June 16
“For the death that He died He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider [or reckon] yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:10-11)
This principle of reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God is so foundational to Christian living and gaining the victory over sin in our lives. But frankly, this is not discussed or taught much in the churches I have attended over the years. This is a crucial fact that deserves much more emphasis than it gets. We struggle with sin over and over again because we do not understand how important it is to understand and believe that we are dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus. I have been a Christian for 35 years and I am learning more and more how crucial this is, to better understand and renew our faith every day in the victory of Jesus and our identification with His death and resurrection. Understanding and believing our utter and total dependence on His finished work is essential to victory.
For the next several days I would like to share some quotes from a book I am reading with the kids on our Sunday afternoon time together (we try to spend a few hours each Sunday afternoon reading various books or listening to sermons or praying, etc.). This book is entitled The Complete Green Letters by Miles Stanford, which is available from Zondervan, and offers many deep insights into spiritual truths and how to walk victoriously in Christ. These quotes, which also draw heavily on the writings of others, all pertain to this crucial issue of our identification with Christ and how essential it is that we understand and believe that. But first, we will see, it is essential to understand how powerless we are in our own strength, in our flesh, to overcome sin.
PREPARATION:
In preparation, there is a tearing down before there can be a building up. J. C. Metcalfe faithfully writes: “It is more than comforting to realize that it is those who have plumbed the depths of failure to whom God gives the call to faithfully shepherd others. This is not a call to the gifted, the highly trained, or the polished as such. Without a bitter experience of their own inadequacy and poverty they are quite unfitted to bear the burden of spiritual ministry. I takes a man who has discovered something of the measures of his own weakness to be patient with the foibles of others. Such a man also has a first-hand knowledge of the loving care of the Chief Shepherd, and his ability to heal one who has come humbly to trust in Him and Him alone. Therefore he does not easily despair of others, but looks beyond sinfulness, willfulness, and stupidity, to the might of unchanging love.
Sooner or later the Holy Spirit makes us aware of our basic problem as believers – the infinite difference between self and Christ….Much of His preparation in our lives consists of setting up this struggle – our seeing self for what it is, and then attempting to get free from its evil power and influence. For there is no hope in consistently abiding in the Lord Jesus as long as we are under the dominion of the self-life, in which “dwelleth no good thing” (Rom. 7:18a) (pp. 19-20)
To be continued.