This is a little long, but it's a lot of course correcting and explaining arguments before their made.
This is the idea that in the church, we are passionately following Jesus to the cross, but we don't really celebrate the new life of the resurrection. I've heard many people comment on how the Catholic crosses keep Jesus on the cross, but protestant crosses have Jesus off of it because He's resurrected. I'm afraid we have Him off the cross but forget to live life out that way. Since the Spirit makes us look like Jesus (Romans 8:29) and we received the Him after the cross, when Jesus was resurrected and glorified, then we too are conformed into THAT image of Jesus (post cross, not heading towards it). We don't have to drudge towards the cross in a daily dying life cycle, we have already died with Christ and now are resurrected and alive with Him.
Old Way of Thinking:
I won't lie. This process hasn't been an easy one for me and I've argued with lots of people against this because of what I had been taught, raised, and how I understood God. The big idea was that I thought was "You were a sinner, Jesus died and saved you. Now you're a sinner saved by grace and Jesus will continually free you more and more from your sin, and ultimately you'll be free from sin when you die then get to see Jesus face to face." Perhaps this is what many of us understand. I'm staring to see some scripture that disagrees with this and some fallacies in this process. I think we would all agree that the Bible has to explain our experiences, not our experiences explain the Bible.
I won't lie. This process hasn't been an easy one for me and I've argued with lots of people against this because of what I had been taught, raised, and how I understood God. The big idea was that I thought was "You were a sinner, Jesus died and saved you. Now you're a sinner saved by grace and Jesus will continually free you more and more from your sin, and ultimately you'll be free from sin when you die then get to see Jesus face to face." Perhaps this is what many of us understand. I'm staring to see some scripture that disagrees with this and some fallacies in this process. I think we would all agree that the Bible has to explain our experiences, not our experiences explain the Bible.
Fallacies:
The first fallacy is that physical death is the solution to your sin problem, not Jesus payment on the cross. Waiting to die to be free from sin, means that sin is what sets you free. "Thanks be to God...[for we] having being set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." (Romans 6:17-18).
The first fallacy is that physical death is the solution to your sin problem, not Jesus payment on the cross. Waiting to die to be free from sin, means that sin is what sets you free. "Thanks be to God...[for we] having being set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." (Romans 6:17-18).
The second fallacy is that eternal life is thought to happen when you physically die. "I'm excited to die so I can see Jesus face to face." is a common expression I hear people say as if they can't see/know Jesus now. Jesus said, "And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Jesus said eternal life is knowing God and Jesus - which starts the day you become a Christian. (Examples of knowing Him and His will Eph 1:9, 3:3, 3:5). Also we see multiple people getting to encounter Jesus when He wasn't physically on earth such as Isaiah, Saul/Paul, John (revelation). Jesus died so we could know God, not so we could go to heaven when we die. "Know" is not a head knowledge but a "know" like a husband "knows" his wife. They experience and intimately interact each other. Same way we are made to experience and intimately interact with each other - that's eternal life.
The third fallacy is identity. You are not a sinner saved by grace. Either you're a sinner, or you're a Christian. If you're a Christian, then are no longer a slave, but you are a friend of God (John 15:15), and now made a son or daughter of God and a co-heir to the throne with Jesus (Romans 8:14-17). You are now royalty. You're a Prince or Princess to Father God/Abba Father/Daddy God/Papa God/King Dad/Daddy.We are made into Christ's image to be Servant Kings and Servant Queens. This means we act like Kings and Queens who serve, not as slaves who are playing dress up for a time but have to take it off at the end of the day and return to reality. The earth is your inheritance. If you really know Jesus, you don't care a lot about getting the earth though, you just realize it's at your disposal as a resource to love and serve Him and others well.
You're dead. Now Alive.
Onto the fact that you, as a Christian, if you have accepted Jesus, are no longer who you used to be. (2 Cor 5:17) That person is DEAD and you have been resurrected, made alive in Christ. (Romans 6). You can't be that old person anymore. Those tendencies have died, stop going back and bringing them back to life. Lets look at Romans 6 notice the death and alive parts to sin and the verb tenses (past, present, future).
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus whoever baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in the newness of life.
For if we have been united with Him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the dead he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Note: not a future "once you die" idea, but a current lifestyle change.)
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to make you obey it's passions. (It's been killed, don't let it pretend to come back.) Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as though who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but grace. - (Romans 6:1-14 ESV)
Can you see his point? You and it's power in you has DIED. Die - to cease to exist. So Paul is saying, now that that part of you is dead, don't allow outward forces to make you do what you don't want to do anymore. You don't have to you're dead. He goes on to explain now your natural tendency, your slave behavior is to do righteousness - it's to do right. "Thanks be to God, that you whoever were once slaves to sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of the teaching church you were committed." (6:17)
I'd really like you to go through Romans 5-8 and note how many times it says death or dead - I think it's like 44 times. He's really driving home this point that you're dead. I challenge you to read it, but not in the way you've been taught it. Imagine, just humor me, reading it in a way saying that when Christ died on the cross, He broke sins ability to control you anymore. As soon as you accept Him and He comes in you, you have the ability to refuse sin and not do it. That Christ on the cross broke every chain and stronghold. Don't listen to your experience that tells you "but I keep sinning even after I'm a Christian and I can't stop it." Try to separate yourself from that thought, and read the Bible. (You'll notice when he write to Rome, he's been around the block a few times and knows all the usual arguments. He writes and sets up an argument then destroys it. 5 Explains how it's through faith and through Jesus we're saved. 6 explains we're dead to sin. 7 explains the law wasn't good enough. 8 tells us now where we are.)
