Sin. The word itself can make us uncomfortable, and often brings on dark feelings of regret. Our past and even current actions can make us remorseful, or feel as though we will never be good enough for God. Often times we find ourselves discouraged as we battle a particular sin or pattern of sin that we’ve been working on overcoming for months or years. And if we’re honest, it’s probably not just one sinful behavior we’re battling. Sin often creeps up in multiple places in our lives.

There’s no doubt we need to work diligently to get sin out of our lives. That probably comes as no surprise to anyone reading this article. The real question is, "How can I overcome my sin?"

Root cause analysis

Some sins are easily recognizable. For a person who wakes up every morning feeling terrible from drinking too much alcohol the night before, it’s clear the sin of getting drunk is an issue. With other problems, we sometimes see the effect of our sin, but not the sin itself. For example, if you find yourself constantly at odds with your spouse, friends or coworkers, you probably recognize this as a problem. However, why it happens and how to fix it is unclear.

Sin changes the characteristics of who we are. Because of that, we must actively work to remove the sinful parts of our lives.

If you worked in a factory that made light bulbs, you could imagine the problem you’d have if, after the light bulbs were manufactured and packaged, the packages fell off the conveyor belt and the bulbs shattered. Would you try to fix this problem by gluing the light bulbs back together? Of course not! You’d try to find out why the packages keep falling off the conveyor belt. In the manufacturing community, this is called root cause analysis.

The same can be said for sin. In the case of constantly being at odds with others, the cause of these effects could be anger or unrest over your own shortcomings brought on by jealousies. Knowing then that the root cause of your sin is jealousy, you can begin to work on eradicating this sin from your life.

The struggle is real!

Needless to say, this is much easier said than done. Although it might have seemed difficult to do at first, after a period of months or years trying to overcome a particular sin, we might look back at figuring out what the core problem was as the easy part. The apostle Paul was no stranger to this struggle. He knew that defining what sin was was the easy part. God’s law does that (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:23). The hard part was doing something to get rid of it. “So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate" (Romans 7:14-15, New Living Translation).

Later in the same chapter, this state of mental conflict seemingly leaves Paul a frustrated mess. Fortunately, he recognized there was a solution. “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin” (Romans 7:24-25, NLT).

So is acknowledging our sin and the fact that Christ is the answer all there is to it? In a word, no. The Bible tells us over and over that we must work diligently to obey God’s laws (James 2:14-16; Romans 2:13, 7:22; 1 John 5:2). Nowhere are we told that we are free to keep sinning or that we live in a state of "once saved, always saved." Rather, we’re told that Christ is the answer, not that the battle with sin is over. So what are we to do?

In 1 Corinthians 5:7, the apostle Paul says: “Get rid of the old yeast by removing this wicked person from among you. Then you will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what you really are. Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for us." There’s a wealth of information in this single verse. The last part of this verse reminds us that Jesus Christ’s blood is what has redeemed and paid for our sins. But it’s the first part of this verse that begins to offer some very practical advice for actually overcoming the sin in our lives.

Getting your mind right

In this letter to the Corinthians, Paul was addressing a situation involving sexual immorality. He said that just like a little bit of leaven can change the entire characteristics of a loaf of bread, so can sin change the character of an entire church. So in order to resolve the situation, the person practicing this sin had to be removed from the congregation.

The principle applies to us individually as well. Sin changes the characteristics of who we are. Because of that, we must actively work to remove the sinful parts of our lives. This is a conscientious act that requires something extraordinarily difficult on our part: We must want to get the sin out of our lives. A friend of mine who is a recovering alcoholic once told me, “No one ever sobers up unless they want to sober up.” This is as true for any struggle to overcome, not just alcohol.

While you alone are responsible for your own effort in overcoming sin, as Christians we are expected to support one another. 

In Acts 2:38, the apostle Peter tells those he was speaking to to repent and be baptized. The Greek word for repent here is metanoeó, and it means to change your mind. This isn’t just a simple changing of the mind like deciding you’d rather have a hamburger instead of pizza for dinner. It means to change one’s way of thinking. That is precisely what we must do when it comes to sin. We must change how we think about it. We must look at it not as the result of a bad thing we have done, but rather as representative of a life we no longer choose to live.

Hold yourself to a higher standard

If you’ve been struggling with a particular sin for some time, seemingly without progress, you might stop and ask yourself, "Who am I holding responsible for this problem?" Is it the fault of your coworkers that you’re always getting mad? Who is actually accountable for our actions? While the answer seems obvious, we can all struggle with accepting responsibility for our actions from time to time. Philippians 2:12 reminds us that we each must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. At first, this can sound defeatist—like we’re on our own to find a path to success. But we are not alone. “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13). Jesus Christ does indeed strengthen us, He is the answer and He will not leave us to struggle on our own (Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 4:16; 1 Corinthians 10:13). However, we are indeed held accountable for our efforts. While Christ ultimately gives us victory over sin, we are responsible for the effort required to try to put it out of our lives.

Get help

Obviously, our first plea for help should be to God and Christ through prayer. Let Him know that you want to stop sinning and remove sin from your way of life. Be specific about what sin you need help overcoming, and take time to recount the details to God. While it’s true that God already knows these, confessing them to Him is necessary for forgiveness (1 John 1:9). This also serves as a valuable tool for helping us recognize what patterns of behavior lead us to a particular sin.

The final key to overcoming sin is to displace it with something good.

While you alone are responsible for your own effort in overcoming sin, as Christians we are expected to support one another (Galatians 6:2; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; Hebrews 10:24). This is where an accountability partner can help. This is a person you can trust and confide in when you slip up. Someone you can share your mistakes with who won’t condemn, but rather listen and help you hold yourself accountable for your own actions. Someone you can check in with on a regular basis. Perhaps a few times a week to start, then less often as you begin to break free from whatever sin plagues you. If you do slip up, be prepared to answer questions from your partner such as, "How is your relationship with God this week?" or, "When is the last time you prayed to God for help to overcome this sin?" The key critical component is to be completely and utterly honest. By sharing your struggle with someone else in private, you’ve created an ally in your battle to toss sin out of your life!

One last step

Have you ever tried to pour gasoline from a gas can into a lawnmower? What happens if you forget to open the little vent on the back of the can you’re pouring from? The gasoline flows out roughly as the gas can tries to gulp air back in. This happens because no air is coming into the can to displace the gasoline that is flowing out. The same principle can be applied for the final step in overcoming sin in our lives.

The final key to overcoming sin is to displace it with something good. In the gas can analogy, sin is the gasoline being poured out, and air is the good we need to be doing to replace that sin. Christ taught the same principle in Matthew 12:43-45 about demons coming back to plague a man who did nothing more to prevent them from returning. So what can we replace sin with?

Paul concluded his analogy to the Corinthians about sin and bread in 1 Corinthians 5:8: “So let us celebrate the festival, not with the old bread of wickedness and evil, but with the new bread of sincerity and truth.” Christ is that new bread of sincerity and truth! He is the bread of life (John 6:35), and it’s a daily renewal of our relationship with Him that is key to putting sinful habits behind us!

Victory assured

Paul knew that Jesus Christ was indeed the answer to our struggle to overcome sin. We simply cannot overcome sin on our own. But the really good news is that we don’t have to do it on our own. Near the end of his letter to Corinth where he had begun discussing leavened bread as a type of sin, Paul concludes: “For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). What an awesome promise! God promises we will have victory over sin through Jesus Christ!