I never had to give up anything when I became a Christian, when I became born again the sinful lifestyle fell off because I no longer wanted it. Christ made me a brand new person, I no longer thought the same as I used to and I hate the things I used to enjoy. If someone is working real hard to stay away from sin, then I suggest they may not have been born again. The desire to sin repulses us, we may battle with old habits, but we don't like them, eventually we get to the place that we can't stand to be there anymore and we run from all that sin.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
Ezekiel 11:19-20 "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God."
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
2 Peter 1:4 "By which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire."
1 Peter 3:18-22 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him."
You see....it's all about Christ. He paid the price, we confess our sinfulness and trust what He did on our behalf and He does all the rest of the work in us. He takes us through life experiences that prune us as a gardener prunes a rose bush, cutting out the limbs that do not produce so that new vibrant and beautiful limbs can grow. A plant cannot stay healthy without pruning, just as a believer will not grow healthy and strong without difficult life experiences.
It is when we have difficulties that we can see the real us. Our responses to those difficulties reveal to us our inner heart attitude, either choosing self will or God's will. Those who are close to the Lord are the ones who turn to him in difficulty. Those who do not turn to God will not grow healthy.
When there is an angry response to a rebuke or correction, that is our clue that rebellion still remains that God must deal with. Do not think for a minute that a stubborn heart is going to get away with anything. If we belong to God, there will be discipline for anyone who will not seek God. His purpose in this discipline is to bring us back to obedience and righteousness.
Titus 3:5 "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,"
Hebrews 12:6-8
6 For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, And He scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons."
