Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. (Rom. 6:8)
Jesus Christ accomplished a complete and final redemption through His death and resurrection. There are no victories left to win. There is no forgiving left to do. There is no greater defeat to be brought to Satan. But there is one thing left to do: Believe. We must believe – which means to fully embrace and surrender to Jesus Christ.
The primary way in which I believe that, “It is finished,” is by losing my life for Jesus’ sake – by picking up the Cross daily. If I do, then, and only then, will I find true life in Him. (Matt. 16:24) But this is not a matter of my actions making what is finished by Christ to be more finished. It is not a matter of me making what is true more true. No. Rather, it is a matter of me abiding in the One IN WHOM are the power of the Cross and the resurrection. I have to experience Christ.
Death to the old must always proceed resurrection unto the new. I must relinquish my life – which is to relinquish my right to myself – to Jesus Christ crucified. What will happen is that I will, “live with Him,” that is, Jesus won’t give me my life, He will give me His.
Faith and Victory
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he lives, he lives unto God. Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. (Rom. 6:9-12)
The basis for all faith, and thus, all victory, is the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is finished. There is nothing left for us to finish. What is left for us to do is believe and live like it is finished: We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God.
Religion would teach us that the way to overcome sin is to stop sinning. Laws and rules – usually right from the Bible – are usually provided. But it is folly to tell someone who cannot stop sinning that they simply need to stop sinning. They can’t. That is the problem. Of course, some sins are subtle – such as the sin of self-righteousness. It usually takes a work of God to bring us to see our complete inability to stop sinning.
The way to stop sinning is not through any human effort. I can stop sinning only if I start believing. Faith will motivate me to lose my old life to Christ – lose the life that provides the basis for all sin. Only then can I find freedom. Freedom from sin is the result of oneness with Christ in His death. All other efforts are futile. In a word, all obedience in the Christian life must be the OUTCOME of faith in Christ.
Strength Thru Weakness
My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. (II Cor. 12:9-10)
When we are born from above, Jesus Christ joins us to Himself and we become one spirit with Him. (I Cor. 6:17) But all those dimensions of our makeup that are outside of our oneness in spirit with Christ remain natural – contrary to the One who is in us.
It is the goal of God to form Christ in us (Gal. 4:19), so that He might be manifested through us. But the natural man is in the way. Our natural man will strongly resist the new life even in religious ways. This does not always have to be conscious – it is the NATURE of the natural man to resist. So what is the solution? To turn in upon our natural man and beat our flesh over the head to force it to obey? You can try, but this won’t work. Religious flesh will simply pop up in some other form.
Practically speaking, our natural man must be crucified — made WEAK – reduced and brought down to nothing. God will bring a work of the Cross. We must be shown that there is absolutely nothing in our natural man that can walk with God. But the good news is that we can then put all of our faith in Christ and live from out of Him for all things. This is spiritual strength. There is simply no way to live from OUT OF Christ – who is the power of God (I Cor. 1:24) – unless I am being made weak in myself. As Paul said, “For when I am weak, I am strong (in Him).”
Purpose of God’s Law
Now we know that what things that the law says, it says to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (Rom. 3:19-20)
The purpose of the law was never to give man a standard he must keep. The purpose was to reveal the righteousness of God in written form, and to prove to man that he could never righteous enough for God. In short, the law exposes what we ARE. Stand face to face with the holy, just, and good law of God, and you will be exposed as unholy, unjust, and bad.
If a person is honest, the law will stop their mouth – they will stop talking about the possibilities of their own righteousness through works. The more we try to keep any law of God, the more that law will probe and expose us as hopeless. But that is not the end of the purpose of the law: It is to bring us to where we will fall to our knees and put our faith in the Person of Jesus Christ – and then live in God’s grace and Truth.
David DePra
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