To Sin or not to Sin.... The "Choice" is Yours....
James 1:13-15 KJV
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: [14] But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. [15] Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
God will never tempt us. But we through free will and choice decide to either give in to sinful temptations, or to reject them... either way, we are given a choice. The Devil tempts with us with evil and trys to lure us into making a sinful choice to disobey (sin, rebell) against God and follow our own earthly desires. He tempts us to forsake Jesus Christ. But....
Once we have been born again, we now have the power to say no to sin.... the "sin nature" in us that we inherited from Adam has no more power over us. Although we still have the sin nature in us, it has no dominion over us. Our hearts are renewed and made "Holy" by and thru the "Gift of Grace" given to all those who repent of their sins to Jesus Christ Only... and it's after our belief and conversion that we can say no to sinful temptations and choose rather to say yes to righteousness... to obey the holyghost unto life eternal. This is an ongoing lifestyle for a true born again christian and one of the "Evidences of and Fruits of the Spirit" ( Self Control ) that we have been truly born again. The Choice to do evil will always be a choice we can make, but because we desire to serve Jesus christ, we choose his ways and not the Worlds. The hearts of mankind that haven't repented remains wicked and full of untrust.
Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
But... A born again believer of Jesus Christ is given a New Heart...
Ezekiel 36:26-28 KJV
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. [27] And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. [28] And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
A heart that persues righteousness and not wickedness... It's a heart with new desires.... desires to follow after the commandments of Jesus... to pursue Life eternal. A heart that delights in the Law of God and not the Laws of Sin.
The Apostle Paul explains it this way:
Romans 7:21-25 KJV
I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. [22] For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: [23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [24] O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [25] I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
We were designed as Adam and Eve... To be Perfect and In God's Image... living in the presence of God himself in the Garden of Eden... until Satan tempted Eve to make the "Choice" to disobey God.... and by Choice, She disobeyed God. And Adam made the sinful choice to disobey (sin against God) by giving into Eve's temptation. and because of that choice, Sin entered into Mankind and is still flowing thru us "Evidenced by our disobedient Choices to obey our selfish will" and not the will of the Father... God.
But.... Jesus freed us from sin! He freed us by giving us the power we need that we recieve from his holy spirit to say yes or no to sin... be ye holy, for i am holy is not a suggestion.... he would never tell us to do or be something that is out of our control.
