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Face to Face:
You Are Dead
by J. Ross Greer of The Place of Grace Ministries (about the ministry)
[Note: If you'd like to read more from J. Ross Greer, be sure to subscribe to his daily e-mail list A Word For The Church.]
6:1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin.
Who are you? How do you view yourself? Better yet, how does God see you? To have an intimate relationship with the Father, we must not only come to understand the character and works of God (a lifetime process), but we must see ourselves as we truly are. Would you not agree that God Himself has the best perspective on this?
"We who died to sin". This may be a strange concept to you, but the scripture accurately declares that anyone who has been saved by the grace of God through faith alone in the crosswork of Jesus Christ is dead to sin. When we were baptized into the Body of Christ by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13), we experienced the death of our sin nature.
We, therefore, are no longer under the control of sin. We have ceased to be slaves to it. The Christian can no longer habitually sin. God has freed us so that we could serve and fellowship with him in obedience.
Now, your experience may differ from the reality that God sees in you. Far too often, we succumb to our fleshly desires when we need not. However, we can take encouragement from the fact that God had transferred us out of the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:13), so that He could have an intimate relationship with us. He did not save us, and then leave us to struggle. God destroyed the enemy of our souls!
So, who are you? Are you just an old sinner that has been saved by grace? Or are you a saint who has a problem with the flesh? What does your Heavenly Father see?
Copyright 2001, The Place of Grace Ministries. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
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About The Place of Grace Ministries: In 1992, God interrupted the well-organized life of J. Ross Greer through a study called "Experiencing God". This encounter birthed a passionate vision for local churches that has become The Place of Grace Ministries. Through teaching, music, and writing, we call believers to return to the basic principles of God's Word and participate in the work of God. For questions or scheduling information, please contact us at: theplaceofgrace@att.net Or visit our web site at: http://home.att.net/~theplaceofgrace |
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