By Louis A. Barbier Jr.

Defeated? You need not be. Christ keeps His promise: “If the Son… shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

“I haven’t sinned in over seventeen years,” a woman is reported to have exclaimed to the renowned Bible teacher, Dr. Harry A. Ironside. Dr. Ironside looked at her, and not the least bit taken aback, responded, “That is a truly remarkable record, Madam. I suppose you are very proud of it.”

“Oh, yes, I am,” she responded, little realizing that the New Testament speaks of pride as a serious sin (1 Timothy 3:6).

We may smile at this story, but down deep inside we probably wish we could say our lives were more free from the plague of sin. Often it seems that we are continually fighting the same sins over and over again, yet finding ourselves defeated by them.

Isn’t it possible for the so-called ordinary Christian to have victory in this life? Can’t sin be defeated in everyday experience?

The bible assures us that a life of victory is not only possible for the Christian but that it is to be expected (Galatians 5:24-25; 1 John 5:4). True, the Scriptures never imply that the Christian should expect to be completely free from sin as long as he is in this body, but allowing for imperfections, he should have the upper hand over the temptations he encounters. Indeed this is an important evidence of the new life he has received as a result of trusting Christ.

Admittedly however, many believers do struggle in habitual defeat. Why? Largely because they do not realize that they no longer need to fight the battle of sin by themselves. As Christians they have been joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. They now share the results of His death on the cross and His risen life. But they need to be aware of their union with Christ and its results. Only as they discover their new position and all it involves will their daily practice be affected.

What then, is the believer’s position with regard to sin? Because of the work of Christ, the Christian stands as one who has already lived out his life, died and been raised to life again. Accordingly the Word of God tells him that he is “dead to sin” (Romans 6:2); that is, that temptation no longer has the power to make him sin.

“But that isn’t the way it is at all in my life,” you may protest. “Sin seems very much alive.”

When the Scriptures tell us that we are “dead to sin,” they are not saying that sin, or the desire to sin, has been annihilated. “Death” in the Bible means separation, not cessation. (Physical death, for example, is the separation of the immaterial part of man from his physical being, not the end of life or conscious existence.)

Thus when the Bible says you are dead to sin, it says that you have been separated from sin as a result of your being in Christ. You have died to sin in the sense that sin’s power over you has been broken  and you no longer need to respond to its promptings.

Paul explains this further in Romans 6:6, declaring that “our old man is crucified with him [Christ] that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” A more accurate translation is that “our old self was crucified with Him that our body of sin might be done away with” (New American Standard Bible). The point here is not that our sin nature has somehow been destroyed in the sense that we think of destruction, but that this sin nature — still with us — has been stripped of its real power.

The same Greek verb translated “might be destroyed” in the King James Version of Romans 6:6 is used in Luke 13:7 in connection with the parable of the unproductive fig tree. The farmer was prepared to cut the tree down, saying, “Why cumbereth it the ground?” The word translated “cumbereth” in this passage is the same word translated “destroy” in Romans 6:6. The fig tree was in no sense destroying the ground, but it was making the ground useless or unproductive. Thus Romans 6:6 is actually saying that our old man was crucified with Christ so that this nature might be “cumbered” or made ineffective.

Our position in Christ’s death means that sin’s power over us has been broken and we no longer must be slaves to sin. But the fact that the believer is dead to sin is only half the story for the Word of God declares that we not only are dead to sin, but that we are also alive with Him in His resurrection. In Romans 6:4 Paul states that “like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”

Before we came to know Christ as our Saviour, our natures were such that we continually responded to sin (Galatians 5:17-21). Now, however, the believer has a new nature that is in tune with God and which enables us to respond spiritually to Him (Galatians 5:22-23).

You would not screw a carrot into an electrical socket (the comparison is ridiculous, but it makes a point) and expect to receive light. Neither could your old nature become a conductor of spiritual things. Only your new nature can receive God’s direction and transmit the glory of God.

If as a result of your position in Christ you are made dead to sin and alive unto God, how can you be sure that you are in Christ? Is it necessary for you as a believer to do something to make this position certain? No, if you have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, the Holy Spirit placed you in Christ at the time you believed. This is His work — to unite the believer with Jesus Christ through the baptism of the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 1:18; 2:12) — and He never fails to do it.

