Category Archives: Dan’s Blog

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)

Dead? Com’on!

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The fact is that God truly did cause our old self to die, even though we still have to drag the weight of it around in our new life in Christ. “But how can I get rid of that monster?” Well, the truth is that God has gotten rid of it for us. In the Greek, to “be done away with” literally means to be made powerless.

This means that, even though it’s still there causing lots of trouble, the flesh—“our body of sin”—has actually become a non-issue for us as children of God. Why? Because the flesh has been made powerless! Now this can obviously be somewhat confusing, but you’ll clearly see why and how it is if you read my book.

Accusation & Deceit

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It’s not hard to come away from Romans 6 with at least a head-knowledge that our flesh has somehow died now that we’ve received Christ. After all, isn’t that what it says in Romans 6:6: “…that our body of sin might be done away with?” “Finally, my old self is dead!” we reason, even though deep down it’s really hard to believe.(Colossians 3:9-10)

Nevertheless it is true. But the manner in which “our body of sin” has been “done away with” is a little different from what may appear on the surface. Actually our body of sin didn’t go anywhere. It’s still clinging close at hand. So what seems to be a contradiction here can be an ongoing frustration for Christians, because it’s tough not to be disheartened by a sense of guilt which is constantly blown out of proportion by Satan’s masterful manipulation through accusation and deceit.

Old Self Crucified

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Most Christians understand and accept the concept of the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. But what many are far less familiar with is the meaning behind what Paul says :

“knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of    sin might be done away with, that we would no longer be slaves to sin. For   he who has died is freed from sin.” (Romans 6:6-7)           

When Paul says that we are freed from sin, he uses the same Greek word that is translated justified or made righteous we discussed in detail in the last chapter. Verse 7 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 of the charge brought against him.

This is exactly what God caused to happen for us as Christ took the guilt and punishment of sin off our shoulders and laid it upon Himself: we have been found not guilty in regard to our sin. So this should help us to better understand the fact that our ability to experience God’s life consists of something a great deal more than merely maintaining sinless behavior now that we’re saved.