May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? (Romans 6:2)
Here are three words to set you free: “We who died.” The first step to being free from sin is realizing that you have died with Christ.
Every believer knows that Jesus died on the cross, but not every believer knows that they died too.
In Romans 6, Paul bangs this drum again and again: “We have been baptized into his death” (verse 3) and “buried with him” (verse 4). “We have been united with him in a death like his” (verse 5), “our old self was crucified with him” (verse 6), “he who has died” (verse 7), “we have died (verse 8).
Many Christians struggle to live the Christian life because they do not know what happened to them on the cross. You died with Christ so that you can be free from sin and so that you can walk in newness of life.
Stop trying to reform your old self. It’s a lost cause. The old sinner you used to be died with Christ.
The point is this: You will never fully enjoy your new life until you realize what happened to your old one. It died.
When sin comes knocking, don’t answer. Play dead, because you are dead. Then live free. Live as a new creation with a new heart and mind.
Want to go deeper? Check out the entry for New Life in the Grace Glossary.
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Such a simple message. Only a preacher can screw that up with their own mixed Grace message.
Thank you good works to put inside yourself.
Roland Marion… absolutely correct… I was (formerly) one of those “mixed message” preachers…
If only those who claim to be “believers” would actually BELIEVE what God, through His Son, says… “Not by works of righteousness… but according to His mercy HE SAVED US…” (and those same works of righteousness cannot and will not “keep us saved” or keep us “right with God”… becasue HE HAS ALREADY MADE US RIGHT WITH HIM… upon our TRUST in what He said HE has already accomplished and FINISHED on our behalf…)
I am reminded of Malcom Smith’s comment in his book:”The Power of the Blood Covenant”. He says that as a believer we are “alive in Christ” and “Dead to Sin”.
As “Dead People”, when temptation to fall back into out old behavior “comes knocking”, we should choose to be “present to Christ” , and NOT be present to our “Old Feelings” or “circumstances”. Those circumstances no longer exist in my believer’s heart and the sense of temptation is like the “Phantom Limb Syndrome” in an amputee. The old had been cut off and no longer exists in my present reality. The sensation that there is something there in “physical feeling”, is simply a lie. As in Eve’s temptation, the “Lie” was accompanied by a “Physical Fruit”, which appeared to give credence to the lie, BUT , it was still a lie!
Awesome words, Jack. Thank you.