Freedom From Sin’s Power - Part VI of VIII

Free From the Power of Sin

God told the Serpent that the Seed of the woman (from whose lineage the God-seed, Jesus, would come) would crush the head of the serpent. Thus, the headship of Sin over fallen mankind would be broken. Genesis 3:14-15 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: [15] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. In view of resurrection by “the Spirit that raised Christ form the dead”, Satan’s crucifixion of Christ was as a bruised heel, yet that same very cross dealt an effective blow to Sin’s headship over mankind. Let’s now understand how it is that a man may become free from Sin’s domination or headship.

In Romans 6 Paul presents us with the facts of our new freed self. We are freed by our identification by faith in His death as …our death to our “old man”. Romans 6:6-7 …our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (Greek, kartargeo, made of no effect), that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin (as a ruling nature).

Verse 7 says, “He that is dead is freed from sin.” We are freed selves in and by Christ’s death and burial as our death and burial. Sin cannot have power over an already dead person. We are a freed self, dead to sin, and alive unto God in my Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6:3-4 ... so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

By our co-death on the cross with and in Christ that God has made the Seed of the Serpent to be “of no effect” upon those who have already died in Christ, and now possess God’s Seed of life. Can you tempt a dead person? The fact is that we have died in Christ and are thereby liberated from Sin’s tyrannical rule over us; we’re freed from the power of Sin as a nature. To receive the Seed of God, which is Christ, is to receive God’s power of the Cross of Christ, His death and resurrection. All that Christ achieved, and all that He is, is now within His resurrected Spirit of life, as the Seed now in us.

It is the normal operation of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” makes us free from the power of the spontaneous operation and promptings of the “Sin” nature that remains resident within our flesh body (Rom 7:17, 20). Romans 8:2 For the law (normal regulating operation) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law (normal regulating operation) of sin and death. We are His incarnated body on earth today, with His overcoming life in us, as us. Our only genuine life is of the Spirit of Christ’s resurrected life now in our spirit.

You may say – that sounds great – but that is not my experience. I am still swayed by the sinful impulses within me, over and over. I understand; I also hear those sinful impulses. But the fact is that our fleshly body, still with Sin dwelling in it, is no longer a dominating power over us since we as a fallen self are now dead and we are Christ persons. Yet, Sin can lie to us and attempt to deceive us. Sin may throw a sinful thought at you, you feel bad, thinking it was your thought, but all the time it was of Sin. Sin desires that you condemn yourself and drop away from God. Sin uses such happening to put a wedge between you and God.

We need to know this, Satan is still near at hand, within whispering distance, within our very bodies, but he is in fact powerless over we who are dead (Rom 6:7). The only power Satan still has toward a believer is by the same mode he has always used, by his lying, and then by our believing those lies. I once heard a story to convey the truth of this matter. There once was a ship with a cruel and evil captain. That evil captain was overthrown by a proper and righteous captain, and thrown into the brig on board. The evil captain was condemned to the brig, just as Sin has been condemned to the flesh. The crew (us) still could hear the old captain barking out orders while he was in confinement in the brig, but he no longer had authority over the crew.

Another Problem

You may say, “I have known of this matter of my co-death with Christ, but honestly, it has had no benefit in my trying to live as I know I should”. You may think you understand, in all honesty, but you don’t necessarily see the real issues involved only because you have not yet had revelation from the Holy Spirit on this. You are right, I may say that I’m dead to sin but in just a few minutes time I’m irritable, or angry, or pridefully react to something. So, how can I say I’m dead to sin when it manifests again? I may say I know it, but it really doesn’t work.

You need to see this. There’s a difference between the quantity - I don’t say “quality” - but between the quantity of our death and His death. If we see that, we see the solution to our problem. What I mean is this: Jesus’ death and resurrection are so complete, physically and spiritually, that He is utterly out of the realm of the world, the flesh, and the devil that they can’t touch Him. He’s not within hearing distance – He has died physically. He is not temptable now. In this sense His death is more complete than ours. Ours is an incomplete death, because so far it is only spiritual. We have not yet been removed from the presence of Sin as a nature – its still in our flesh body. It is not yet a physical death for us. So we are still within the realm in which we can be called upon by Sin with these sinful, or even self-condemning, thoughts that Sin would use to hinder our union with the Lord. Of course we do not have to listen and Sin no longer has power over us – but we can be deceived into thinking our temptation is sin (the verb) and so we then do it because we have already thought it – that’s a lie. It is not a sin to be tempted – Jesus was tempted, “yet without sin”.