Sure, you say you believe Christ died on the cross-but even the demons believe that. The whole point of His crucifixion was to set us free from sin’s nature and power, transforming us into His image. Yet you’ve taken your human experience and defended it above the grace that changes you. You’ve worn the identity of "just me" instead of "Him in me." You’ve said, "This is the real me," instead of "This is Him in me." You’ve let your human experience overshadow the grace that renews you. When you say, "I have to sin every day," you agree with the lie-and that empowers you to keep living that way. That’s exactly what the devil wants you to believe: no accountability, no repentance, no true conviction. Without repentance, there’s no change of mind. Without a change of mind, there’s no transformation. What a lie from hell.
How shall we who died to sin live in it? That’s the problem-we haven’t seen it. We’ve preached, "If you die tonight and don’t know where you’re going, pray this prayer." We made it about heaven, not dying to sin. We made it about salvation, not transformation. We made it about life after death, not new life now. So now, people pray a prayer, believe God forgives them no matter what, and their lives don’t convict them-"Hey, we are what we are." That has nothing to do with Scripture. It’s totally misaligned, totally messed up. What? Look at what we’re supposed to have done. Paul said, "Certainly not!" How shall we? A lot of Christians don’t even get it. They never took the step to say, "I’m putting off the old and putting on the new. I’m not here to fulfill my flesh-I’m here to live by the Spirit."
God made us for His image. Sin lost it. Jesus took sin away to restore it. "I’m going after You, God. I’m all in. I’m denying myself, picking up my cross, and following You." That sounds a lot different than "If you die tonight and don’t know where you’re going." Do you not know? Some of us don’t. That’s why he’s writing-because some of us don’t realize that as many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. Ask the average Christian what "baptized into His death" means, and most won’t know. Do you not know? As many as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death-so that, just as Christ was raised by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
It’s not just about dying-it’s about new life. It’s about living. If we’ve been united with Him in His death, we’ll certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. So it’s not just about dying; it’s about living. And the second thing you better know is this: our old man was crucified with Him. When He died, I died. Everything about the old me died with Him. And when He rose, I rose, and everything about Him rose in me. Do you understand that? Romans says that our old man was crucified with Him so that we should no longer be slaves of sin. But then people say, "Well, I’m always going to sin. We all sin. Everybody sins." I looked up the word slave. Do you know what it means? Bound and chained to do another’s will. So if I’m no longer a slave to sin, then I’m no longer bound and chained to obey sin’s desires. But some people still talk like they are. Why? Because they have built their identity on their own experience and their own actions instead of on the finished work of Christ. That means they are still letting darkness define them.
If you prayed a prayer to go to heaven but have not been freed from sin, you are deceived. The gospel is not just that you are forgiven; it is that you have died. And if you have died, then you can live. There is no resurrection life without death. You cannot truly live until you die to yourself. You say you believe, but many times what you really believe is your past. You believe your old actions. You believe your old patterns. You believe your old identity. And because you still see yourself the same way, your actions never change. When you live like that, you have nothing to convict you because you keep saying, "That’s just who I am." But if you have died to yourself, then you stop defending the old man. You stop hiding behind excuses. You stop living in denial. You stop creating language to protect what Jesus died to destroy.
Satan loves when people only talk about their ability to sin and call it humility, instead of putting sin off and calling it dead. He loves that because if he can keep you identifying with sin, he already has influence over the way you live. But Paul said, "If we died with Christ-" Not, "If we prayed a prayer so we can go to heaven." Mark my words: Paul is talking about something very different than the way much of the church has presented evangelism. We have made the gospel all about going to heaven. Ever since I was a little boy, the message I heard was that the whole purpose of the cross was to be forgiven so I could go to heaven. But the cross is not only about being forgiven when you die; it is about dying so you can live now. The whole emphasis has been life after death instead of life in Christ while we are alive.
In the book of Acts, there were no altar calls like we know them today. There was no, "If you’ve never received Jesus, raise your hand." What happened? People watched the lives of the believers. They saw God move. They saw the power of the Holy Spirit. They saw transformed people. And when they were convicted, they cried out, "What must we do to be saved?" They were moved by the lives of the believers. They saw something real. They saw Christ manifested through people. They saw a life that made them say, "How do I become like that?" That is evangelism. We think we have evangelism nailed because we have methods, programs, and presentations. But we are not truly reaching the world if we are not living epistles, if we are not living Christ, if we are not manifesting Him. If the gospel is reduced to getting into heaven when I die and getting my name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but it never brings me back into union with the Father, then we have missed the point.
