davidbowerkingwood

Your Crucifixion was a Big Part of Your Transformation! 

 In “A Flood of Confusion”  it was determined that you were born spiritually dead but it was not mentioned that you did have something else living inside you that you really didn’t want, a sin nature that was alive and well. I wrote:

“Christianity is not primarily about what you do, it’s all about what was done to you; God’s relationship to mankind focuses on two men, Adam and Christ; in Adam you died, in Christ you can live.”

Well, like it or not, there is something else that was done to you; at birth your spirit was dead but you had a sin nature that was alive and well thanks to Adam. I can understand if you find such thoughts unpleasant but you can believe me when I say that ignorance of the facts can cause you more trouble in the long run than being fully informed of the truth of the situation you are facing.

Let me summarize your situation; you died spiritually in the Garden of Eden when Adam disobeyed God. When you were physically born your spirit was dead but you had a living sin nature which was yours because of Adam’s sin.

What you did with your life, either good or bad did not even begin to address your basic problem of a dead spirit and a living sin nature! A solution to that problem was going to take infinitely more than you could ever provide; this is where God had to step in and provide a divine solution otherwise there was really never going to be any hope for you, you were hell bound and helpless!

So What did God Do?

If I told you God sent His Son into the world to die for the sins of the world that all who believe on Him might be saved; as a Christian you might say there’s nothing new about that, I’ve heard that for years; true perhaps, but there is more to that story than meets the eye.

Just as the living spirits of all humanity died in Adam, the sin natures of all who receive Christ as Savior were crucified with Christ on the cross at Calvary. When you received Christ as your personal Savior, your sin nature was counted as crucified with Christ on the cross; it is now considered dead and you are no longer enslaved to it. Now do you understand? I didn’t think so, I don’t understand either; this is another one of those Proverbs 3:5-6 moments and falls into that huge category of truths we must accept by faith and not by understanding!

Let’s let the Apostle Paul tell us the story of the death of our sin natures. In Romans 6:5-11 it is written:

“⁵ Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised to life as he was. ⁶ We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. ⁷ For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. ⁸ And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. ⁹ We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him.¹⁰ When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. ¹¹ So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.”

There is good news and bad news, the good news first; the good news is your sin nature has been crucified and you are under no obligation to serve it; the bad news is the sin nature is still in you and can do damage if not controlled by the confession of sin and the power of God, the Holy Spirit.

A Lifetime Struggle for Control

Let us review your situation, as a Christian, one more time before we move on. Your sin nature has been crucified and you are no longer enslaved to it. Your spirit has been born again to new life by the power of God and now you have a living spirit within you. The Holy Spirit has come into you as a down payment on the inheritance God will give you in the future but your body, however, has not been redeemed and must still pay the penalty of sin which is death. Your body and the crucified sin nature it holds can have no part with you in heaven; you and your body absolutely must part company either by physical death or the rapture, whichever comes first. Christ’s death on the cross redeemed your soul and spirit but not your mortal body.

The Apostle Paul describes this struggle in Galatians 5:16-26 where it is written:

“¹⁶ So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. ¹⁷ The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. ¹⁸ But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

²² But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

Just remember, as a Christian you will live out your entire mortal life as a soldier on the spiritual battlefield. Your success as a soldier of the Lord depends on how well you put on the whole armor of God and utilize the Holy Spirit; confession of sin to God restores the power of the Holy Spirit in your life! 1 John 1:9

Next time we will consider Paul’s struggle with sin as an example of the struggle we must all wage against sin.