New article on Inoreader

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnrFlpro0xfYjz6s5Xa8WWwReckoning with Personal Failure // Ask Pastor John -

Christians are new creations in Christ — yet we still feel the familiar pull of the old self. How do we reckon with the persistence of indwelling sin?

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” says Paul (2 Corinthians 5:17). That’s an amazing statement. In Christ we participate in the new creation — now. We are new creatures. We are regenerated. We have been born a second time. My inner man is raised from the dead by the Spirit of Christ himself. My sins are forgiven. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). There are so many glorious pictures of the victorious Christian life.

And yet, despite all these glorious new-life realities, we still sin. We are still duped by the world, the devil, and our own remaining evil within. Some of the very same false promises that captured our attention as unbelievers continue to catch our eye as believers. This is one of the great disappointments of the Christian life — to be so deeply different and yet so easily suckered into the same sins.

On Friday, we looked at whether our repentance is genuine if we keep confessing the same sins. That was APJ 1623. Today we address this question: How do we reckon with our sin failures as redeemed Christians? This is the key theme taken up in the following clip from a 2001 sermon by John Piper. The clip was sent to us from a listener named Lucy in Woking, England. Here’s Pastor John, preaching on Romans chapter 7.

Read or listen to this interview at our website: https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/reckoning-with-personal-failure

Find other recent and popular Ask Pastor John episodes: https://www.desiringgod.org/ask-pastor-john