If I do not love, it is because I do not know Him. Eternal life is not merely a destination. Eternal life is relationship. Jesus said it plainly in John 17:3: "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." So eternal life is not just what we have preached it to be. It is not simply going somewhere when you die. Eternal life is knowing Him now. It is being restored to the Father. It is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is the old man dead, the new man alive, and your life becoming the evidence that Jesus truly rose from the grave. I understand that I died with Christ, and my old life died with Him. I have put off the old thing-the old desires, the old man, the old "want to," the old emotions. I realized that the thing He created me to be was subverted by the thing I was born into in Adam. So I died to Adam and got born again so I could live in Christ. I’m denying myself. I’m picking up my cross, and I’m following Him. Yes! And there are not many people who have that strong revelation.
When you ask people why God sent His Son, they will say, "To forgive us so we can go to heaven"-because that is all we have taught them. And I can’t even find that in Scripture! Isn’t that something? So if we believe we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also what? Also live with Him! Knowing-for the third time, you better know-that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. Now, that death that we were buried into-you are going to see what it is right here. For the death that He died, which we were buried into in baptism-remember? The baptism was death. The death that He died, look. He died to sin. What? Just once! Once and for all. And the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. How can you possibly tell me you are doing that if you are talking about your ability to sin every day and saying, "Nobody's perfect"? It is absolutely impossible to do that, to live there speaking the other language. Oh my. Reckon yourselves as what? It’s like you waking up in the morning going, "Father, I just thank You for life! I thank You; You put something brand new in me. Your Kingdom is in me. Your ways are in me. Your desires are in me." Man, there was a time I was just all about me-selfish, self-conscious, insecure, full of identity issues. But You have shown me it’s all a lie. It has nothing to do with that. It’s about living in You and You living in me. God, thank You for loving me, washing me, and cleansing me. God, I can’t wait to go out there today because now I can see people the way I know You see me.
Why didn’t you? Well, I don’t know but likewise, you do what? Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts. And do not-this is big-do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. Look what you are doing every time you say, "Well, yeah, but brother, we sin. We’re always going to sin. Everybody sins. Nobody's perfect." You are actually presenting yourself as an instrument of unrighteousness, saying, "We were made this way. It's the blight of humanity." And we make it all about perfection instead of righteousness.
If you present yourself as an instrument of unrighteousness and sin, you shouldn't do that. Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law but under grace. Now, He knows what people are thinking when He says that, so look what He says-He is going to explain that presenting yourself. He asks, "Shall we sin because we’re not under the law but under grace?" Well, certainly not! We already settled that. How shall we who died to sin live in it any longer? Right? Do you not know? This is the fourth time Paul asked do you know?
We better know this! Do not present yourself as unrighteousness. Do you not know that whoever you present yourselves to, or whoever you see yourselves to be, that is the one you become a slave to? You are the slave of the one you obey. In other words, when you believe something, you obey it; and when you obey it, you believe it even more because you obey it. You say, "See, this is just how we are," but it is only because you first believed that is who you are. It is like a person in addiction. Their self-esteem is crushed. They aren't necessarily evil or wicked, but their values have diminished. They have lusts and desires and crave a substance. They do crazy things, dishonorable things, just to power themselves to get what they need. There is a cost, right? They do it, and when they do it, they say, "See how low I am?" But you need to see now that you have been set free! That is not your identity anymore.
When you put on Christ and put on righteousness, it changes your fruit. It changes your desire. It changes your heart and invites grace. You are saved by grace through faith. So once you believe, grace comes to make it your reality. Now you are living what you could never live on your own in your own strength. So the Father gets all the glory. All you do is get to believe. He is worthy of it all. Why? Because there isn't anything a man has that hasn't been given. There is no "super Christian" on the planet who will be guilty of anything other than simply believing Him. If a man has anything, it is because God gave it. If you hear, it isn't because you are super spiritual; it is because He lets you hear. If you see, it isn't because you are super spiritual; it is because He lets you see. There isn't anything a man has that hasn't been given, and there is no boasting in men.
Having been set free from sin, you became bound and chained to do the will of righteousness. Oh, I pray that every Christian would live there for the rest of their lives! Having been set free from sin and having become a slave-chained and bound to do the will of God-you have your fruit to holiness. So if your fruit is in holiness, then you should probably be compelled to start believing this. If you are stuck trying to be holy and failing, you are probably not seeing what He is saying. So rather than fight it, why don't we just yield and surrender? Because if your fruit is not holiness, then you are missing what He actually paid for: righteousness.
