Life! What a marvelous gift we’ve been given—to live on this earth X number of years with the chance to pursue and achieve our dreams, all the while enjoying the penetrating beauty of this natural world as a backdrop. Now, in practical terms, we do not all share a level playing field. Many, the majority of people, I fear, are born into a world of dismal poverty where opportunity is so limited that they are destined for an existence of mediocrity, largely overlooked, invisible to the likes of us who have been ushered into a life of meaningful prospects.

     Whether silver-spooned or raised a little less glamorously, privileged lives offer a bedrock of promise, where people have been furnished with the capability to advance. This is the hallmark of Western Culture and those who emulate it, a richness not only of material wealth, but also the prospect of longevity, providing us the resources to achieve things more or less unreachable by previous generations.

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It’s pretty common to think about sin merely as a response by our flesh to some outside stimulus.  “I wanted it, so I did it!” But in reality sin is a symptom of a much more serious disease within. Sin is a barometer of the heart. It’s more than just actions; it’s rooted in our attitudes, intentions and motives. In thinking that sin stems primarily from our physical body, we’re led to treat the symptoms rather than focusing on the true source of the problem.

Sin is a heart problem rooted within the soul, so we need to start there. We know that our soul cannot change until it is influenced by a healthy spirit. And nothing happens until our spirit is first empowered by the life of God. But when it is, the soul, mind and body are all pushed automatically toward God’s purpose. This is the answer to the weakness of the flesh.

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

We deserved death for our sins. But Jesus was willing to go to the cross in our place. We generally understand what His sacrifice meant. But Romans 6:6 tells us a whole lot more: “our old self was crucified with Him so that our body of sin might be done away with, that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”

When Paul says that we are freed from sin, he uses a word meaning justified or made righteous. It can literally be translated: “For he who has died is acquitted from sin.” We all know what happens when someone is acquitted in a trial—he’s found not guilty! This is exactly what God did as Jesus took penalty for sin off our shoulders and laid it upon Himself. And because of it, experiencing God’s life consists of something a great deal more than merely being obligated to maintain sinless behavior now that we’re saved.

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Romans 6:4 says that baptism symbolizes our burial with Jesus—a sharing in Christ’s death in a way that allows us also to share in His resurrection life. It’s why we can now live life in a brand- new way. When we are born again, we become connected to Jesus in such a way that we are actually joined to Him. And having become united with Him, we now enjoy all the benefits accomplished on the cross—just as if we had suffered the punishment of death ourselves.

The punishment for sin is separation from God—spiritual death. But when Jesus died on that cross, He became the appeasing sacrifice for our sins. He actually stepped in and substituted Himself in our place. Jesus suffered the agony of separation from His Father so that we don’t have to. Baptism is a powerful symbol of that reality—joined to Christ, both in His death and in His resurrection.

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

What is sin? I’ve often heard sin defined as missing the mark, as if one were missing a target he is aiming at. Those whose lives are centered on sin not only offend God, but utterly miss the precious gift of His eternal purpose. The Bible says that sin is lawlessness. And It makes perfectly clear what the sins of the flesh are—often warning that those corrupted by a lifestyle of sin have no inheritance in the kingdom of God.

But we see in Scripture conflicting opinions about what causes sin, and thus its remedy. The Jewish leaders viewed sin as being the product of a person’s outward behavior. So they attempted to manage sin through a system of rules which grew more and more burdensome as time went by. Jesus, on the other hand, realized that sin is rooted in man’s heart. God was about to deal with the problem of sin in a whole new way.

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

God has provided the remedy for all our sin—past, present and future. But even so, it’s obvious that He intends for us to be holy, and thus commands us not to sin. So how is it that He can overlook the sin that so easily flows from our nature? Even though we know that through grace God forgives our sin, we need a better understanding of Christ’s provision.

This is important, because a complete awareness of both our human condition and how we now relate to our Creator is the key to walking in the total freedom God always meant for us to experience. God forgives our sin through Christ as a free gift. Yet even more important to understand is that this free gift of forgiveness and righteousness is rooted in the fact that He has caused us to die to sin altogether. But just exactly what does dying to sin mean? I don’t feel very dead to sin!

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself

Scripture tells us that God is righteous. We commonly define righteousness as being in right standing with God. But what does it mean for God to be righteous? It would be silly to think that He achieved a moral excellence that allowed Him to be good enough to be God. No, God doesn’t need to meet a standard of righteousness; He is that standard. God’s righteousness means that He is by nature the essence of all that is good and just.

Now since God’s righteousness is the benchmark by which He will ultimately judge the world, He had to provide mankind with the means to relate to His perfection. He revealed that standard through law. Law gives us our sense of right and wrong—a moral awareness at the very core of our being. This is why a good understanding of biblical law is so important. It helps us appreciate God’s amazing provision for our own righteousness.

From Free from the Power of Sin: the Keys to Growing in God in Spite of Yourself