Your Fallen Nature Can't Be Trained - It Must Be Crucified

"...the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a mercy seat by his blood, through faith..." Romans 3:22-25 vs 27 "Where is boasting then? It is excluded." It's hard for a person who grew up under the law to understand that we are NOT justified by the law, that in fact, the law works against us because we live in a fallen human nature. It's a whole different mindset and hard to understand if we've been trained to seek our goodness and salvation by the exercise of our own determination. Most people who just don't understand will try and try and try to be "good." Then any good they seem to achieve causes them to pat themselves on the back and consider themselves a good person. But we are not, none of us. We are fallen. Sin is the natural force within us - because all descendants of Adam are born in a fallen state. Put two very young children together in a room with colorful toys, and inevitably one will try to take the other's toy. This is evidence of a fallen nature. To covet is what comes naturally to us. We gossip about people because it reinforces the conclusion we're trying so hard to believe about ourselves, that we are better than they. If someone sins in a particular way that we are not weak in, we just love telling about it because in comparison it makes us feel good about ourselves. But it's all a lie. We are NOT good, we are fallen, every one of us. The hardest thing for us to do is to finally admit that about ourselves, and to stop lying to ourselves about ourselves. We are NOT saved by being "good." Religions teach that we are saved by the preponderance of good works, and that is the very opposite of what Jesus Christ has taught us. We are saved when we recognize that we live in a fallen human nature which cannot be "trained." The harder we try, the more we become distraught - because it simply doesn't work, it CANNOT work. You can't train yourself out of your particular brand of sin. If you should seem to succeed, sin will just manifest itself in a different way. Overcome one thing, another will pop up. And that's across the board - the case with every human being. No, Jesus said we must be BORN AGAIN and that is the ONLY solution. A person who becomes born again receives a new life, and then he is transformed - slowly - into a whole new mindset - and that, not of one's own doing but by the life-changing power of the Holy Spirit within. Many times a newly born-again person will find changes in areas that he didn't even KNOW were sin. When you've lived with a weakness all your life, sometimes you aren't even aware that it's sin because you're so used to it. When the Spirit of God begins his work in you, you'll be met with many surprises. The flesh, the old nature, cannot be trained, it must be crucified. We MUST ...be born again. Jesus said: "Do not marvel that I said to you, you MUST be born again." John 3:7 If you have not been born again, ASK the Lord to bring you to that life-changing transformation. It is necessary for salvation. Take it very seriously. "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2nd Corinthians 5:17 MORE: "Born Again" - What Does That Mean?