Somebody Help! I Can't Resist Masturbation.

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The cry for freedom is actually a cry to be who he truly is. No king can act as one except he understands what being a king means. His use or abuse of his position depends on his perception of kingship.

Peter sat staring at nothing in particular, he was so confused. Who could believe this turn of events for one who had such a promising start? It was not just the fact that twice he had come close to committing fornication- he had just caught himself masturbating: something he had at first fought vigorously but which now had assumed a daily ritual. 

Feeling lost and cut off from God’s grace, he oscillated daily between accepting his situation as hopeless and repenting. For him, life had a dour taste. Most times he blamed those demons transmitted down his family; he blamed his inability to obey the ‘laws of the new testament’ he had been constantly reminded of every Sunday. He could not understand how something so irresistible could be wrong. The bottom line was that he really enjoyed those sinful thoughts and moments and found comparatively boring the idea of reading the bible, praying and preaching. Yet he quite agreed with his Pastor that the regenerated man loved God’s commandment. For many of us after being born again, the reality of righteousness floods our souls and we are at once in bliss sensing the reality of righteousness in Christ, yet no sooner are we made aware of the depravity of our minds than we feel guilty all over again. We at once take on the re-education of our minds by creating laws which only the new man can obey. The soul simply fails to give up and the feeling of guilt and sin is reinforced prompting us to seek more stringent rules only to stumble over them still. We find ourselves moving from Romans chapters 1 to 7 but never achieving chapter 8. We try exorcism, self depreciation, self deprivation (fasting) yet we still remain in chapter 7.

We find ourselves moving from Romans chapters 1 to 7 but never achieving chapter 8. We try exorcism, self depreciation, self deprivation (fasting) yet we still remain in chapter 7.

The truth, if it is told is that our redemption lies in understanding our peculiar and new circumstances. First, we are not Christians because we feel so! We are not saved because we feel holy; we are not righteous because we have not sinned. In fact we are not saved or in communion with God because of any physical bodily phenomenon but solely because of the finished work of Jesus.



Colossians 2:20 says “If you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teaching of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? Why do you submit to rules and regulations? Do not handle this, do not taste that, do not touch them. Referring to things all of which will perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines….. but they bare of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh”. Where does deliverance lie? - It lies in going back like the prodigal to our Father. You can plead all you like; you cannot be a servant but a son. We have lost all our estate, the only one left as it were is that of our elder brother who has freely brought us to share in His inheritance.

First, we are not Christians because we feel so! We are not saved because we feel holy; we are not righteous because we have not sinned.

As I told Peter, renewing our mind is not praying or wishing or longing to be what the word says neither is it the study of the word. It is not just more profound nut actually much simpler. For what the bible says about the new man is not what he will be or should be but actually what he is! His cry for freedom is actually a cry to be who he truly is. No king can act as one except he understands what being a king means. His use or abuse of his position depends on his perception of kingship. He is a king because she was born so. It is not matter of do’s and don’t but a grasp of his position. 

So Peter if you really understand this, you will know that when you thought you loved sin, it was your old nature in your mind, when you felt hopelessly guilty it was your soul- all at once you realize that sin does not pose any problem, for we are not under it’s dominion but it is under your control for you to choose or reject.

Freedom therefore is not what you should cry for but what you should rejoice for.

By Dr Stanley Okugbo