Paul declares Believers Dead to Sin but Alive now to
God Part 3
Romans
6:5 “For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,”
NKJV
Paul continues to show each one of us the
tremendous, wonderful, and powerful thing that happened to us when we were
united with our Lord Jesus Christ the moment we were regenerated and born
again. The awesome power the Holy Spirit exerted to raise Christ Jesus’ Body to
Life is the same power exerted to raise, regenerate, and resurrect our spirits
dead to God the Father and His truth, goodness, holiness, and righteousness.
The true believer is not someone who merely makes a decision for Christ
(although he must turn to Him of his own free will because God does not force
His gift of grace on anyone), but he is given new life most notably
resurrection life. The English word resurrection that Paul uses here in verse 5
comes from the Greek word anastasis, (this
word has a glorious meaning for every one of God’s Elect children) it means a
standing up again; literally a resurrection from death (i.e. our Lord Jesus); figuratively
a moral recovery of spiritual truth (i.e. you and me as we were dead in our trespasses
and sins). This is why Paul said to the Philippian believers the following: Philippians 3:8-11 Yet indeed I
also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ,
the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power
of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to
His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. NKJV
Paul clearly understood during the duration of his
sojourn here on the earth as Christ son, soldier, and slave that everything he
did that was godly and had lasting eternal value all came by and through the
power of Christ Resurrection Life working in him and through him to live a life
that honored and brought glory to God the Father. When Christ died on the Cross
the believer (by the Spirit’s Power in regeneration and the new birth) died to
sin and when our Lord was raised from the dead to Life (never to die again, Revelation 1:18), so the believer was
resurrected out of the spiritual death of the enslavement of his or her sins
and given power to walk or live a new life in Christ forever. This fact and
reality of our Lord’s Resurrection from death receiving Life to never die again
is the same thing that has happened to our dead spirits (in the bondage of trespasses
and sins) as they were made alive to God the Father through God the Son’s Sacrifice
and by God the Holy Spirit’s Power.
Ephesians
2:4-6 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He
loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with
Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and
made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. NKJV
Romans
6:6 Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body
of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. NKJV
Now Paul says to us that since we know all of this
(that is everything he has said in verses 1-5) to be true and we should believe
it absolutely and be sure of it, then the result of our dying with Christ 2,000
years ago produces a supernatural dynamic in the new life given to the believer
that makes us different by the sole virtue of what Christ did by taking our sin
into Himself and giving us His Righteousness and then making us a partaker of
His Divine Nature. Paul uses a strong Greek word to describe what Christ has
done to us and to our desire for sin and to sin, that word is katargeo, which means to render entirely
idle or useless; to abolish, destroy, do away with, to make of no effect, to
loose, to bring to nought, to put away, vanish away, or make void. This word is
incredible and signifies and testifies to every one of us that we have
available the power according to Paul to live in complete and total victory
over sin. We have been given the right and privilege by what our Lord Jesus has
done with our sin when He took it into Himself to continuously resist
temptation and resist the devil (James
4:7) and make him flee/run from us as he tries to ruin our testimony, kill
our joy, quench the Holy Spirit’s power through us, pour cold water on the
flame of our love for the Lord Jesus, and steal away our peace for a season by
luring us into sin that our Lord has destroyed, abolished, and done away with. We
must remember to submit ourselves to God by being obedient to His Word no
matter the consequences for in so doing we will always resist the temptation to
sin against our Heavenly Father. Sin was once our master (before we received
Christ) but now Christ is our Master and it is Him we love and obey and no
longer do we obey sin.
Ephesians
4:22-24 That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which
grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of
your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God,
in true righteousness and holiness. NKJV
Romans
6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. NKJV
Paul now as a competent carpenter or construction
worker does in the building of a house drives in the final nail that cements or
secures all of the previous truths he has so eloquently explained to us by
saying that if we truly have died with our Lord Jesus Christ, then we by virtue
of His death and our union with Him being planted together with Him have been
freed from sins mastery and dominion over us in our daily lives. Just as many
of my ancestors who were owned by whites as slaves here in this State of
Louisiana were subject to obey their masters every command, but when they died
they were freed from their masters forever never to hear another command or be
subject to obey it. Likewise we before we were regenerated and born again were
bound and subject to sins every beck and call and we had no means by which to
reject or resist sins commands, but now in our union with Christ’s death on
Calvary we have died to our old master sin and have a loving, merciful,
compassionate, and wonderful new Master in our Lord Jesus Christ and His
Commands they are not burdensome but His Yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30 & 1 John 5:3).
“To be freed from sin is not a difficult task when viewed in the light of the
finished, perfect and complete salvation of God. A believer must proceed to
learn the more advanced and perhaps more formidable and deeper lesson of
abhorring his life.” Watchman Nee
“Every Christian will readily allow that sin is
insidious, but it is one thing to recognize this in theory and quite another to
be regulated by it in practice.” A. W. Pink
“If you will not have death unto sin, you shall have
sin unto death. There is no alternative. If you do not die to sin, you shall
die for sin. If you do not slay sin, sin will slay you.” Charles Spurgeon
“It is because of the hasty and superficial
conversation with God that the sense of sin is so weak and that no motives have
power to help you to hate and flee from sin as you should.” A. W. Tozer
“I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a
foot, and I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I’ve
got a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and
fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it
goes home to perdition!” Billy Sunday
If you do not
know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your
heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus,
I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You
shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead
proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my
sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my
life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely
in Christ,
Clifford
D. Tate, Sr.
Author
of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and
Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into
Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s
Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod,
Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners,
Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
No comments:
Post a Comment