Monday, I asked if you’d died. Did you see it? If not, you can read it here.
Since today is the day we remember the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (though I don’t really believe it happened on Friday), I thought a few verses of remembrance were in order–just to remind us who we are. We all know what he did for us. Don’t we?
I’m going back to Romans 6. Verses 6 and 7 say, “Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.” NLT
Do you see that?
Our old selves, the ones that are slaves to sin, were CRUCIFIED with Christ. We were (it’s done, not an ongoing action) set free from the POWER of sin.
Let’s move down a few verses to 10-16:
“10He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God.
11So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.
12Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires.
13Do not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning. Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory of God.
14Sin is no longer your master, for you are no longer subject to the law, which enslaves you to sin. Instead, you are free by God’s grace.
15So since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does this mean we can go on sinning? Of course not!
16Don’t you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master? You can choose sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God and receive his approval.” NLT, emphasis mine
Now reread verse 10. He defeated sin for us. It’s a done deal.
Hop down to verse 14. See that? “Sin is no longer your master.” It can’t control you. You are free to make the choice, as verse 16 says. You either choose to obey God and make Him your master or you choose to sin and make it your master.
There’s no middle ground here. When we choose sin, we choose to say NO to obeying God. It’s that simple.
One more hop. Many of us have heard, and probably quoted verse 23, but have you paid attention to the verses before it?
“20 In those days, when you were slaves of sin, you weren’t concerned with doing what was right.
21 And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.
22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Before we aligned ourselves with God, we were slaves to sin and did things we are ashamed of. But God… 😉
There’s a saying that I’ve heard since I was quite young. “We are sinners saved by grace.” But that’s not the whole truth. Yes, we were sinners. Yes, we were saved by grace. But we ARE “now free from the power of sin.” So we are no longer sinners. We WERE sinners.
I can hear you now, flipping through your Bibles to Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.” But notice the tense in this sentence. “All HAVE SINNED…” It’s past tense. It’s done. It doesn’t say we are continuously sinning, but that we have. I have. You have. There’s only one person on this earth who never sinned, and He is the glory of God. Every child born will sin. Every adult alive HAS sinned. But that doesn’t mean it is a continuous situation. We can choose NOT to sin.
Okay…I think I’ll stop there. Just some things to really study and pray about as you enter into this glorious Easter weekend.
