Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? For
when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. So you
also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive
to God through Christ Jesus. Romans 6:2,7,11 NLT
In Romans 6, Paul laid out in very simple ways how the believer can
walk daily in the freedom that Christ wrought on the cross. The central
theme being in our death with Christ. According to him, he that is dead
is freed from sin. Also in the same chapter, he questioned how those who
are dead to sin can still live in it. Writing further, he called on the
believer to reckon himself dead indeed to sin. According to him, living
in freedom from sin required this. If one fails to acknowledge that he
is dead as the scriptures say, he will have to contend with the force of
sin in his own strength. But when he acknowledges that he is dead, then
it will not be with his own strength that he will have to confront sin,
but with the power provided by the Holy Spirit.
This was what Paul made allusion to in Galatians 2:20 when he said,
"My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." In this passage,
Paul reckoned himself dead, but alive in Christ. Since he acknowledged
that he was dead, it meant that of himself he knew he could do nothing,
except by the life of Christ in him. Paul dogmatically tied his identity
to what Christ did on the cross for him. That's where strength comes
from. Trusting in what, in His love, Christ accomplished for us on the
cross is key to waking in the victory he purchased for us.
We must first believe, reckoning ourselves dead indeed to sin and
alive to God, before we are able to resist the devil and not letting him
reign in our moral bodies. Attempting to resist the devil without
acknowledging this truth of our being dead, will mean resisting the
devil in the energy of our own will, and no one ever wins against the
devil this way. Everyone who struggles with sin, tries to win in the
power of his own strength; and by reason of strength shall no one
prevail. No where are we told to try to overcome sin, Jesus overcame sin
for us; all that is required of us is to believe that we died with and
therefore reckon ourselves dead indeed to sin. This is the victory that
overcomes the world, even our faith.
Toni
