You can do nothing

We were talking about sins we struggle with and ultimately we had to face the reality that in our own strength we can do nothing to help ourselves. 

In our Christian life, it can be easy to think that in order to please God, we just need to try harder, or be more disciplined. This is not the case. In our own strength we never have and never will be pleasing to God. The only thing our own effort has ever done has separated us from God. 

What pleases God is His Son. We please God when Christ lives and works in us. We sin but Christ overcomes sin. If we are going to overcome sin it will be Christ’s work not ours. This is a lesson we have to keep learning and telling ourselves. As Christ told His disciples, “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5).

When we became born again, we received new life and a new nature. However, that new nature did not replace the old one. It has been said that when we got saved, our sinful nature was not removed, nor improved. This means that when we try to deal with sin in our own power (relying on the flesh) we will inevitably fail. 

The task of overcoming sin will require us to do what we did when we received new life: coming to Christ humbly, acknowledging our weakness and asking Him to do what we can’t. This is how we started our Christian life and it’s how we must continue our Christian life. 

Something often heard when people are preaching the gospel is an appeal for people to stop their own struggles and find rest in the person of Christ. This is something we need to be reminded of, as Christians. Victory over sin is in Christ, not ourselves. 

It is not that we were sinful then we got saved, and now if we try really hard we can live holy. No, holiness will only ever result from abiding in Him. We have been saved by the love of God, and by abiding in that love the life of God will flow out of us. 

The Lord elaborates on this point in John 15, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” The aim of Christian life is to become like Christ. We don’t get there by trying hard, we get there by living and abiding in the love and light of Christ. This will change us from the inside out.

It should be noted that abiding in Christ is not merely a means to an end, so we get more accepted by God. We are accepted because we have our identity in Him now. Our abiding in Him is living in the good of that identity. 

When we abide in and rely on ourselves we will plummet into sin and failure. This will not affect our acceptance but brutally deprive us of the joy of being in Christ. When we abide in Christ we live in the joy of being in Him, of knowing God and being able to live out our purpose as men made in the image of God. Remember, God has promised that we will be conformed to the image of His Son. We will not get there on our steam, we will get there by God’s power. We live in the good of that when we let go and let God do what He has promised.

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