How do we overcome sin? will-power? discipline? "just say No". Romans, especially chapter 6, gives us a battle plan. Here are 5 strategies:
Romans 1-5 teaches us that we are JUSTIFIED! We stand without guilt before God, despite our regular mess-ups. Knowing that you wear a righteousness not of your own, the perfect righteousness of Jesus, means you know you are no longer in God's bad books. On the cross, Jesus exchanged his perfection for your sin. He was punished for that sin, and you were accepted for his perfection. You are now viewed as guiltless before God. With the crippling power of guilt broken, you can know that you are, and will be (on judgement day), accepted by God!
2) Wrestle with the complexity of Romans 6!
We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Romans 6:1-10
Easy? No! Quick fix? Seems tough! Meaty? You bet! Solid? Like a Rock! The reality is that not all things in the bible are simple to understand. Many of the greatest, most powerful truths require thought, meditation, prayer and effort. This passage is one of them. It requires wrestling!
If you want to be a shrub, then glaze over Romans 6, leave it to the theologians and stop reading this article right now! If you want to be a baobab however, then wrestle with the truths of this passage.
This is what I see:
You died to sin!
When? When Jesus died on Golgotha!
Who died? Who you where in Adam. Basically, the old you that was a servant of slavemaster Sin!
Why? To be free from slavemaster Sin
Strange? Yes!
True? Yes!
You were resurrected!
When? When Christ was resurrected!
Who rose? The new you, created in Christ to do good works prepared beforehand (Eph 2:10)
Why? To to share in Christ's life which he lives to the glory of God
Strange? Yes!
True? Yes!
How did you die and rise? God viewed you as UNITED with Christ! Your "old man", to his death; your "new man", to his resurrection.
Why does Paul mention baptism? It is a physical demonstration of the reality of your death, burial and resurrection. In essence, a drama of your spiritual reality!
3) Think in sync with the truth!
In the same way, count (also: reckon or consider) yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:11Because you are united to Christ, you need to think in a certain way if you want to fight sin. Count yourself, consider yourself, reckon yourself...dead to Sin. This is what happened. Your "old man" was crucified with Jesus so that you are free from Sin! Therefore don't think like you're not free! So many Christians refer to themselves as nothing but filthy rotten sinners. RUBBISH! If you think like that you're whacked and not in line with truth. Sure, you sin, but that's not your fundamental identity. Don't think like it is. Don't use the "I'm nothing but a sinner" excuse to carry on serving your old slave master, Sin. You no longer belong to him because that old self, which did belong to him, died! That's not you any more. Your new identity is now free to say NO to Sin and follow your new Master, God.
4) Fight the rebels!
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Romans 6:12-13Slavemaster Sin won't give up his old throne (your body) without a fight! He knows that ultimately you follow your deepest desires. Therefore, he takes desires (which are neutral), twists them to be wicked, and uses them to control your body in a way that mocks God and is self destructive! DO NOT LET HIM REIGN!!!! He doesn't belong on the throne, God does. Let God, who has taken you from death to life, take your desires and direct them to what is truly most desirable: Himself. Then, those God-targeted desires will control your mortal body so that you glorify God and build yourself.
Don't fight your desire for pleasure with will-power; you'll lose! Don't fight it with self denial of pleasure; you'll give in! Rather, fight pleasure with pleasure; desire with desire. The pleasures of all that God has to offer (solid, healthy, eternally satisfying!) with the pleasures Sin has to offer (empty, destructive, fleeting).
Trust, wrestle, think...and on the basis of those, FIGHT! Say NO! pleasure vs pleasure. Don't believe the lie that sin is better. Prefer the pleasures/desires/passions of God!
5) Finally, Believe the promise!
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
Romans 6:14This verse is not a command...it's a promise. It's a promise that if you are UNITED to Jesus, you are under his favour and Sin shall not, no matter how hard he tries, be your master. God makes sure of that. Ultimately, that's where our confidence for winning the fight lies-the promise of God!
TRUST, WRESTLE, THINK, FIGHT, BELIEVE! Not for wimps...
