Our personality also is in need of reconciliation to God. The indwelling sin of which Paul speaks is the satanic nature that dwells in the members of our body.

Indwelling sin must be removed by the power of the Holy Spirit. If we obey the Word of the Lord, praying without ceasing, meditating in the Scriptures day and night, doing what we feel God would have us do, assembling with fervent saints on a regular basis (if we can find any fervent saints to assemble with), giving, ministering with the gifts God has given us, repenting of our sins and confessing them, then the Lord from time to time will remove part of the garment of sin, part of our fallen nature, and replace it with a robe of righteousness.

And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. (Zechariah 3:4)

"I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee"!

As the indwelling sin is removed, part by part, the pure Nature and Substance of Christ can be formed in us. We keep on being born again, in this sense. Step by step the Divine Nature replaces the fallen adamic nature.

Replacing sin with the Divine Nature is symbolized as follows:

And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre [turban] upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by. (Zechariah 3:5)

The "fair mitre" speaks of the renewing of our mind in the Lord, and the "garments" are the robe of righteous conduct placed on our personality.

... be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; . . . . (Revelation 3:5)

Deliverance from indwelling sin is our reward for serving the Lord faithfully. The crown of life and robe of righteousness are the rewards that will be given to the overcomer.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? (Romans 7:24)

Only the Lord Jesus by His authority and power is able to deliver us from indwelling sin. We always are to resist sin with the strength God gives us, but the change of raiment must come from the hand of the Lord.

One of the greatest misunderstandings in Christianity has to do with the very nature of redemption. The believers are under the impression they are supposed to go through life trying to be like the Lord Jesus even though they know they will keep on failing to meet His standard.

Since we are unable to keep the Lord's commandments, it is reasoned, the purpose of God's grace is to bring people to a godly environment on the basis of forgiveness. As soon as they arrive in the godly environment, Heaven, the spirit Paradise, they will be able to keep God's commandments.

But God is able to do more than this. Through Christ we can obtain a change in personality even though we still are living in the valley of the shadow of death—the present world. Through the power and virtue of Divine grace we are able to keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles today.

To be continued.