Thanks for your response.
So, my conclusion is that although salvation does happen really for people, it manifests in individual ways. Not in its basic ways for all people. That remains consistent. I am definitely saved but I never got away from drinking. My desire for it is zero as a sin, but my mind and body through habit cannot easily get rid of it.
I did pray much of course, but God never took away my desire for it. I asked specifically for God to do that. Then you read in the Bible, "No temptation can overcome you that isn't common to all people. God always makes a way out", which means you are the one that has to make a very big effort by yourself.
Sometimes we will categorize sin/sins.
Paul was a prosecutor and one who persecuted christians when he was Saul. Jesus saved him and asked why are you persecuting Me. That sin was gone at His conversion. Paul has much to say about dealing with our sins and leaving them behind. We are no longer slaves to sin and it is no longer our master.
John 8:31-36
To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Romans 6:6-7
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be
slaves to sin—
7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:16-21
Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are
slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.
18 You have been set free from sin and have become
slaves to righteousness.
19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.
Romans 7:14
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold
as a slave to sin.
Romans 7:25
but in the sinful nature
a slave to the law of sin.
1 Corinthians 7:21-22
Were you a slave when you were called? Don't let it trouble you — although if you can gain your freedom, do so.
22 For he who was
a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord's freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ's slave.
Galatians 4:7
So you are no longer
a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.
Ephesians 6:6
Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as
slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.
1 Peter 2:16
Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as
God’s slaves.
2 Peter 2:19-20
They promise them freedom, while they themselves
are slaves of depravity — for a man is
a slave to whatever has mastered him.
The facts from Scripture are man is :
conceived in sin
born into sin
his thoughts are evil continually
a sinner,
a slave to sin
in bondage to sin
sin is his master
loves his sin
hates God
is held captive by the devils will
cannot do good
is not righteous
is unholy
is by nature a child of wrath
etc.................................
