“For when we died with Christ we were set free from the
power of sin” (Romans 6:7).
One of the dangers of preaching salvation by grace alone is that it can be interpreted as a license to do whatever one wishes. The Apostle Paul, however, makes it abundantly clear in his letter to the Romans that those of us who are under grace are to live without being characterized by sin. Freedom begins and ends at the cross of Christ. It was at Calvary that the penalty for our sin was dealt with once and for all. It was there that Christ was punished on our behalf in order that we might be completely free of sin’s debt.
But something else took place at the cross that equally affects our freedom. Not only was the penalty of sin dealt with that day, but the power of sin was dealt with as well. Christ’s death and resurrection marked the end of sin’s power to control the human heart. Just as sin could not control the Son of God, so sin is powerless to control those who have been placed into Christ through faith and have thus become believers.
Unfortunately, many who might nod in agreement with the above statement are anything but free experientially. They are still slaves to the same habits and sins that plagued them in the days before they came and surrendered their lives to Christ. There is no real sense of victory over sin. There is little joy. The motto has become “Well, nobody’s perfect.”
God, however, does not intend for us to continue living as slaves to sin! The message of the cross is freedom from sin-both its penalty and its power. While it is true that we will always be temptable, it is not true that we have little choice but to give in to temptation. The moment you were born again, you were given a new life. Christ’s life. Coming to the cross, you died to a life dominated by the power and lure of sin and were given a new life and you became a new person with a brand new potential in regard to sin and death.
This is what happened theologically. But how do we make this truth a practical reality?
We must appropriate it. We must accept what Christ did in freeing us from both the penalty and power of sin as fact and then make behavioral choices accordingly. The process of appropriation begins with Galatians 2:20: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The process of appropriation continues with Galatians 6:14: “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.”
The process of appropriation includes Colossians 3:1: “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand.”
Whereas before coming to Christ we had only a solidarity with Adam’s sin, now that has been broken and we have a new solidarity with Christ, the second Adam, in His death and resurrection.
What this means practically is this: the old kind of person we were before our conversion has been crucified with Christ. The “body of sin” – the body as it was, a vehicle of sin – has been rendered inoperative.
“And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God” (Rom. 6:8-10).
What happens if we fail to appropriate the work Jesus accomplished on the cross? We will continue living defeated lives as slaves to sin. We will never know the fullness of joy only the frustration of defeat. We will never experience the liberty of God’s power only the bondage of temporal pleasure.
Have you acknowledged your freedom from sin’s power today? Has your interest in the world and its values been crucified with Christ? Have we allowed God to break us free from continual and perhaps secret sin?
The Passion Week [the week leading up to Easter Sunday] is a time for us to continue in the spirit of the Lord’s Table:
“So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died” (1 Cor. 11:27-30).
Passion Week is a time for deeply honest examination. A time to be broken. Because God says we are different. He tells us we are ‘dead to sin’. Dead people are free from the power of sin.
Who will you choose to believe?