Introduction

It Is No Longer I

According to legend, after his conversion Saint Augustine once passed by a former mistress on the street. Seeing him, she became aroused and yelled: “Augustine, it is I, it is I!” Without missing a beat, though, Augustine turned to her and replied: “Aye, madam: but it is no longer I!”1 Similarly, in his letters, the apostle Paul makes it clear that anyone in Christ is a new creation—the old is gone, the new has come. This means, like Augustine, the believer too can finally turn to temptation and say, “Aye, but it is no longer I.” When it comes to the church’s relationship with temptation, the apostle spells it out over and again: sin is no longer the boss. Consequently, evil desires, anger, and lust should not govern, rule, or dominate those who serve the Lord.

In Galatians, for instance, Paul commands believers to live by the power of the Spirit so that they will not indulge their worldly desires. Sure, he admits, the flesh opposes the Spirit and the Spirit opposes the flesh; but this, he concludes, is why believers must no longer choose to do the shameful things they want to do. Since it was for freedom that Christ has set his people free, they should not use this newfound liberty to satisfy their lusts. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control, and those who belong to the Lord have crucified the flesh along with its passions and desires. They, like the apostle, have been crucified with Christ and to the world. Now, they no longer live; not they, but Christ lives within them. As a result, they walk stregthened by faith not shackled to sin.

Along with the Galatians, Paul teaches the Thessalonians how holiness is God’s will for their lives too. He explains that they should not give in to their lusts like those who treat their bodies as an amusement park rather than as a temple. The apostle concludes the letter praying God himself would sanctify the believers wholly and completely, through and through, so that their body, soul, and spirit would be kept blameless unto the day of the Lord. In case anyone thinks this is a saccharine sentiment, unrealistic hope, or rhetorical pipe dream, Paul punctuates the prayer with a confident assertion: “the one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thess 5:23–24).2

The apostle’s expectations for believers in Galatians and 1 Thessalonians also line up with what he later tells Titus. God’s grace came to teach believers how to say “no” to sin and “yes” to self-control, so that his people would conduct themselves in an upright and godly manner while they wait for the coming of the Lord—“who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own” (Titus 2:14). Of course, as Paul warns elsewhere, believers can certainly still fall and will constantly face temptation, but when they do God will be faithful to “provide the way out” (1 Cor 10:13).

The theme of righteous living also recurs in Romans. There, the apostle tells the believers they should no longer live like sin is their master. Since we died with Christ to sin, how then, P