Just what does he do, however? Baptism basically means “association.” The Greek words used for baptism are terms used in connection with the fuller’s trade. The fuller, a dyer of cloth, would immerse cloth in the dye so the color became associated with the fabric.

In the same way baptism of the Holy Spirit “associates” the believer with Christ in His death. Death to the sin nature has therefore been made an actuality for every believer, whether he realizes it or not.

It is unfortunate that some have confused the issue by bringing water baptism into the picture. They point out that Paul said “so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism unto death” (Romans 6:3-4a).

The baptism referred to here, however, is not water baptism but the baptism of the Spirit. No mode of water baptism could accomplish what we are told in Romans 6 has been accomplished for us.

The positional side of the truth is vital, but this truth must be applied before it can affect the life. How, then, does the believer come to a realization of his victory over the sin nature in his day by day walk? Paul in Romans 6:11-13 makes it clear that there are three steps that the believer ought to follow to make this positional truth real in his daily living.

First, he declares, “recon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). The instruction here is that we are to count it as a fact, to believe it, to consider it true and valid.

The English word “reckon” has passed from common usage, but the word in the original text implies that one should evaluate, or look upon himself in a new manner because he has calculated certain facts. Paul is saying basically, “Examine your life very carefully and look upon yourself in a new way. Remember all that Jesus Christ did for your and the great price that He paid for your sin. Consider yourself dead with Him. Accept it as a fact, for it is true. You died with Christ! And you are now alive with Him.”

If you really understand what was accomplished for you and the great price Christ paid for your sin, you will now view sin as God views it and you will hate it. The old way of life should be dead to you and you should be alive to God in Christ.

The first step is the hardest because the believer must count on and rest in what has been accomplished for him. Suppose a wealthy friend informed you that he had deposited $10,000 in your name in a local bank. The only condition is that you wait at least twenty-four hours before making any withdrawal of funds.

What do you think you would wonder about for the next twenty-four hours? You certainly would not wonder about how you would get to the bank. You should want to know, “Did he really deposit the money for me?”

The Christian faces that same basic question, “Did I really die to sin in Christ?” Paul’s words to the believer are, “It’s true, believe it!”

While the first step of reckoning involves counting on what has been done for us, the second gives us something to do. Paul gives a strong command, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.” (Romans 6:12).

The Christian life is a continual battle against sin; and the reason why many Christians always seem to be losing is that they fail to get involved in the fight. The Christian who has been delivered from the power of sin is foolish if he courts those things which appeal to his old nature. An ex-alcoholic, for example, needs to steer completely away from the thing that brought about his downfall. Or one who knows he is predisposed to dishonesty should not take a job where he is working with other people’s money.

Check your interests, Christian! What do you spend most of your time doing? What do you read? What do you think about? Are you giving sin an opportunity to gain a foot hold in your life? To a large extent you can control your interests, your thoughts, even your actions. Don’t let sin reign!

The third step, a positive one, if you are to have victory over sin is to yield yourself to Christ. Paul says it this way: “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13).

The apostle is saying, “Give in! Turn your Christian life over to the Lord for His use with the complete recognition that you are no longer serving sin, but serving Christ.”

Do you see what is involved? Paul is implying a crisis dedication where one comes to the point where he has to decide, “Who is going to run my life anyway, me or God?”

Have you ever turned your entire life over to God for Him to control and use in any way He chooses?

……

Charles C. Ryder gives an excellent illustration of this whole truth. He points out that it is possible that one could live for some time under a political dictator whom he would necessarily obey.

In time the dictator might be overthrown and a new more democratic government established. But even though the power of the former dictator had been destroyed and the dictator himself removed, some might still support him, even work secretly to bring him back to power.

Though citizens of a free state, such folk would be voluntarily placing themselves back under the authority of the old dictator. These folk would be like Christians who have been freed from the power of the sin nature, but who nevertheless go on serving that nature needlessly. Victory has been won for them in the death of Christ. But some believers still submit to the old nature and fail to enjoy the freedom which is now theirs in Christ.

Thus while few Christians would be so bold as to claim that they have not sinned for seventeen years, it is possible for the believer to have victory daily over sin in his life. This is not to imply that the child of God is ever sinless. However, the believer who is reckoning himself dead to sin, who is not letting sin reign in his body and who has yielded himself to God completely for His purposes, can have daily victory in his constant struggle with sin.