Question: What about Romans 7 - the "internal struggle"?
Isn't Paul talking about our who natures dueling it out? No. He said you're old nature is dead, finished, kaput, ceased, no more. That's not you anymore.
Isn't Paul talking about our who natures dueling it out? No. He said you're old nature is dead, finished, kaput, ceased, no more. That's not you anymore.
So in the beginning of 7 He switches from "dead to sin" to "dead to the law" and explains that "while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive..." (7:5-6) So he clarifies. "Wait, the law is good. The law told me what is good and Holy, sin then jumped on that and made me want to do the opposite of it." Then he elaborates "I know the law is good and I want to do good, but my flesh always wants to do bad and the sin. So what can I do?! Who can help me?! Jesus! Jesus can save me. My mind wants to do the law but my body wants to do sin. (Don't stop at the end of chapter 7). SO there's no guilt or condemnation or shame in Jesus. The law was supposed to set me free but it couldn't because it was weakened by the flesh, but Jesus did what it couldn't. (The chapter break throws things off but he's discussing how the law is inadequate to change his desires and tendencies, but Jesus is and did.) If someone is in the flesh and it'll lead to death, but if they're in the Spirit and they'll have life and peace. (Notice: 8:5-9 he is objectively stating what happens. Then verse 9, he switches back to talking to the Romans directly.) "You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you." (Aka: You're in the Spirit and free if you're a Christian. You don't have to sin anymore. It's not normal for you to do anymore.)
But I still sin...
Yes, you can. But it's your choice, you're not forced to. "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (6:16) He's saying, yeah, you're free. "So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." (7:17) Sin is separate from you. It's not you. You are not sin. You can do with your body whatever you want. This means, you can actually go a time period 5 minutes, an hour, multiple hours, days, weeks without sinning. Jesus is that strong. But, if you keep listening to the lie that you're sinful and you can't help but sin, then you stay in that relationship doing that thing. It's like a woman who's in an abusive relationship. You can get her out of the house and away from the man so she can go free, but if she continues to believe the lie that "he loves her" or "no one else wants her" then she'll freely go back into that house and be abused. Don't listen to the lie that you're not free, that you have to do it, or that death will set you free. No. Jesus set you free and is calling you to greatness, not to just be sinless. Don't confuse "Holy" for "sinless" it's so much more. It's actually not a pull you out of the negative, but a "set apart" launch you into greatness.
Yes, you can. But it's your choice, you're not forced to. "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" (6:16) He's saying, yeah, you're free. "So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me." (7:17) Sin is separate from you. It's not you. You are not sin. You can do with your body whatever you want. This means, you can actually go a time period 5 minutes, an hour, multiple hours, days, weeks without sinning. Jesus is that strong. But, if you keep listening to the lie that you're sinful and you can't help but sin, then you stay in that relationship doing that thing. It's like a woman who's in an abusive relationship. You can get her out of the house and away from the man so she can go free, but if she continues to believe the lie that "he loves her" or "no one else wants her" then she'll freely go back into that house and be abused. Don't listen to the lie that you're not free, that you have to do it, or that death will set you free. No. Jesus set you free and is calling you to greatness, not to just be sinless. Don't confuse "Holy" for "sinless" it's so much more. It's actually not a pull you out of the negative, but a "set apart" launch you into greatness.
Don't feel guilty - that's also not from God. It's the idea of changing from being "sin conscious" to "righteous conscious." Feel loved and free and begin to dream of what possibilities God can do through you. Instead of saying "don't sin, don't sin, don't sin." You say, "what good can we do today?" Run after those. If you stumble, then you tripped. You're above that. That's not who you are anymore. Move on. You didn't shackle yourself back into the house with the abusive man. Jesus broke those chains so it's impossible to be shackled again even if you wanted to. Go free. Enjoy freedom. Grace is not just a nice term, it's the empowerment of God in your life to change. You've been given grace to not have to listen to that lie or stay in there anymore. You're free now, go be free. It sounds too good to be true, it's because it's God. He is too good to fathom. Jesus really did set you free from sin. It's not just an idea and it's not for heaven. He's that good, that powerful, and that awesome.
"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." - John 10:10
The point is life. It's not death. It's not sin. It's life. It's for freedom. Go live life free and abundantly. It's been given to you. Walk in it. Walk in Him. Walk with Him. Go enjoy and live life. You've been resurrected. You don't exist anymore. It's now Christ in you. (Gal 2:20). Live life and live life fully.
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