the deeper need. Telling a starving man not to eat garbage does not fill his stomach; it only makes him more aware of his hunger. This is the dilemma faced by believers who agree with the law’s holiness yet find themselves carnal and sold under sin. They cry out with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24).
God’s Answer Was Not Reform, But Death
The solution God provides is not better rules or more willpower. His solution is to terminate the person under sin’s power.
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).
God’s answer is to take believers to the cross and crucify them with Christ. He does not fix the old self or reform the addict; He executes that person. The “you” who was a slave to sin was legally and spiritually put to death at salvation. The ongoing struggle persists because believers try to resuscitate a corpse—trying to obey from a position of life when God calls them to reckon themselves dead.
This critical distinction is often blurred by religious teachers. The blood of Jesus deals with the guilt of sin, while the cross deals with the power of sin. Many keep applying the blood—seeking forgiveness and feeling guilt—to solve a power problem. Forgiveness is precious but does not break chains. Only death with Christ breaks sin’s power.
Why Does Sin Still Feel Alive?
Sin remains attractive because it is deceitful, and the flesh—the physical body with its appetites—remains. The truth is plain: believers retain the sin nature, and sin’s allure does not automatically diminish with growth in Christ. The teaching of progressive sanctification, which suggests that desire for sin lessens over time, is a deadly myth that sets believers up for failure and hypocrisy.
The desire for sin may always be present. The battle is not to eliminate desire but to learn where true life and satisfaction come from.
Believers are like Israel in the wilderness: redeemed from Egypt (the world) but not yet in the promised land. They survive on manna but hunger for the leeks and onions of Egypt. Their thirst is unsatisfied. They white-knuckle their way through temptation, torturing themselves with “no” to desires screaming “yes.” This struggle reveals a hunger for living water, not more willpower.
Sanctification Is a Person, Not a Procedure
The pivot point is this:
“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
Christ Himself is sanctification—not effort or commandment-keeping. Sanctification is received by believing, just as justification is. Believers receive Christ as life moment by moment. As they learn to enjoy Him, to drink of Him as living water, their thirst for old things is quenched—not by their fight but by His fullness.
The command “do not fornicate” remains, but grace teaches denial of ungodliness by supplying a superior satisfaction. The body is a vessel, a temple—not for lust but for Christ. As believers fellowship with Him and feed on Him, sin loses its appeal because it cannot compete with the reality of Christ.
God does not simply remove the struggle because doing so would foster self-reliance and moral pride. Instead, He allows the struggle to bring believers to the end of themselves—to the cry, “O wretched man”—so they will look away from themselves and to their Deliverer, saying, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25).
How to Respond When Temptation Strikes
Believers are called to come boldly to God’s throne, not to hide. Sin, empowered by Satan, whispers, “You’ve failed again. God is angry. Hide from Him.” This is the oldest lie, designed to keep believers away from their only source of supply.
“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).
Faith in the blood grants the right to come. Failure becomes the very reason to run to the throne, not from it. Believers preach the gospel to themselves, declaring: I am crucified with Christ. I am not under law but under grace. Sin shall not lord it over me. There is no condemnation. I am a son, an heir. These truths become armor.
One practical suggestion to break the cycle of hiding is to face the temptation and, while doing so, thank God for the blood, sonship, and union with Christ. The goal is not to sin but to destroy the power of shame that drives isolation from God. Fellowship is maintained based on what Christ has done, not on a clean record.
Growth Is Knowing Christ
Growth in the Christian life is growth in “the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17). It is the salvation of the soul—Christ magnified in and through the believer. It is learning that “for me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21). This growth happens as believers pursue Christ, not a behavior chart.
Believers will fail and sometimes yield members to sin. This does not jeopardize salvation but reflects living as a slave rather than an heir.
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16).
The gospel’s power is always available to bring renewal and remind believers of their identity.
God allows the struggle to lead believers to the end of their own strength, teaching that their only hope, life, and sanctification is Christ Himself. The struggle is the classroom where believers learn to say and mean,
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
Stop trying to reform the dead man. Reckon him dead. Drink deeply of the only One who can satisfy the thirst left behind.
