Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Nov. 11, 2025
Update	: Nov. 11, 2025
Parts	: 03

Synopsis:



If we are truly honest with ourselves, I think we can all agree that we have each made our fair share of mistakes in this present life. Not only that, but it seems that as we move forward in our lives, the more mistakes we tend to make due to our inherent sinful nature. Indeed, those sins and mistakes of ours just keep piling up on us, don't they? I know that I certainly fall into this category. Some of my mistakes were made for stupid reasons, while others were made due to selfish reasons. It is really a constant battle between mind, body and spirit. As some of my readers will know, the Apostle Paul was no stranger to these types of constant battles. In his own personal frustration, in his Epistle to the brethren at Rome, he thus wrote these wise words:

"For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."


Could our constant, lifelong battle between mind, body and spirit have been stated any plainer than that? Similar to what Paul wrote in the previous verses, if there one thing I have also learned over the years, it is that we cannot and should not constantly dwell on our sins and mistakes as some people tend to do. We should definitely learn from them, of course. However, we should not continuously dwell on them. We cannot allow our sins and mistakes to condemn us, and to drag us down for the rest of our lives, and most certainly not allow them to steal our happiness from us.

My friends, as I have mentioned a number of times before, that is precisely what the Devil wants. That foul fiend just loves to pile on the guilt and the remorse like some heavy weight on our backs so that we can barely stand, if at all. Satan is constantly pointing his vile finger at each of us, and accusing us before God. He is like a very mean-spirited prosecuting attorney. Is it really any wonder then that in the Book of Revelation, that slippery serpent is described as the "accuser of our brethren"? Consider these verses:

"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night."


To reiterate, Satan wants us to be so down in the dumps, with our eyes so fixed on ourselves and our personal problems, and feeling so sorry for ourselves and our personal situation, that we become totally ineffective for the Lord. He wants us to be so totally self-absorbed, that we cannot even see that there is actually a great victory to be had, if we will just stand up and fight with the Lord's help.

Sadly, I have a few Christian friends on the social networks who are exactly like this. Rather than share the joy of the Lord, shine their lights brightly, and share the truth of the Scriptures, day after day, they are simply a constant source of negativity. They are always whining and complaining about their personal problems and seeking sympathy from others. Of course, we should certainly care about each other and pray for each other as the Scriptures command us to do. I am not saying that we should not do so.

However, when it becomes one endless pity party with certain Christians day after day, they are no longer a blessing to the Body of Christ. They have in fact become a spiritual drain on their brethren. Instead of lifting up the Body of Christ, such people are constantly dragging it down instead and sucking the life out of it like some spiritual black hole. Who needs that? Let's face it; we each have our own battles to fight, and we do NOT need other Christians piling their problems on top of our own. That is NOT what bearing each others' burdens means in the following verse. In fact, only a few verses later, the Apostle Paul makes this very clear, as we see here:

"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ . . . For every man shall bear his own burden."


As you can plainly see, what Paul is actually saying is that we should try to help our brethren bear their burdens, and NOT throw our own burdens on top of them. Our burdens are our own to bear. So, my friends, what do the Scriptures really have to say concerning this issue? Are we simply supposed to sit down in a heap of complete misery and defeat, and just whine and complain about our situation to everyone all the day long? If that is what you think, well, I'm sorry, but that is certainly not what I read in the Bible. Consider the following group of Bible verses which reveal the truth regarding this matter:

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds."


Can the solution be any clearer than that? We each need to lay aside or cast aside our personal problems and sins. We need to toss off the crushing weights of guilt and remorse. We need to chuck all of that depressing nonsense right out the window, and we need keep our eyes maintained on Jesus. Why? Because He is the Author and the Finisher of our faith. He began His work of Salvation in us, and He will likewise complete it to the end. In other words, He will perfect us. Not only that, but the Lord has promised to keep us through thick and thin. Jesus will not only embrace us in His loving arms of Salvation, but He will also keep us from falling, as we see by the following group of Bible verses:

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:"


"Now unto him that is able to KEEP YOU FROM FALLING, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen."


"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."


"If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself."


"All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."


"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."


Speaking of weights, two thousand years ago when Jesus first shared His message of Repentance and Salvation with the lost sheep of the house of Israel, He told the unbelieving Jews several things which many of them did not understand at the time. As I explain in a number of other Bill's Bible Basics articles such as "Free From the Fear of Death: Law and Works vs Grace", those Jews placed their full confidence for their salvation in obedience to the strict mandates of the Mosaic Law. As the Apostle Paul explains in the following verses, they were trying to establish their OWN righteousness, and NOT trusting in the righteousness which is obtained through faith in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone:

"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth."


But the point is this: the Laws of Moses became a burden and an unbearable weight which the self-righteous religionists used to keep the common people under their strict power and control. They also enriched themselves by the same. They set the bar so high -- similar to some Christian denominations today -- that no one could ever possibly hope to achieve a state of Salvation outside of their false religion. Does it sound familiar? That is precisely why the Jewish spiritual hierarchy hated Jesus.

