9)
Knowing that Christ being raised from the
dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over
him.
10)
For in that he died, he died unto sin once:
but in that he liveth, he liveth
unto God.
11)
Likewise reckon ye
also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
12)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal
body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
|
I |
t
is hard for most to be able to conceive of this state of being. That is why the
concept is exactly the opposite of what most teach. You see, Apostolics have become so used to "excusing"
their own sins (as well as the sins of others) and have become so
"assimilated" into the rest of the "church" world that
those who still believe the biblical admonition not to sin are called
"liars," at best.
Contributing
to the difficulty in getting Man to believe that he cam be "dead to
sin" is the fact that he seeks the way that he believes will be the best
for, and on, himself. The truth is that fleshly man thinks that it is easier to
do and accomplish on his own, rather than by doing things God's way.
Different
"interpretations" of the question of sin, aside, when we come to
salvation, we are required and it is essential that we put to death the
"old man." As ingrained as sin is in the psyche of
"natural" (fleshly) man, the only way to stop the operation of the
flesh is to stop sin!
Since
Christ, is now with us, it is impossible to be alive in Him and sin, as well.
In a nutshell, this means that someone has to die. In that Jesus has already
died once unto sin, guess whose turn it is now?
For
most people, all that "death" means is the putting off of the
physical body. Rarely, does it occur to one that all sorts of other things
exist in us which must be put to death. We must be free from all of the
impediments of the flesh and sin because flesh is inferior to what the Lord
wants from us. Therefore, He saves and redeems us that we might be empowered to
live in this body of flesh free from sin! The power that we receive enables us
to walk after the Spirit and resist the flesh.
So
many problems and so much conflict arises from the
divisions that Satan encourages. One of his tactics is to convince a man that
he is superior to another. In doing this, he gets one to think that he has
something "going on." The reality of the situation of all men is that
all enter the world as sinners and all are inferior to the God Who created
them.
The
devil gets the most from the weakness in our bodies by telling us that as long
as we are in a body of flesh, we will sin. You see, we must never underestimate
him, for his "game" is spiritual and his desire is for us to think,
feel and be deceived. He plays on our "natural" insecurities by
getting us to believe that we must be "wary" of everything. This will
definitely "kill" a saint, for the Lord's entire point to this life.
Too
often, the flesh remains alive in us because though we hear the Word of God
repeatedly, we fail to execute it because it is not received by us in the Spirit.
What one does not receive cannot change him and if the Lord is unable to change
the natural man, that man cannot come under subjection to the Spirit and
therefore, cannot be used. So, you see, being "dead to sin" is
essential to life in the Spirit.
Lest
we fail to instruct one adequately in "deadness," we sill answer the
question of how one can be dead to sin. The state is defined by the refusal to
allow people or the devil to lead one, or "myself" to allow me to
commit sin. This is to reckon myself to be dead to it! Another way to think of
it is to have the "mindset" that sin is absent or deleted from our
very existence.
One
rarely stops doing anything without replacing that "bad" thing with
something "good." In the case of the saint, the life of sin is
replaced with glorifying the name and life of Jesus. Perhaps this offers a clue
into why so many people still sin after salvation: they have nothing with which
to replace their sin!
When
one is wholly dedicated to the Lord, there is simply no room in his life for
sin. But, you see, the devil is able to draw our attention away from God's
reality by repeating what others say and not what the word says. Compounding
this is the fact that only "I" can count (reckon) sin to be done in
"my" life. If God has said that we are free from sin and has gone to
the trouble to give His life that we might know how to live free from sin, why
should we believe that we are still bound just because someone tells us so?
What is our recourse? To release ourselves from our own, self-imposed "cause(s)," struggles and battles, take up the cause of Christ and serve Him. This is, indeed, the "recipe" for being "dead to sin."