When you believed the gospel message of Jesus Christ … you received a NEW POWER OVER SIN.
One aspect of the overflowing power that we wrote about yesterday is our new power over sin. This is sadly one of the most misunderstood provisions of the New Covenant. And it would be bad enough if it were simply due to a lack of knowledge. And while there certainly is a lack of teaching in the church on our new identity in Christ and all that Christ accomplished both FOR us and IN us, the sad reality is that there are volumes of teaching that deny, contradict, and distort the promise and provision of the New Covenant that is ours in Christ Jesus. And one of the most powerful of these overlooked promises is your freedom from sin’s power.
Too many theologies emphasize a civil war inside us between a sin nature and a righteous nature that hounds us our entire life as a believer. Your sin nature died at the cross. There is no war between two opposing natures inside you. You have been re-created with one nature; a holy and righteous nature (Eph 4:24). Righteousness is your new default mode. Righteousness flows from your new heart. Righteousness flows from your new nature. Righteousness flows from your new creation.
As I have written before, we no longer have a propensity toward sin. We no longer have to be driven by “the flesh” as a somehow insurmountable force in our lives. Do believers commit sins? Yes, we still have a capacity to sin. But the propensity toward sin, our helpless default mode to sin, is gone. Big difference between propensity and capacity. May you experience your new power over sin today!
“Knowing 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; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus … For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:6-11, 14
“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Galatians 5:24-25
“He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” I Peter 2:24
“Therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, so as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” I Peter 4:1-2
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” Titus 2:11-14
