Category Archives: Dan’s Blog

Our True Home

The other morning as I was sitting quietly praying and meditating in God’s word, I heard that distinctive and familiar voice exhorting me to remember that everything I hold dear here pales in comparison to my true home.

Although I’d heard it said, as well as believed it, many times throughout my Christian life, this time was different: “This earth is not your home!” When God speaks, Dan listens! It’s hard to communicate the impact God’s subtle voice had. But I’m sure many of you have experienced His prodding in many different ways. So I’ll leave it at that

No doubt I was once again getting wrapped up in my earthly environment, enjoying all God has given me as well as anticipating more of what God may give. I guess I needed a clear reminder. Hope I don’t soon forget it!

Jesus Is the Kingdom

Paul tells us that God has, “…delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”(Colossians 1:12-13) But it’s a little hard to believe, isn’t it? Being trapped in these fleshly bodies here in this fallen world leads us to believe anything but. Yet it’s true!

Did you notice here that this is another of those “in Him” verses? Being “in Christ” is synonymous with being redeemed—rescued from the domain of darkness while simultaneously birthed as God’s child into Christ’s kingdom. But we need some fresh thinking about what it actually means to be a son or daughter of His kingdom. Why? Because Christ’s kingdom isn’t merely some sort of divine institution here on earth, or even that glorious place where we go once we die; Jesus is the kingdom!

What Did Happen?

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The reality of our state of affairs as believers poses a difficult yet valid question: “If I have truly died to sin, why do I still feel so alive to it?” This really is mysterious. But don’t think you’re the only one who feels this way; it’s not an uncommon problem by any stretch of the imagination.

Ask yourself a different question: “just what did happen to me when I became that new creature in Christ? What’s this life all about?” The answer to this question lies in the fact that it’s not about what we do or don’t do. Rather, it’s about who Jesus Christ is and what He has done.

No, this doesn’t relieve us of all personal responsibility. Of course not: “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2) But it does mean that the foundation for our relationship with God has been laid by Him alone, not by anything we can do in and of ourselves. “Oh, I believe that,” you might say—but do you really? Do you really believe that your union with God isn’t actually somehow rooted in trying to be good?

Past, Present, Future

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The issue of forgiveness of sin—past, present and future—has been resolved in God’s mind. It’s a done deal! Freedom from sin was never meant merely to be applied to our initial salvation experience, but as an enduring guarantee of intimate relationship with God.

But this doesn’t mean that the inevitable struggle between the appetites of self and the requirements of God’s law are not going to be an ongoing battle for us. To be sure, this conflict is precisely why being freed from slavery to sin is so crucially important as we go about living our new life in God. Yet given our human condition in this world of sin, it’s not too surprising to find this truth so routinely misunderstood.

It’s really sad that so many have been duped by the enemy into believing that we must somehow earn our own way now that we’ve been saved. Think back to the desperately sinful circumstances you were in when He reached down and pulled you out of that pit. Having been so amazingly forgiven and cleansed from that muck, how could we think that He would now abandon us just because we continue to struggle with sin in various areas of our life?(Romans 5:8-10)

No More Bondage!

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Having died to sin, we are no longer subject to the bondage of sin that formerly enslaved us. Therefore, we are not to give ourselves back over to it once again.

When we commit our life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, we are automatically freed from sin’s domination, and instead become slaves of righteousness. This means that, as long as we continue to present ourselves to God through obedience to Him as the practice of our life, our natural inclination will be to serve God in the righteousness He has provided.

In other words, we now have a predisposition to righteousness as opposed to the penchant for sin of our former life.(Romans 6:17-18) This pretty much strips us of any excuse not to pursue God because of fleshly weakness, doesn’t it?

Free from–not to sin

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I think we as believers can all agree that any thought of maintaining a lifestyle of sin is patently absurd (Romans 6:15). Paul prefaces his whole argument of dying to sin with this statement in Romans 6:2: “How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

So it would be rather foolish to think that being freed from such a powerful enemy might somehow give us the right to continue playing around with it. Why bother being freed at all if we merely set ourselves up to be enslaved all over again?

The purpose of freedom from sin isn’t to let us lapse into sloppy behavior with the excuse that battling selfish desires is just too big a chore. God didn’t set us free to give us license to sin, but rather to lay the foundation for unfettered pursuit of Him in spite of our inherent weakness.

“In” Christ!

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A constant theme throughout Paul’s writings is that we are “in Christ” now that we are saved.(Romans 6:11) And “In Him” we have been made complete.(Colossians 2:10)

“In Him” we now possess all the benefits related to God’s purpose for us. He can’t give us any more than what He already has “in Christ.” But what we do with this treasure makes all the difference, because our choices ultimately determine our fruitfulness—that is, whether or not (and to what degree) we bring glory to God through our lives.(John 15:8)

He lives; you died

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Jesus joins us to Himself, blanketing us with His righteousness as He lives His life in us. He lives; you died; you share His life.(Colossians 3:3-4) In Christ Jesus we have died to sin and are now free from its power. Why? Because through Christ God has eliminated sin as the reason for separation from Him.

Sharing in Jesus’ life is the cornerstone of our relationship with God. While we must not minimize the importance of sharing in His death, it doesn’t end there. To be sure, in Romans 6:5 Paul emphasizes the fact that, “if we have become, united with Him in the likeness His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection.”

Remembering that in God there only exists life, the only possible outcome of being joined with Christ in His death is that we also share in His resurrection. Just as Christ was raised from the dead, so we too are raised up from our dead old self into glorious new life in God.

Immortality

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It’s very important to understand how absolutely foreign death is to God. In Him there only exists life. Our death in the natural world was never meant to be anything other than ushering us into everlasting life in Him—His life. Paul tells us that, “this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about what is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’…The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”(1 Corinthians 15:24-26)

What’s interesting about this is that our theme verse—“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law”—follows so closely on the heels of this explanation of God’s victory over death.(1 Corinthians 15:56) This should help us to appreciate how close the relationship is between the concepts of law, sin, death and life.

So when Paul says “consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus,” we know that it must have profound meaning for our life here on earth—not merely in the life hereafter.

Alive to God!

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Christ Jesus became what we are not; He accomplished what we could not. He alone was capable of filling the role of the perfect sacrifice for sin, as well as becoming the Great High Priest interceding to carry out our redemption, both so skillfully described in the book of Hebrews. Here’s how Paul describes it in Romans:

“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:8-11)