that we have no sin, we deceive our selves, and the truth is not in us.” (The word “sin” is in the singular, having reference to our sinful na ture.) 0 While sin is not dead, thank God it will be some day. The expression “destroyed” in Rom. 6 :6 does not mean to be annihilated. In the Greek it is actually annulled, as in the case of a canceled contract. The contract itself may still be in existence, but it ceases ’to be binding. Ju st so, through union with Jesus Christ who died and rose again, the power of sin over the believer’s life has potentially been broken. This leads us to the positive side of the truth. Scripture means just what it says. One of the most difficult things is to read the Bible ju st as it is written, not as we fancy it should have been written. May we find the fulness of joy the Lord intended us to have through the glory of the Spir it’s message. T h e believ er is given an excellent exhortation to follow as Paul tells us in Rom. 6:11, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is the pathway of victory. Baptism is used in this portion to illustrate a great truth. In this liq uid grave is mirrored the work of the Lord for the believer. Wherever the Christian’s death to sin is spoken of it is always connected with Christ’s death. This is the past. Failure to grasp the significance of the very tense used by the Spirit has led some people to fancy that this death to sin is something to be achieved by our own efforts. It has led to false ideas of holiness. Death to sin is something past and completed by Jesus Christ. This is how we are to consider our own situation. How long does it take 31 CHRISTIAN LIVING SERIES True Victory
ing of the Holy Spirit. Romans 6:11 declares, “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This is the key verse around which the facts of the sixth chapter of Romans are based. Salva tion in all of its dimensions and de grees is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. The reason so many are miserable and frustrated is because they seek to attain spirituality by trying to reach it through their own earnest and de termined efforts. At the risk of being redundant we must emphatically af firm that Christ possesses the exclu sive ability to save from sin. There is no competitor in this field. While we have been saved from the guilt and condemnation of sin, there still dwells in the believer a sinful nature from whose power he needs deliver ance. This situation exists as long as he is in the world. So long as there is any sin from which you and I need to be saved we must have a Saviour. There is only one Who can deal successfully with this problem. It is Jesus Christ. A liv ing vital union with Him is the heart of Christian experience. John 15:1-5 expresses this in a wonderful manner. “In ChrisLJesus” is not merely a fig ure of speech or a beautiful expres sion; it is an actual reality. I t is as real as limbs are a part of a tree, or my arms a part of my body, so vital is our relationship to Christ. Christ did not need to do anything for Himself. All that was accomplished in the atonement was done exclusively on our behalf by God’s grace. It is in view of this glorious fact that we are exhorted in Romans 6:11 to reckon ourselves to be “dead unto sin but alive unto God.” Sin is alive in the nature of every believer. The old de sires were not removed when we were saved. God’s purpose for you and me is not the annihilation of the Adamic or the sinful nature. In some quarters there are earnest and godly people who teach that the old nature is eradi cated. This is in spite of the plain teaching of I John 1 :8, “I f we say
Made with FlippingBook Annual report