The fact of the matter is as you stated, sin originates in the heart and as the apostle Paul speaks (in Romans 7, I believe), sin is in the flesh. Rom 7:17, 23 Paul stated that it dwelt within him. So cutting a member out is not going to rid the person of the sin. The work that paid our price of sin was executed on the cross our Lord Jesus died upon. He completed the work there and fullfilled the whole law in Himself. Praise God that it is He who is our propitiation, justification and righteousness! Rom. 3:23-26

Thank you for your insight and for sharing with us.

I waited to reply to your comment for a couple of reasons.  First, I wanted to finish off a post that I thought may be of interest to you regarding sin even though it does not directly address what you are asking.  (read it here. Don’t let the title scare you, it’s not what you think) Second, I wanted to direct you to a blog that has dealt with the issues that you are having trouble with.

One of the things that I wanted to say is in reference to something you stated.  You said “where mine is at home in the form of magazines and dvd’s, starring me in the face and I’m too afraid of disposing of it for my own selfish reasons.” If that’s the position you are taking, then you are not willing to give up your sin.  You state you have “selfish reasons” for keeping your sin in your life. You need to decide what is more important to you, your reasons for keeping material or giving up the sin. Giving up sin is never ever easy for any of us. We all struggle with sin and we all have to give up things in our life that keeps us from having the relationship with Him that we should have.  David sinned greatly and he lost his child because of His sin. He cried out to God to restore the joy of his salvation. Obviously you don’t have joy in your salvation because of this sin that you cannot let go of. The lack of joy is coming through loud and clear in your comment.  At some point, you will pay a price for this sin (no, not the loss of your salvation) but God will chastise you.  Scripture states that if you are a child of God, He will chastise His children. (Hebrews 12:5-8).  Scripture states that if one is without discipline, then that person is illegitimate and not one of His.

You ask “So how do you know if this sin is forgiven if you repent and you really mean it, but the sin continues?” The moment you became a child of God, all of your sins were forgiven.  When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the price for your sins.  You were not yet born (obviously) so all of your sins were in the future. The sins we commit now and the sins we commit tomorrow, next week, etc. were paid for by Jesus on the cross. 

The post I wanted to finish that I thought may be useful to you is

I don’t have the knowledge nor expertise to help you with this.  However, I do know of a Christian blog that can help you. Click here to read the series on this particular sin.  You obviously have an addiction that needs to be dealt with.  Again, going back to your statement of being afraid of disposing of it because of your selfish reasons, it’s just something you’re going to have to do. Just think about other addictions that people have that have been overcome.  I can only imagine how difficult it is for an alcoholic to give up alcohol but if they don’t toss it out, they will always return to it.  The temptation is simply too great.  You are seriously hurting yourself by keeping the temptations at your disposal.  I urge you to go to the blog I linked to and read the series of posts on porn addiction and start a dialog with the blogger. He is better equipped to help you with this.

God bless,

and looking forward to your post

Ed.

Your comment inspired me to write a post about this topic. Hopefully I’ll have it fnished later today.

I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Yes, there is a “higher power” than my own free-will. He is God. Can you give me an example of what you’re referring to with respect to your statement “so the purpose should be to accord with the revealed truths of his will and if it does not follow modern fashions that is too bad.”

You say “It does not seem to occur to you that belief is not just an act of free will but requires a reason or some external evidence to support it.” It does occur to me and in fact, I agree. Belief in something requires a reason for that belief. However, it does not always require some external evidence to support it. I would like to share an example of not requiring external evidence. A friend of mine, who is not a Christian and does not believe in God, believes in reincarnation. To keep this short, I asked her on what basis she believed in reincarnation. She said she had none, that she just believed. it’s something she heard about, she liked the idea of coming back so that’s what she believed.

You say “The reason I don’t believe in God is because I don’t see any evidence for him existing and the concept does not explain anything about the universe.” Actually, I could point you to a bunch of evidence that defies mathematical probability that is simply mind boggling. How could prophecy after prophecy come true, written long before it ever occurred, time and time again without fail? As to the explanation of the universe, you don’t accept the account that is stated in Scripture. You believe in the theory of evolution and the reason you give is because it does not require a designer. In other words, according to what you just told me, your belief is because no designer is involved, you don’t want a designer.

I realize you are answering someone else that commented so I can’t answer speak for the commenter but I did want to reply to some of what you said.

Again, sorry it’s taken so long to respond.

I ask this advice from you fellow Christians as I would DEFINITELY want to share eternal life in heaven with God.

Ed

Matthew 5:29-30 — If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

I do not interpret Scripture to suit me, but I do have a relationship with the Holy Spirit who guides me into God’s truth, and so I still possess both of my eyes and hands.

If you think about it, plucking out an eye and cutting off a hand wouldn’t get to the root of the problem anyway, which is our thought life. So then, still sinning, I would have to pluck out my other eye and cut off my other hand, and still nothing would have changed, except that I would be completely blind and have no hands.

Jesus tried to teach the Pharisees that the spirit of the law should always supercede the letter of the law, but they were so deeply mired in legalism that they could not grasp it.

Brutal honesty is all it’s cracked up to be, brutal and unloving, and there are times when the right thing to do is to tell a white lie in order to fulfill the greatest commandment, which is Love.

If our motive and intent is to build someone up in Love, then unlike a regular lie, there is no personal gain or deception to be had by telling someone a white lie. Love is not a modern fashion.

The closer our walk with the Holy Spirit, the more sensitive we become to His voice and His guidance, and the less we cling to the false sense of security that legalism provides.