In this first (official) installment of my semi-weekly ‘Theology Thursday’ series, I discuss how God enables us to overcome sin through the power of His Spirit. Reflecting on a recent sermon I heard from Matthew 5:27-30, in which Jesus equates lust with adultery and then instructs his audience to gouge out an eye or cut off a hand if it causes them to sin. While Jesus is obviously using hyperbole, he doesn’t in this passage explain precisely how one is to over the temptation of adultery (or any other sin). Fortunately, Paul fills in the gaps. Drawing on Romans 8, particularly 8:12-14, Paul says that it is the Spirit which enables us to put to death the deeds of the flesh. All throughout Romans Paul has drawn a parallel between sin and death, a Biblical theme reaching back to the Garden of Eden and paralleled in the covenant between God and Israel outlined in Deuteronomy 27-32. Sin necessarily leads to corruption and death, a point Paul repeatedly makes in Romans and necessitating, as Jesus implies, a surgical removal. Fortunately, those who place their faith in God’s Messiah Jesus are given the Spirit, which allows us to begin the process of resurrection in the present and overcome our sin-which-leads-to-death through the gracious, Spirit-enabled process of sanctification. We can and should work to overcome the corruption of sin and are, by God’s grace, enabled to do so through the power of the Spirit.
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