In a word, Jesus came to set free the captives, and to lift that terrible legalistic weight from off of all their tired shoulders. The Lord's central message was "Trust in me for your Salvation, and NOT in keeping the Law, which you can never fully do anyway." Thus, on several different occasions the Lord said the following to His listeners in the Gospels:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."


"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free . . . If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."


"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,"


Today, two millennia later, Satan continues to use a very similar tactic to neutralize Christians, and to keep us so weak and discouraged, that we become ineffective for the Lord. As I already explained to you, in this case, he uses the weight of our very own shortcomings, failures and sins to press us so hard against the ground, that we are simply unable to stand up and fight for the Lord. As the previous verses we read in the first chapter of Hebrews state, if we fail to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, and if we place them on ourselves instead, and on our personal sins, problems and failures, then we will assuredly grow weary and faint in our minds, and we will be crushed by the same, which is exactly what the accuser of the Saints wants us to do.

However, what does the Apostle Paul inform us that we need to do? He writes that we need to bring every thought into captivity. In other words, we need to take control of our minds. Why? Because as I have pointed out before, our mind is the real battleground. It is where our battles actually begin. Furthermore, if we continue to entertain wicked and negative thoughts, they can eventually become actual sins in our lives if we are not careful and yield ourselves to them. Consider the following verses which verify these points:

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"


"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."


"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."


"For to be carnally minded ‭is‭ death; but to be spiritually minded ‭is‭ life and peace.‭"


In fact, it may surprise some of my readers to know that the very first verse in the Book of Psalms clearly identifies the three-step battle strategy which the Devil uses to defeat the Lord's children. If you were not aware of this fact, consider the following verse:

"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful."


Now, instead of looking at this verse as meaning actual evil people, consider it to mean our own thoughts. Please notice that the verse uses three verbs in a very particular order. First the man is described as walking. Next, he is described as standing still. Lastly, he is described as sitting down. And that is the formula for defeat! In short, first we are just walking along when certain thoughts enter our minds. If we are not wise, next we may stand still to actually listen to them and to entertain them. Last of all, we actually sit down and fully engage with them. That is all it takes, my friends! We are done for!

So as you can see, once the Devil gets into our thoughts, we are already on the way to defeat, unless we choose to resist him with God's help. Not only do we need to resist that foul fiend, but we need to actually be renewed and transformed in our minds through the Spirit of Jesus Christ. We need to put on the very mind of Christ. We need to become a new creature with a new mind, and totally regenerated by the very Spirit of God, as we see by the following set of Bible verse:

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."


"And be renewed in the spirit of your mind . . . Neither‭ give‭‭ ‭place‭‭ to the ‭devil‭."


"Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;"


"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:"


"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."


"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the WASHING OF REGENERATION, and RENEWING OF THE HOLY GHOST;"


"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."


"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."


"And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:"


"For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."


"And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:"


"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;"


"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;"


So again, it is all about keeping our eyes on Jesus, and the promises of His Word, and not allowing Satan to bog down our minds with constant thoughts of guilt and remorse, and weigh us down with our own past failures, shortcomings and personal sins. This is what makes us and keeps us victorious in our personal walk with the Lord. This is how we remain effective for the Lord. We need to live in the present, and not in the past, because there will be no end to it. As I already said, once Satan gets your ear, you are done for! Once he digs his claws into your mind, he will not easily let go. So as the Apostle Paul wrote to the brethren at Philippi:

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."


Honestly speaking, there was a time in my own life quite a few years ago when I was not so victorious. My eyes were completely on myself. This was partly due to the fact that there are certain Christians who seem to make it a regular practice to remind a person of what a terrible sinner they are, as if any of us really need any help in doing that to ourselves. Now, please don't misunderstand what I am saying here. Yes, it is part of our job to expose sin. After all, even John the Baptist, Christ and the Apostles warned the Jews to repent of their sin of unbelief, and of what would happen if they did not choose to do so. Furthermore, as some of my readers will recall, on a number of occasions, after healing certain people, the Lord himself warned them to sin no more, as we can determine by the following two Biblical examples:

"When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman [who had been caught committing adultery], he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: GO, AND SIN NO MORE."


"Afterward Jesus findeth him [the impotent man He had healed] in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: SIN NO MORE, LEST A WORSE THING COME UNTO THEE."


So as I explain in the article "The Nature and Consequence of Sin and God's Solution", sin, and the consequences of sin -- particularly the sin of unbelief -- need to be addressed by Christians. But, of course, equally important is the fact that in addition to that, we likewise need to point people to God's solution, which is faith in the atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We cannot simply expose people's sins, and then just leave them hanging without any kind of solution or resolution. We need to point them to God's own appointed Savior.

