“Suppose someone should offer me a plateful of crumbs after I had eaten a T-bone steak. I would say, “No, thank you. I am already satisfied.” Christian, that is the secret – you can be so filled with the things of Christ, so enamoured with the things of God that you do not have time for the sinful pleasures of the world ” (Billy Graham).
Focusing by grace on your identity in Christ through His death, burial and resurrection is the key to living the Christian life.
Should you keep on sinning so grace increases? Absolutely not! How can you live in sin by already dying to it? Those who were baptized (identified) into Christ were also identified into His death. You were buried with Him through baptism into death so when Christ was raised from the dead, you also may live a new life. You were united with Him in both His death and resurrection. Your old self was crucified with Him so your body of sin might be rendered powerless. As a result, you should no longer be a slave to sin. Because a dead person is freed from sin, believe that you live with Him. Christ’s resurrection proves that death is no longer master over Him. In the same way, consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:1-11). Consider yourself dead to sin but alive to God by identifying with Christ’s death and resurrection.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your body so you obey its lusts. Do not offer the various parts of your body as instruments of unrighteousness, but offer the parts of your body to God as alive from the dead and as instruments of righteousness. Sin will not master you because you are under grace, not law (Rom. 6:12-14). Deny lusts and offer up the members of your body as alive to be instruments of righteousness under grace.
Do not excuse sinning because you are under grace instead of law. You are slaves to the one you obey–either slaves of sin leading to death or slaves of obedience leading to righteousness. You became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching you were committed. Being freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness by presenting the parts of your body to righteousness resulting in holiness. You reaped no benefit being a slave to sin and death. Being freed from sin and enslaved to God, you reap holiness and eternal life. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 6:15-23). Become a slave of obedience to God leading to righteousness, holiness and eternal life.
The law has authority over a man while he is alive. A woman is not an adulteress if she marries another man after her first husband dies. You died to the Law through the body of Christ so you could belong to Him who was raised from the dead to bear fruit to God. Sinful passions aroused by the Law bore fruit for death. Being released from the Law and the written code, you serve in the newness of the Spirit (Rom. 7:1-6). Die to the Law through Christ’s body in order to serve in the Spirit.
The Law is not sin! You could not know sin except through the Law. If the Law had not said, “You shall not covet,” you would not know about coveting. Sin became alive by taking opportunity through the commandment to produce coveting of every kind resulting in death. For apart from the law, sin is dead. The Law and commandment is holy, righteous and good, but sin taking opportunity through the Law deceived you (Rom. 7:7-13). Understand sin through the Law and how it comes alive to deceive you into death.
The Law is spiritual but I am of flesh sold as a slave to sin. I don’t understand what I do. I do not do want I want. I do the evil I hate. I agree the Law is good but nothing good lives in me or my flesh. I cannot carry out my desire to do good. I do the evil I do not want to do because of sin living in me. My inner being delights in God’s law, but the law of sin wages war against my mind and the members of my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will set me free from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. My mind serves the law of God, but my flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:14-25). Set your flesh and mind free from being a slave of sin through Jesus Christ.
Review these truths concerning your identity in Christ:
1. Consider yourself dead to sin but alive to God by identifying with Christ’s death and resurrection.
2. Deny lusts and offer up the members of your body as alive to be instruments of righteousness under grace.
3. Become a slave of obedience to God leading to righteousness, holiness and eternal life.
4. Die to the Law through Christ’s body in order to serve in the Spirit.
5. Understand sin through the Law and how it comes alive to deceive you into death.
6. Set your flesh and mind free from being a slave of sin through Jesus Christ.
