Emotions serve an important role: they tell us what’s going on deep inside us, and they never lie. Even negative, painful emotions can be good. We shouldn’t repress or ignore them, or try to hide them away.

Scripture describes our Lord as intimately familiar with grief, pain, and sorrow (Isaiah 53:3). He experiences every emotion fully, but there’s a critical difference between him and us: Our God never lets them control His decisions or actions.

Gifts from God, emotions can be powerful forces in our lives. And Christians exhibit the full gamut of reactions to them, from being totally governed by them to stuffing them completely.

Grace does the most loving, constructive, redemptive, and honoring thing possible for someone. That’s how the Person of Grace, Jesus Christ, treats us. But when we live licentiously, we show that we really know little about His grace.

In Christ, we’re free to do anything we want … but we’re not free from the consequences. Some choices can wound us, wound others, and place us in bondage.

If Christians no longer have a sinful nature, why are we tempted to sin? Apostle Paul tells us that sin, a personified governing power, dwells in the members of our body, enticing us to walk in the flesh and not in the Spirit.

Do Christians retain their sinful nature after salvation? The clear answer from Scripture is no. Romans 6:6 explains that the old man was crucified with Christ the moment we were saved.

As believers mature in their faith, they become more alike in character but more diverse in personality. That’s a benefit of being partakers of His divine nature.