However, the kind of Christians I was referring to a moment ago are in a class of their own. I'm referring to Christians who even after a person has come to Christ, and is saved and sealed by the Spirit of God, will still constantly remind a person -- either openly or subtly -- of what a sinner they are. I think that in certain cases and in some denominations, it really amounts to a power trip and a control mechanism. It is a way for church leadership to retain control over people, not much different from the Scribes and the Pharisees of old who constantly bludgeoned the common people with the Laws of Moses as a tool of manipulation and control.

But as we have already clearly seen, that kind of constant negative talk -- whether it's the Devil feeding thoughts into our own minds, or whether it originates with other Christians -- can eventually wear down an individual to the point where they begin to think to themself "Wow, I am such a sinner. I am such a mess. God cannot possibly ever use me for anything. I am just a failure and will never amount to anything." Now tell me my friends, have you ever felt that way? If so, you need to stop doing it right now and look unto Jesus, and let Him work through you, despite yourself. Can you do that?

Let me also add that if you for even a minute think that any of the Apostles were walking examples of sinless perfection -- as some of the denominations like to paint them -- then I suggest that you read a few of my related BBB articles such as "Saints, Holiness and Perfectionism", "Peter: Faith Tried in the Fire" and "Striving for Perfection: Are You a Sinless Saint?", which you will find listed at the end of this same series.

I will also confess that when I was still a young teenager, due to my own misunderstanding of certain Scriptures, I was under the delusion that I had some kind of righteousness of my own. I believed that I had to do or not do certain things in order to prove my righteousness before God. For example, I did not drink, smoke, cuss, look at pornography, engage in sex, take drugs or do other stuff that boys my age typically did, so I erroneously and foolishly assumed that I was more righteous before God than certain other people. For example, I looked at my now-deceased older brother who did drink and womanize -- I don't recall if he smoked or not -- and I thus arrived at the conclusion that surely he could not possibly be saved, even though he informed me that he had accepted the Lord while he was traveling through California, USA during the very early 1970s.

You see, my frame of reference was somewhat misguided. While I was raised a Roman Catholic, began reading the Bible on a regular basis during my teenage years, and believed that a person must accept Jesus as their Savior in order to truly be saved, in my youthful confusion, I likewise apparently believed in a mixture of faith and good works. I suppose it may have had something to do with my own Catholic upbringing. I am not sure. But because of that, not only did I believe that I personally had to do certain good things to be saved, but so did my brother, and it was very obvious to me that he was simply not doing them. Thus, I assumed that he was not really saved.

Well, one of the important lessons I have learned since that time, and which I've shared a number of times before, is that in my view, it is NOT wise to judge someone else's Salvation. That is God's domain alone, and not ours. He alone knows how He is working in that person's life, and whether or not said person is truly saved. Rather than question someone else's Salvation, we need to concentrate on our personal lives, and as the Apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the brethren in the city of Philippi, we need to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling, as we see by this Bible verse:

"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."


If you would like to better understand how I personally view the previous verse, please consider reading my article called "A Discussion Regarding Philippians 2:12". You will find it listed at the end of this same series.

At any rate, I had personally prayed a Salvation prayer at a Jesus People house while I was hitchhiking through San Jose, California back in July of 1971. In fact, my brother was also there with me at the time. However, for some reason which I don't remember now -- if I ever knew it -- he refused to pray as well, so I ended up repeating the Salvation prayer alone.

Please note that I had already believed in Jesus since a very young age. In fact, I honestly do not recall a moment when I did not believe. But those Christians in San Jose explained to me that I had to actually say a simple prayer in order to make my Salvation "official". Since that time, this topic has become rather controversial within certain Christian circles, and I have come across quite a few online debates where it is the subject of discussion. As for me, I discuss this subject in my article entitled "To Pray or Not to Pray? That is the Question", which you will find listed at the end of this same series.

Regarding the Jesus People I met at that time, I am not even sure who they were affiliated with -- that is to say, with what church, if any -- or what their actual name was. I don't recall having ever been told. Back then, the so-called "Jesus Revolution" was in full swing in California, and so a variety of Christian youth groups existed which actively preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The blanket name "Jesus People" was simply used in reference to them all. They used coffee houses and music and such to attract the youth of that era. This is depicted to some degree of accuracy -- I am not sure how much -- in the 2023 Hollywood movie "Jesus Revolution".

But the point is, as I mentioned a moment ago, I compared the way I lived and behaved to the way my older brother lived and behaved, and I just could not understand how he could claim to be saved, considering the things that he did. In fact, when I told him this, I remember that he became rather angry with me for doubting that he was saved. Of course, since that time so many years ago, I've come to understand the rather plain truth of Bible verses such as the following which clearly state that we are all sinners, and that we have no righteousness of our own. As a result, we cannot possibly save ourselves by way of any good works we may strive to do, which is what the ancient Jews also foolishly believed:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."


"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;"


"For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not."


"As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one . . . For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"


"Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."


"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away."


"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."


"If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?"


Please go to part two for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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