Three Simple Steps To Overcome Any Sin

“We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37).

Whoever you are, whatever your struggles and temptations may be, sweet victory is yours for the taking.

Right now!

All you need do is appreciate, appropriate and act upon what already belongs to you in the person of Jesus Christ. You are guaranteed success in whatever battle you may be fighting, not because you are sufficient for the battle—you are not!—but because there are massively powerful provisions at your fingertips, in Christ.

Here are three simple steps that will release you from the grip of even the most besetting sin.

1. Name the Thing

Honesty is the precursor to victory.

Before God, and in your own conscience, call your sin exactly what it is. Cease all explanations and excuses. Just get on your knees and confess that this thing is absolutely opposed to God’s character, that it is hurting others and destroying you. Verbalizing the truth of the matter is vitally necessary. Doing so awakens a deeper sensitivity and places your heart in an honest position before God and before yourself.

Moses instructed Israel, “It shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing” (Leviticus 5:5).

Confess “that thing,” the specific “thing,” for exactly what it is, without reserve and without any kind of justification.

David gave us an example of total transparency before God:

I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and You forgave the iniquity of my sin (Psalm 32:5).

Stop hiding!

Stop lying!

Stop explaining!

Simply tell the truth.

2. Decide and Act Against the Thing

There lies within you a God-given power to choose. It’s a power no force in the universe can prevail against. Satan himself, and all his unholy angels, cannot make a man or woman sin when the will has decided not to.

The biblical word for the movement of the will away from sin and toward God is “repentance.” It basically means a deliberate change of mind and direction.

Call it a spiritual 180.

The moment you decide against sin and begin to act in a new moral course, new neurological, synaptic pathways immediately begin to form. Your mind actually begins to take on a new shape! Paul says you literally “become renewed in the spirit (the bent or inclination) of your mind” (Ephesians 4:23). As the repentant frame of mind is sustained, a new personhood is formed in the image of Christ. New patterns of thought, feeling and behavior become easier with every passing day. You become naturalized to and at home in character of God.

But now comes the most vital factor of all.

3. Receive Power Over the Thing

No matter how honestly you confess your sin, and no matter how firmly you decide against your sin, your willpower does not innately posses the quality and kind of power you need to overcome. Of yourself, you are utterly bankrupt of the moral oomph to obtain victory.

Not when it comes to overcoming sin.

So where does that leave you?

Well, you are in desperate need of a power outside of and above yourself to be poured into the moral fiber of your being. You need a steady inflow of a particular kind of power that is not of human origin. This power is not a mysterious or nebulous thing. It’s not a magical wave of energy or some kind of miraculous act of divine fiat that bypasses your awareness and freewill.

Quite simply, the power you need is… wait for it… the love of God!

Paul says:

“The love of Christ compels us… He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

That is, the love of Christ is the power that moves us to cease living for ourselves and to begin living for Him. The love of Christ, alone, is of sufficient power to break the strength of sin at its most foundational level, at the level of our natural inclination to live for self.

Again, Paul says:

“We through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith… faith energized by God’s love” (Galatians 5:5-6, author’s translation).

God’s love is the vital energizing factor in the victorious Christian life. No other power will do, because no other power can do.