For by the death He died, He died to sin (ending His relation to it) once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God (in unbroken fellowship with Him) Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short lived, perishable bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.
(Rom. 6:10-12) ampl.
The riches of revelation contained in the above three verses are incredible so let us explore them so we can receive of the joy they contain for us. May the Spirit of God once again open the eyes of our hearts to see the truth of what Christ has accomplished through His cross.
I chose to use the amplified version in this case because I think it brings out exactly what is being taught by our brother Paul. In the first verse the amplified version mentions four indisputable things which were accomplished by Jesus in His death and resurrection.
Let us itemise them.
1. He died to sin.
2. Having died to sin He ended His relation to it.
3. He accomplished it once for all.
4. He now lives in unbroken fellowship with God.
The Bible teaches us that Jesus knew no sin in His lifetime and that when He was on the cross He became sin for us. Of course when He died, He died to sin and consequently ended any relationship He had with sin forever. What is also wonderful is that it was accomplished once for all, never needing to be done again and stands forever as a foundation for our faith. All of this places Jesus in unbroken fellowship with His Father never to be associated with death or sin again.
I am sure that all who have the Spirit of Christ within them will not disagree with all of these wonderful and glorious truths about Jesus but there is something even more glorious here for us to see and it is in the next verse of that passage. The words “even so consider yourselves also” are the most powerful and richest words in the entire passage and possibly the New Testament as far as we are concerned.
Is it possible that these four points are true of us also? Yes it most certainly is. It is gloriously true of every believer in Christ, hallelujah. Everything that is true of Jesus in these verses is true also of us. Read them again and this time place the word “I” instead of “He” and experience the impact of them upon your life. The word “I” will not fit perfectly in the sentence but you will get the idea of what is being said. This is what it should look like.
- I died to sin.
- Having died to sin I ended my relation to it.
- I received it once for all.
- I now live in unbroken fellowship with God.
It is very important at this point not to look at ourselves and our experience to see if this is true concerning us. The word of God has declared it to be true and already accomplished, and all we have to do is agree with it from the heart.. If we agree with it we will be in faith about it and the Spirit will bear witness with our spirit that it is true for us. As far as God is concerned we have died to sin and our sins have been removed forever. We are now under grace and are unable to cause God to break fellowship with us. Even when we are not hitting the mark perfectly every time sin is not being imputed to us by God because His relationship with us is by grace and with God there is no such thing as sin in a grace relationship. Even if He wanted to impute sin to your account He couldn’t because all sin was taken away in the death of His son as the lamb of God. He is happy about this because this is what He intended to accomplish. It is His good pleasure to never remember our sins forever.
If we consider ourself to be sinning it is because we do not consider ourself to be dead to sin. It just means that we are judging ourself after the flesh by looking at our performance and walking by sight and not by faith. God does not recognise us after the flesh anymore and consequently sees us as dead to sin and it is certainly impossible for dead men to sin in the sight of God. God is not recognising us after the flesh one day and changing His mind the next. This is the only ground upon which God could say to Abram “walk before me and be blameless” see the following verse.
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. (Gen.17:1)
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh. (2 Cor. 5:16)
Just like Jesus, we have no more relation- ship with sin. If the word says we have no more relationship with sin then as far as God is concerned we have no more relationship with sin. If anyone insists upon having a relationship with sin then he is tampering with the workmanship of God in his life and thereby nullifying the effect of grace in his life. If anyone tries to overcome sin or tries to avoid sin or thinks about sin or resists sin or wonders if he has sinned etc. then he is alive to sin and in relationship with sin in- stead of being dead to sin and alive to God. He is placing himself under the law and under the curse of it, which thing God has not done and is not doing.
There is no such thing as sin in the new creation. If there were sin in the new creation of God then it would not be a new creation. It would still be the old creation. So we all must answer the question for ourselves. Am I a new creation or am I still an old creation? Hallelujah.
We died to sin once for all. What a wonderfully true statement. Thank you Jesus for taking us with you into unbroken fellowship with our heavenly Father forever. Once for all means that we don’t have to die to sin again tomorrow or the next day or ever again. Our once for all repentance from sin was accepted by our heavenly Father once for all, without the need to ever do it again. We can only be born again once for all. We do not become new creatures again every day. We became new creatures once for all. Did you get that? Once for all. Hallelujah. Don’t try to read the next verse just listen to it by letting it speak to you. I will write it out as it is in the Bible once, and then write it again with two extra words in the middle to help us understand it.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (Rom. 6:1)
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. (Rom. 8:9)
But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. (1 Tim.1:8-10)
You are still worldly. For since there is jeal- ousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere hu- mans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings? (1 Cor.3:3-4) (NIV).
God has credited His righteousness to us because of our faith in Christ and our standing is now in righteousness and true holiness before Him in love. Because of the higher law of an endless life within us in Christ, we are now free from all legality as a family of sons in the image and likeness of God Himself. Because law is in place for sinners only and we have left that arena because God is our father and God has no sons who are sinners or human beings or those who are born of women or under law. While a part of this verse in 1 Tim. 1:8-10 is directed at homosexuality we can also understand that we have come out of any association with humankind to become sons who are partakers of God’s divine nature in the new creation and we will not go back and defile ourselves.
We cannot be partakers of two natures at the same time, a sinful nature and a divine nature. Our self life is dead and with it went our sinful adamic nature. This is the only ground we recognise in Christ where God has placed us.
Anyone who entertains two natures at the same time or at different times is a double minded person who is under under law where grace is of no effect.
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (Gal.4:6)
Many of us think that we became sons when God sent the Spirit of sonship into our hearts but this scripture above says the opposite to that. It is more the case that we were always known beforehand as God’s sons and it was the Spirit of birth and sonship that awakened us out of our ignorance and defilement with mankind to take our place as His sons in our true identity as heirs. Glory to God. AMEN.
In His Love, Noel Tuite.
www.ekklesiadrogheda.com 