We Died to Sin!

Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 6:00 a.m. – The Lord woke me this morning with this song:

Near the Cross / Fanny J. Crosby / William H. Doane

Jesus, keep me near the cross;

There a precious fountain,

Free to all, a healing stream,

Flows from Calvary's mountain.

In the cross, in the cross,

Be my glory ever,

Till my raptured soul shall find

Rest beyond the river.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Romans 6 (NIV 1984):

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 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 — because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 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? 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. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

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. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Lest there be any…

Lest there be any misunderstandings concerning what takes place when a sinner comes to Jesus Christ by faith and is saved from his or her sins, this passage in Romans makes it quite clear. We died to sin! How can we live in it any longer?

John the Baptist said he baptized with water for repentance, but that one would come after him, Jesus Christ, who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. When we come to faith in Jesus Christ we are baptized of the Holy Spirit of God in regeneration and spiritual transformation and renewal. We are baptized spiritually into Christ Jesus and into his death. We are buried with him through spiritual baptism into death to our old way of living in sin, and we are raised with him to new life in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Our physical water baptism symbolizes what has taken place already in our hearts. The reason we are crucified with Christ is so that our fleshly sinful natures might be done away with, so we will no longer live lives controlled by sin and our flesh. Since we died to sin, we have been freed from the penalty (eternal judgment) of and the bondage (slavery) to sin day-to-day.

Very simply put, you can think of coming to faith in Jesus Christ kind of like coming to a stop sign at a crossroad (coming to the cross of Christ). You stop sinning against God, you yield the right-of-way to him, and then you go in his grace, love and forgiveness. Only you don’t keep going the same direction as you had been going. Repentance involves turning away from our sin and turning to faith (obedience) to Jesus Christ (like a U-turn). And, it does not stop at just the initial decision to change the direction of our lives and to follow Christ wherever he leads us, either. We must choose daily to turn away from sin and turn to follow our Lord and do whatever he commands us to do.

The Good News!

If we died with Christ, we will also live with him. Amen! Hallelujah! That is the good news! Coming to Christ Jesus through death to our old lives is not the end of our lives or the end of our enjoyment of life. It is the beginning of a new, glorious and wonderful life free from the control of sin and free to worship, love, honor and obey our Lord and Savior daily. It is the most wonderful life there is! Nothing else can even begin to compare! It is like being cured of cancer or healed of a terrible disease or let out of prison. It is true freedom! If we think we are free because we are free to do whatever we want, that is not freedom. That is slavery of the worst kind. True freedom comes when we willingly die to our old way of living according to what we desire, and we willingly submit to and surrender to our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, and we make him our hearts’ desire.

In all practicality, this means that every day of our lives we resist Satan, flee temptation, and draw near to God in full assurance of faith. We commit our lives daily into the Lord’s hands, seeking his face, asking for guidance and direction, spending quality and quantitative time each day in the word, in prayer, in praise, adoration and thanksgiving, in bringing our requests to the Lord, in confession of sin, and in putting the Word of God into practice in our daily lives. We no longer live to please ourselves, but we live to please God. We no longer offer ourselves to sin, but we offer our lives daily on the altar as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing to him, which is our reasonable service of worship. We are no longer conformed to the ways of this world (see Ro. 12). We now begin to check everything we do against the word of God so that we make sure we are living in conformity to his plan, purposes and will for our lives.

I hear people say, “I am praying for God to show me his will in this,” and yet they don’t go to the handbook (the Bible) to find out what God has already said his will is for our lives. I hear people say, “God has not convicted me of that sin,” even though the Bible is quite clear that what they are doing is sin. It is not so much that we lack knowledge, for those of us who have known the Lord for some time, in particular, but it is that we don’t obey the truth that we already know, or we are not willing to find out what God’s word teaches on a subject, because we figure if we don’t know what it says, then we are not held accountable to change. Phooey! We think we can hold on to God with one hand and the world with the other, but it doesn’t work that way. We have to let go, and let God take over.

Where is Jesus?

So, as we go throughout our normal day of work, play, and activities, etc., do we inquire of the Lord if he is pleased by what we are doing? Do we ask him if this is how he wants us to spend our time? Do we really think about the fact that he is living in us and everything we do with our minds and bodies we are doing it with his body, mind, etc., and that it really is just like he is in the room with us? When we watch TV or movies or listen to music and play video games, do we think about Jesus? Do we think about making sure we obey him and live lives pleasing to him?

I am not talking here about having our thoughts on him 24/7, or all the time feeling like we have to report to him every second of the day, and inquire of him constantly. He is not a task master in the sense of being on us constantly for every move we make, unless it is willful sin, but he notices everything we do, he cares, he loves us, he is concerned about us, and he wants the very best for us. He doesn’t want us to live as slaves to sin any longer. He died so we would be free! But, that freedom is not a free license to continue in sin, but is freedom from sin and freedom to obey Christ now with our lives.

Reaping the Benefits

There is no benefit to living in sin. Yet, when we yield our lives to Jesus Christ, we reap the benefit of holiness that results in eternal life with God. The paycheck for sin is death (eternal separation from God), but the gift of God (Jesus, salvation) is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. What we give up to follow Jesus Christ are the chains that once bound us, and what we gain is hope, joy, freedom, peace, security and life everlasting with God.

So, if you have been living to please yourself with Jesus Christ barely a thought in your life throughout your daily activities, I pray today that you will stop sinning, yield the right-of-way to him, and follow Jesus Christ with your life, making him your heart’s desire.

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer / Thomas O. Chisholm / W. J. Kirkpatrick

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.