Far too often Christians living in quiet resignation to the power of sin in our lives. We acknowledge our salvation, profess our faith in Christ, yet remain bound by the same struggles year after year, content to grieve over our failures but unwilling to truly rise up and fight against them. This is not the victorious life Christ has called us to. Scripture declares with absolute clarity, “Sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Ro.6:14). Yet we often live as though this promise were not true, as though the gospel has lost its power and extend grace to our sin.
This is not a reflection of the gospel’s weakness, but of ours. It is a failure to draw from the riches of Christ’s strength, a refusal to take hold of the victory He has already won for us. It is a dangerous apathy that shames the name of Christ and dims the light of the gospel in a world desperately in need of hope. The gospel is not merely the good news of forgiveness for past sins; it is the good news of deliverance from the power of sin. Through Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin but have become slaves to righteousness (Ro. 6:18). This transformation is not optional or secondary, it is the evidence of true salvation that continues to work within us. The work of salvation has not paused. Paul’s words in Titus are a resounding call to the Church: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12).
Yet how many of us remain comfortable in defeat? Instead of renouncing sin, we excuse it. Instead of living godly lives, we settle for mediocrity. We accept failure as inevitable, claiming the weakness of our flesh as justification for our lack of discipline? Has the cross lost its power? Has the Spirit within us grown weak? Absolutely not! The problem lies not in the gospel but in our slothful refusal to pick up our cross, to die to ourselves and to vigorously fight against sin in our lives and to watch and pray that we do not fall unto temptation over our specific besetting sins until God enables us to victoriously slay them or we return home in the midst of our efforts.
We are called to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phi. 2:12). This is not a call to earn our salvation, but to live it out with deliberate effort, intentionality and watchfulness. The Christian life is not one of passivity but of continuous vigilance and perseverance. Sin must be fought with the same intensity as a soldier on the battlefield, not treated as a harmless, unwanted houseguest. Paul’s words are a reminder: “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Ro. 8:13). This putting to death is active, continual, and Spirit-empowered. Too often we grieve our sins, our inability to overcome them year after year, but refuse to take the necessary steps to sincerely fight and evict them, to put them out of our actions, minds and character. We bemoan our repeated failures but neglect the means of grace that God has given us, prayer, scriptural promises, fellowship, and the power of the Holy Spirit. We lament our lack of growth but fail to discipline our hearts and minds in truth. Instead, we allow sin to fester and grow, becoming comfortable in its presence, even as it steals our joy and weakens our witness.
When we as Christians live in habitual defeat, we present a false witness to the world. We proclaim with our mouths that Jesus saves, but too often our lives tell a different story. A story of defeat instead of victory after victory. Our lives suggest that the gospel has no actual power to transform, that the victory of the cross is incomplete and stops after salvation, that sin is too strong to overcome. But this is a lie. The gospel is the power of God for salvation, not just from the penalty of sin but from its power (Ro.1:16). To live in defeat is to deny this truth and to dishonor the One who died to set us free. It is not enough to merely confess our sins if we are unwilling to forsake them. Proverbs reminds us, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Prv 28:13). Confession must be paired with repentance, a turning away from sin and toward the righteousness that is ours in Christ.
The time has come for the Church to wake up. We must stop making excuses for our failures and earnestly seek victory. The One who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world (1 John 4:4). The power to overcome is already ours in Christ, but we walk in it by faith to take hold of it. Every year of our lives should bear witness to the transforming power of the gospel. We should be able to look back and see how the Lord has delivered us from sin, how He has refined us, and how His Spirit has made us more like Christ. Our testimonies should be filled with joy and gratitude, not with the weary repetition of the same failures and the same excuses. We must stop grieving the Spirit with our apathy and begin rejoicing in His power to sanctify us and become living displays of His grace and goodness at work in us.
“Let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb.12:1). The race is not run by accident; it requires discipline, vigilance, and perseverance. It requires reliance on Christ, who has already overcome the world (John 16:33). When we live lives of victory over sin, we magnify the gospel. We show the world that Jesus saves completely and continues to work out his salvation in us. We show the world that Christ is able to deliver us from every chain, no matter how strong. Our lives become a living testimony and display to the power and glory of God before ourselves and others as we see continual transformation in one another. This is what the world needs to see, not defeated Christians excusing their failures but victorious saints proclaiming the greatness of their Savior who saved them, continues to save them and will save them as they workout their salvation with fear and trembling.
It is work. The time for excuses is over. The time for victory is now. Wake up, O sleeper, and rise from your slumber. Put to death the sins that cling so closely that you have neglected and excused so long. Fight the good fight of faith. Rejoice in the power of Christ that saves and sanctifies. And let your life declare to the world that Jesus Christ is Lord, not only over death but over every sin, every weakness, every struggle. What particular sin will you declare war on this year? To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Ro. 6:10-14)
