Trying to fight the desire of sin is a battle that I promise, you will not win. Butting heads against this attraction is a fight against your own body, and sooner or later, your body will take back control. Ever since I had the capacity to understand and recognize sin, I began to take count and note all the times of my wronging, and this led my mind into a space where wave after wave of guilt and shame would come forth upon me like sitting at a rocky shore on the beach. I then would put all my effort and willpower into not doing whatever had sent my conscience into that drowning pool of water, yet I would sink beneath the surface every time.

This would include taking precautionary steps such as: Putting up mental blockage to keep my mind from drifting too far on negative and sinful thoughts. Having an accountability partner whom I would tell all my wrong doings so that I might be encouraged not to do them. Reading types of scripture that reinforced whatever sin I was specifically dealing with was wrong. And actively putting myself down in remembrance of sin so that when temptation would come I would hopefully have no desire to do whatever had come my way.

Yet with all my best efforts (and believe me I tried rigorously for years) I would continuously come to my knees in tears begging that God would hear my apologies for promising to change but never doing it, and would then make a new promise to which I would also break. Summer camps, special retreats, and youth nights were typically the times when I would have that “spiritual revival” in my heart, the major problem was that I would try revert and go back to the same method I had been doing. Taking precautionary steps, hoping that it would work, but come up empty handed every time.

It wasn’t until recently when I discovered that the sure way to not overcome sin, is to try and overcome sin. To defeat sin is to not fight the sin. What does this mean? For starters, as Christians we cannot personally defeat sin anyways because we are simply unable to do so in our imperfect current state. If we were able to overcome sin by ourselves, well--Jesus would have died for a small cause. Christians can’t beat out sin by fighting it because it is literally our own flesh that craves sin. It's a fight against ourselves which only leads ourselves getting hurt. Our willpower does not last forever, and when it fails it will leave us with feelings of discouragement and shame.

The first step to overcome sin is to remember what Jesus has already done for his people. Why are Christians fighting measly battles of dead sin when Christ has already conquered Hell, the kingdom that thrashes out sin upon earth? Having problems with greed? Christ already conquered it. What about pride? He conquered that one too. And what happened to lust? Jesus obliterated it to pieces. The son of man defeated all sin by the single act of being raised from the dead. Death is the ultimate and final consequence of any sin, but by being resurrected, he defeated death along with all sins which send people to it.

But even though Jesus already defeated death along with every sin, temptation still comes our way. Why? Because the full termination of sin will linger on by an unwinding piece of thread until Jesus returns. It’s like Jesus inflicted sin with a disease that will--no doubt, destroy it one day, but as of right now it is surviving on its last legs doing as much harm as it can before it is gone forever. That’s why anybody who takes pleasure in sin and opposes Christ is fighting such a losing battle. Even though it may seem that sin still has a chance, it has an incurable and irreversible sentencing that Jesus inflicted upon it which will perish it and all who worship it.

To recap, as Christians we should first remind themselves that Christ has already defeated death, and sin will be totally vanquished one day because of his resurrection. The battle is already won. But until the final annihilation of evil, temptation still gets thrown in our life. When the times of temptation cross our path we should know that no matter what happens, because we are in Christ, sin cannot do any eternal damage to our soul. It also cannot destroy our salvation, even if we cannot resist the urges of it. Knowing all this should give an abundance of relief and relaxation. Sin can be an unfortunate part of our life, and whilst I am not suggesting we take the matters of sin in a light way, I am suggesting that we understand how to logically live with sin in a world where it still is present. So most importantly, I hope this knowledge allows a more freeing life that Christians can live--not being bounded by the weight of being imperfect, shameful, and guilty. Christ came to live the perfect life so that we wouldn't have to. He gave up his life so we can live ours.

But even still, sin can have temporary and earthly consequences. And as hard as we try to remind ourselves that we shouldn’t feel guilty or shameful, the knowledge of knowing right from wrong can make us become restless when we perform wrongly. So how do we fix this? Once we are able to wrap our head around the concept, it’s incredibly simple actually...We must find the core problem.

The core problem of any and all sin is not the sin itself. Lust is not the core problem of looking at women inappropriately, idolatry is not the core problem of loving something more than you love God, and hate is the not core problem of gossiping. The core problem of any and all sin is your relationship with Jesus.

The only way to live a life on earth free of sin is to have a relationship with Jesus that is so thoroughly nurtured throughout the day that you are constantly always aware of his presence, and for this matter, especially when temptation arises.

I would believe that most Christians have a problem with their relationship with Jesus. The relationship, in human terms, would look like a friendship that was created in elementary school because their parents gave them a play date, but one friend moved away and didn’t keep any contact with the one left behind. Even though the friend that got left behind was continuously sending mail to his buddy, only an occasional letter or two would arrive in the mail from the friend who left. A long lost friend was created, and a friendship became broken. This relationship is far from being healthy much less even being nurtured on any sort of basis. Yet I feel this is what has happened to millions of Christians around the world.

By solving the core problem of a hurting relationship with Jesus, everything else falls into place. The desire to sin becomes less and the frequencies of you falling into temptation becomes less. The timing is different for every person, and even if somebody still suffers from a particular sin whilst creating a better relationship with Jesus, they should still know that ‘not trying to sin is not the point’.

The main reason why we have the Ten Commandments is not so that we can follow them, (yes following them is a good thing and we should try to do so) but it is show us how sinful we as humans actually are, how badly we cannot execute laws, and how much more we need Jesus. How much more we need God’s grace, and how much more we are at the mercy of the Lord. And I believe that by knowing this and by living it out, it will only create a deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ, thus allowing us to live more peaceful lives away from sin.