An excerpt from the book, “Redeemed and Righteous by Nature.” Get yours today!
The people in the Corinthian church had been made the righteousness of God, but sin was still active in their lives. They were constantly having to go to God for forgiveness instead of walking away from sin. The Holy Spirit instructed them through the Apostle Paul:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:34
Awake to righteousness, and sin not…
This same instruction will benefit us today. When we wake up and become fully aware of our right standing, we will realize we do not have to sin.
I remember the moment when I realized that I don’t owe my flesh anything! Sometimes our flesh will urge us to respond in anger or unforgiveness. We can be tempted to keep an argument going until we prove we are right.
But we don’t owe our flesh a temper tantrum. We don’t have to give into the demands of our flesh. We can put the brakes on our flesh by telling it that we are righteous. Start declaring your blood-bought status and awake to right standing.
According to First Corinthians 15:34, we must all be awake to our righteousness so that we sin not. We can’t live our lives asleep to the righteousness that we are in Christ.
We shouldn’t go through life reacting to situations or circumstances the same way that an unsaved person does. That was one of the problems in the church at Corinth. They were walking like natural men.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:3
For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
The Amplified Bible says, “…behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?” In other words, they were living as their old “before-Christ” selves. This describes a person who is carnal, which means “flesh ruled.”
Anytime the flesh asks for something, it gets it. If the flesh wants to sleep late, it does. It will hit the snooze button multiple times. The problem is that the more you give in to the flesh, the stronger it becomes.
1 CORINTHIANS 9:27 (AMPC)
But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].
This refers to a person who handles his body roughly. He realizes he cannot give in to the desires of the flesh because it can shipwreck his faith.