Paul said, "I am not ashamed." He stood against a culture bound by works. He got beaten for preaching grace. He was stoned, whipped, and pummeled for preaching that a man is saved by grace through faith. God has set you free from sin, and having become a slave of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end is everlasting life. Everlasting life is the end result of that union. Wt we preach the end result and don't talk about the union, the righteousness, or the identity, so men have a claim to eternal life without any transformation of life. Now we are not impacting the world with Christ. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now mind you, when He says the gift of God is eternal life, He describes eternal life. In John 17:3, He says eternal life is knowing. So what is my part?
Sin is a flat-out choice that you make. If Jesus told people to "go and sin no more," He wasn't leading them astray but our human experience has trumped the words of even Jesus. We have made our human experience the fact and ultimately the truth in our lives. We think that our human experience is just "how we are" and that we are stuck with it. No! God gives us grace, which means empowerment. It is God's willingness to use His ability on your behalf to make you what you can never be on your own. That is why He gets all the glory, and there is no boasting in men. For whatever a man is, he has received it, and whatever he has, it has been given.
One of my problems was I was listening to grace teacher who teaches that we have no part - zero part to play in our salvation but that teaching only caused me to feel more safer and secure in my wicked and evil state. I thank God that He showed me that was just a detective lie and that I need to make a flat out choice so I could be transformed. I did need to repent which means I had to change my mind by dying to self, reckoning myself to sin and taking up my cross to follow Him. Without repentance transformation is impossible. There is no such thing as a self centered Christian or a person who does not truly love God.
The devil's strategy is simple: he wants to tone down the message that you can be free from sin and get the church to fight over it. He wants us to let our human experience to be the dividing line and the barometer of the argument. And get them to not believe what's available of what Christ has paid for." You can make this necessary choice right now. Just agree with God and say, "I now boldly reckon and declare myself to be completely dead indeed to sin because this is what Christ died for. He paid the ultimate price for me to be free from sin, not in it. I do not want to cheat Him from receiving the glory that He rightly deserves." Make that choice and say this: "I now believe that Christ has dealt totally with my human
experience, and it has no hold or power over me.
I want to lead you right now into a bold, wholehearted declaration of faith. If the Holy Spirit is stirring your heart today, speak these words with me from the depth of your spirit: "I make that choice today. I believe that Christ has dealt totally with my human experience-including all of its self-centeredness-and it no longer has any hold or power over me. I will stand fast in that truth. I refuse to let emotions, feelings, circumstances, or anything else move me away from the glorious fact that Christ has set me free. I stand boldly in liberty because Christ has made me totally free from all sin and selfishness. I will not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
I now repent and make a choice to now deny myself-which means I finally understand I was never made for me, but for God. I pick up my cross to follow Jesus. I know that I died with Christ. My old life died with Him. Today I am putting off the old desires, the old man, the old emotions, and the old human experience. I realize that the person God created me to be was subverted by the nature of Adam, so I died to Adam, and I have been born again in Christ." Some of you have been living in that very struggle. You’ve sinned. You’ve missed the mark. You’ve done things you knew were wrong, and you’ve walked in self-centeredness for far too long. But today the truth has reached your heart. You don’t want to live that way anymore. If that’s you, pray this prayer with me right where you are:
"Lord, I’m asking You to forgive me for being totally self-centered. I now see that I was completely wicked and evil, and that wickedness kept me locked in prison. I thought I was safe because I had prayed a sinner’s prayer and held my ticket to heaven, but I let my human experience overrule the truth that I could be set free from sin. I had no real love for You, God, and none for others. I was nothing more than a loud, clanging cymbal and I clanged loudly but now I see the wonder of Your love: You proved Your love for me while I was still living in that wicked state. Even when I was ungodly, even when I had no strength, Christ died for me. I did not really love You, God, but You are love. You manifested Your love by sending Your only begotten Son into the world so that I might live through Him.
This is real love, not that I loved You but that You loved me and sent Your only beloved Son as the atoning sacrifice for my sins. Now I can love You, because I finally see that You first loved me. Wash me clean in the blood of Jesus Christ. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and make me Your child. Empower me, teach me, and give me wisdom but most of all, thank You for loving me. In Jesus' name, I come. Amen." Take a moment and let those words settle deep in your heart. Christ has made you free. Walk in that freedom today.
