You Don't Have to Become Dead

You keep going back to the same thing, and you're not trying hard enough — you've already died to it in baptism. The question isn't whether you can become dead to sin; it's whether you'll live like you already are.

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Transcript

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Good morning. This is North Road. You can have the medicine and still be treating the wrong disease. Good morning. This is Northward, the word the North, your week a daily podcast from St. John's Fort Smith, in collaboration with the Anglican family. I'm your host, Father Aaron. And today's episode is brought to you by Red Fox Pharmacy, founded right here in Fort Smith, built on personal service and a real commitment to this community. When you need care, you can trust. Red Fox is always there. Now, here's an honest question that every Christian eventually is going to have to ask. If the old self has been crucified, if Christ's resurrection power is actually in me, why do I keep going back to the same sins over and over again? And let me give you a medical image here: a bacterial infection and a viral infection. They can feel very similar. Same, some of the same symptoms, even. But antibiotics only work on bacteria. Take them for a virus and nothing will change. Not because the medicine is weak, because you're treating the wrong thing. You can pray, you can go to church, you can know Jesus and still repeat the same pattern. Not because God's grace is weak, because you're practicing surface-level repentance, you have not found the root of the sin. Jesus Himself said, not everyone who calls out Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom. The Christian life is not just about accepting forgiveness, it's about letting the Holy Spirit transform you from the inside out, what the church calls sanctification, the act of being made holy. If the same pattern keeps reoccurring, the question is not whether grace works, the question is what you are actually treating. The church calls it sin, but at its root it often looks like a deep wound. You carry a particular shape of brokenness. And in most cases, so do the people who raised you. Before you had words for it, you learned to reach for control, for comfort, for approval. Instead of trusting God, you built your own survival mechanisms. What the Bible would call relying on the flesh. It gets reinforced until it becomes the groove. This is why you keep choosing the same kind of relationship or failing into the in in the same failing in the same acts or the same habits. Not because you haven't tried to be better, but because you are medicating the symptom and leaving the true source untouched by Christ. This has been Northward, The Word, the North Your Week, a daily podcast from St. John's Ford Smith in collaboration with the Anglican family. You are not still struggling because grace is weak. You may simply be treating the wrong thing. True repentance, bringing that root into light for healing. It's worth the work. And what else is worth the work? Using the text us link in the description to reach out because we would love to hear from you and where you are on your journey. Until tomorrow, may God be with you. In the name of Flower, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.