Something Every Christian Must Do!

The following verse describes a life-threatening truth for us: For the wages of sin is death, Romans 6:23 We all know that each and every person has sin in their life. Somehow, we must find a way to become free from our sinful nature. The following passage describes our dilemma: So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. 1 John 3:9-10 (NLT) Most people know that God cannot tolerate sin of any kind. It is crucial that we find our way into a sinless life in order that our eternity may be lived with God. The urgent truth of sin dictates that every believer must do something extreme in their life to deal with their sins. The Scriptures can teach us, what it is that “Christians must do about sin”. We could say that Jesus is the solution and go no further. But the tenacity of the sin problem makes it a rather complex subject for us. In order to have a more complete understanding we must consider various aspects of our problem. The answer is contained in the sixth chapter of Romans.  

We know that 2000 years ago Jesus Christ won the victory over sin by giving Himself to die as our sacrifice. Romans 6:1-11 explains, in different ways, that after believing in His sacrifice, we must not continue to live in sin! Our old sinful self was put to death on the cross with Jesus if we can believe it and live it. If we will share in His death to this world then we may share in His new life. The power of sin was broken because the power of His sacrifice is so much greater than sin and death. Although, sin is more powerful than any human it is not near as powerful as the life of our Savior. At the time, the Devil did not realize that by killing Jesus he was making it possible for us to be set free from our sin and death. The last verse of this great passage says: So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. Romans 6:11 (NLT) We of course, cannot physically die 2000 years in the past but we can as Christians “consider” ourselves dead to this world. This means that every day we should think about ourselves as if our sinful nature were no longer alive to us.

The next major section includes verses 12 through 15. It repeatedly points out that we must not continue to sin as we walk in our new life with God. Sin cannot be allowed to control our life because the Spirit of God who lives in us cannot allow it. Our new life is about being a servant of Jesus and we must not let our body serve the Devil at any time. Before being born-again we served in the world of the Devil but now we have a new master who loves righteousness. The fact is: you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Romans 6:13 (NLT) Righteousness is possible because God’s grace allows us to be free from all the laws that have a penalty of death. There is no way that we can continue to sin and at the same time be free from the resulting death. We must have the new life that God is offering to us and it starts with our death. This passage is plainly telling us that it is “our responsibility” not to sin. A Christian cannot sit back and “let nature take its course”. We must fight for righteousness to become our whole life.

In Romans 6:16 through 22, Paul tells us how that freedom from sin can be a reality in our life and it will last for eternity. He begins by telling us that the choice is ours to make. Would we like to be a slave to sin and death or do we choose to serve God and live a righteous life? The power is available for our freedom from sin but we must accept the obligation to live righteously. This is what the Bible says: Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Romans 6:18 (NLT) Because our human nature is so weak toward sinful behaviors, we need to be a slave to something, either good or bad. There are people who claim they will not be a slave to anyone. They really need to rethink their position because it is far better to choose God and His direction than to fail on our own. Here in this world many people are tricked into thinking that a sinful life is better. It will never end well for any sinner. Believe in the Scriptures: Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. Romans 6:22 (NLT) We also receive many wonderful gifts when our master is the Lord. Of course, the greatest gift of all is being a “co-heir” with Jesus, throughout eternity.

The sin problem can be completely solved by our total faith in God. This includes the fact that Jesus had victory over all sin and we must consider (reckon) ourselves to have died with Him. Also, by faith, it is our responsibility to do everything we can to remove sins from our everyday life. We must utilize our freedom from the power of sin and renounce our old worldly master. Now we should spend our time serving our new master who is good to us beyond all reasoning. If we look ahead to chapter eight of Romans we can see the wonderful conclusion to this matter: So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. Romans 8:1-2 (NLT) The Spirit has the power to live inside of us and direct our life after we renounce sin forever. It’s time to quit relying on ourselves and place our trust in the power of God. We must renounce all sin today! Can we think of anything in this world as wonderful as being free from our old sinful nature?