Sin is not just behavior — it's a condition. And the steps for getting free from both sin and sickness are more specific than most people have been taught. This supplement works through the practical side of what Lessons Twenty-Three and Twenty-Four established: not just what sin is and what healing provides, but how you actually walk into freedom.

We've studied the many aspects of what the Bible teaches about sin. In our last lesson, we explained how to get rid of sin and sickness.

The doctrines are clear, and the truths are laid out simply — but here's the thing: knowledge alone isn't enough to bring you the benefits you need and that God has promised. Now we need to put these lessons into personal practice.

It's time to take a personal stand with God, stand firm against these enemies of God and humanity, and step into the experiential reality of redemption.

1. By Making Proper Confession of Sins

This starts with recognizing that Christ died on the cross to atone for your sins — that He actually bore them Himself. When you confess that you're a sinner and that He carried your sins on the cross, you identify yourself with Him in His work of atonement.

The result? Cleansing from all sin follows immediately 1 John 1:9.

2. By Crucifying the Old Man

The "old man," as we've seen, is the spirit and nature of the devil working in us before we're saved from sin. Even after salvation, the old man — or the devil — constantly works to regain control over us.

So we must stay on guard and refuse to give the devil any foothold Ephesians 4:27Ephesians 5:10-18James 4:71 Peter 5:8-9. Just because the devil seeks dominion and you're tempted to yield to sin doesn't mean you still have the old man in you or that you're somehow united with Satan's nature. It's only when you actually yield to sin again that you come back into harmony with the devil.

By "crucifying the old man," we simply mean recognizing that we're freed from him and refusing to obey him in any way. We must consider ourselves dead to him — and him dead to us.

Paul puts it this way:

"How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?... Knowing this that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield yourselves as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you" Romans 6:1-14.

You must reckon — or count — yourself dead to sin and alive to God. That means you have nothing more to do with sin and everything to do with God. You're to consider sin a thing of the past, nonexistent as far as you're concerned. God is all-in-all, the only thing that truly matters in your life.

Think of it like this: sometimes parents will cut off a child completely — removing them from the home and any inheritance. As far as those parents are concerned, that child is dead to them. In the same way, you must completely give up sin and count yourself dead to it. This happens by faith in Christ and by giving yourself wholly over to God and a life of holiness.

The old man and the devil's entire operation in your life must be ignored and rejected once and for all. That old life — which is nothing more than the devil working in you — must be renounced forever. We reckon ourselves new creatures in Christ, the old life dead, no longer living in the sins and lusts that destroy the soul.

The old life is past; the new life is here. The devil has no more part in you, so you count him dead 1 John 5:18. The old sins are gone, counted as dead. You're alive to God now and recognize Him as your master.

Yes, the old life, old sins, old man, and the past still exist — but as far as you're concerned, they don't, because you are dead to them. When you served sin, you were dead to God — as far as you were concerned, He didn't exist. Now that you've turned to God and become alive to Him, you count yourself dead to sin and Satan.

You can't be alive to both. You can't serve two masters or live two different lives. When you're alive to sin, you're dead to God; when you're alive to God, you're dead to sin.

3. By Faith in Christ

This includes faith in His name Acts 3:16Acts 4:12, faith in His blood Romans 3:24-25, faith in His Word John 15:72 Corinthians 1:20, and faith in His death, burial, and resurrection Romans 6:1-81 Corinthians 15:1-19.

You must believe that what Christ died for becomes yours the moment you accept it. We identify ourselves with Him by faith in all His work, and then we receive the benefits for which He died.