God does not give you power to overcome sin!

God does not give you power to overcome sin!

As strange as that statement may sound to some, I believe it to be the teaching of the Bible. Now, before I go any further, I don’t believe that it would be right for me to leave you in suspense. I do believe that God has provided salvation from sin, not salvation in sin. So what do I mean by saying that God does not give you power to overcome sin?! I simply mean this, God does not empower sinful flesh to walk holy, rather he puts sinful flesh to death!! There is a vast difference between God giving you power, and Him putting you to death. The Muslim, the Hindu, the Buddhist, and all other religions cry out to their gods for strength and power to be better people. Often their strong dedication to their god will help them to overcome in a certain area, but it is mere strength of will and dedication. Victory over sin in the life of a Christian is not based upon zeal, earnestness, surrender, or seeking God for the victory. It is based solely upon what Christ has already done for us two thousand years ago. Freedom from sin is gospel! It is not a formula to success. Only Christians can enjoy complete freedom from sin.
Paul says several times in Romans 6, Know ye not...?. He told the Christians in Rome that they ought to know certain truths about the gospel, and by believing or knowing this form of doctrine that was once delivered unto them, they were thereby freed from sin.
Sometimes I hear Christians talk about how they ‘got victory’ and it sounds very similar to any other religion. Their victory is established upon self abasement, strong determination, and trying to look to God for help and grace. Well I have news for you, according to Romans 6, Collosians 3, and many other portions of scripture, ALL Christians are already freed from sin! This freedom was given to them at the moment that they believed in Jesus for salvation. The idea of someone ‘praying through’ to finally get the victory, puts the responsibility of overcoming on the believer. If this were the case then Christ’s ‘attempt’ at freeing us from the power of sin was vain! Can’t you see that Jesus died! Do you think that He would die just to give you a program to closely follow in order to be free?! NO! Jesus died so that you would be free from the power of sin! The reason He came to his earth was to set his people free from the bondage of sin.

Ok then, what has Jesus done? How can I be free from sin?

When Jesus died he took every single believer along with Him to the cross, taking care of our sin problem. God’s solution to our sin problem was to put us to death with Christ, we were then buried together with Him, we were raised at the same time that He was raised, and when He ascended to the Father we ascended to the Father with Him! That is how we became free from the power of sin. Victory over sin is something that God did outside of your experience, it is something that He did to you in Jesus.
This is the reality, this is what God has done for us! The battle for a Christian is a battle of believing God, and walking in light of Gods reality and not our own. In other words, the just shall live by faith. You need to believe what God says, rather than what you see, hear, feel, taste or smell. You ARE free from sin! Jesus broke the chain of sin and set you free! From now on when sin is real and Gods word seems distant, you need to believe, reckon, count Gods word to be true over your own experience and you will see deliverance!
Most so called Christian Churches teach that you cannot stop sinning. There are other Churches that teach that after years of being faithful to God you will graduate to being an ‘elite’ Christian and from that point you will never sin again. Clearly both of these views are unscriptural. The Bible says that ALL Christians are freed from sin! And that is because they were ALL put to death on the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Sometimes believers will experience a new found freedom and they will say that they became free from sin after so and so many years of trying. This again is a false concept. You do not become free from sin on the day that you see it in your experience, you became free from sin when Jesus died and rose again!
‘But’, some might object at this point, ‘there are still a good many Christians that are struggling and often failing to overcome sin’. Good observation. You need to stop seeing experience as the test of whether or not something is true! Don’t bring the Word of God down to your experience, rise up to the Word of God! The word of God is truth, let it be your guide. The Word of God says that we are overcomers. It is time you believed God.
There is an illustration that is quite suitable to this. When the American slave trade was abolished in 1865, all slaves were pronounced free. A good many slaves however, especially those that were in more remote locations did not know about the abolition of the slave trade. Therefore many slaves continued serving and slaving under their masters rule. In some cases it took several years before the news of the abolition came to their ears and freedom actually became their experience. Nevertheless, ALL slaves were officially made free in 1865! The fact that some slaves were ignorant of their freedom, did not make the abolition less effectual. Whether or not the slaves actually took their liberty to begin their lives afresh did not change their standing with the United States government. ALL slaves were made free at the point of Abraham Lincoln signing the abolition of the slave trade. As far as the officials in Washington were concerned, ALL slaves were free to do as they pleased from that moment on.
Paul took to himself the responsibility of letting ALL Christians know that they were made free from sin at the point that Jesus resolved the conflict between the slave trader (the flesh), and the slave (you). When Jesus went to the cross He not only paid your debt to God, providing you with forgiveness of sins, and giving you perfect standing with Him through His own right doing, He also put to death your slave master (flesh), thereby providing freedom from the power of sin. Please note that God did not empower you to overcome your slave master. He did not give you strength to over power your flesh. Instead He put you to death, and raised you again to new life in Christ Jesus!

Why death?

Humanity had become so corrupt that God had no choice but to demand the death penalty be executed upon us. The wages of sin is death! We were ALL left without hope...unless...? Unless God became a man and took upon Himself the form of a servant, unless God became flesh! That is exactly what happened. God knew that no one would never be able to succeed, so He did it for us. Jesus was tempted in every point like as we are and was always obedient to God. Having never sinned in His life, the death sentence did not came upon Him. Since He was eternal God He could offer Himself as an eternal sacrifice to the Father. This would give God the legal right to forgive us. Jesus took our death! But God knew that just forgiving us would not take care of the issue of sin in our daily lives. What good would it have done if God would have forgiven us our sins only to leave us as slaves to sin and our flesh? The answer is that He most certainly did not!
Romans 6 is the most descriptive, detailed text in the Bible in regards to Christians being free from sin. It’s a shame that it has been so misunderstood. Lets go through the chapter together and try to actually believe what it says. The reason it has been so misunderstood is simply because it seems hard to believe.
Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (Paul is asking this question with the discussion of chapter 5 in mind. The answer is, yes grace would abound for a Christian if sin continued to abound. Righteousness would continue to be imputed, and sin would still not be imputed! Surely we could all agree, where sin abounds, grace does much more abound!)
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? ( God forbid! This is the strongest negative in the Greek language. However Paul does not say, God forbid. We would lose our salvation if we did. That should never be our motivation. Our motivation for overcoming sin is Christ work and our participation in His death. He doesn’t say, should we continue in sin! He says how shall we, how can we that are dead to sin live any longer therein!? Paul would obviously think it to be absurd for a dead person to continue in sin.)
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? ( Here is where Paul begins to reinform the Christians of something that they should have already known. The baptism that Paul is talking about here clearly is not water baptism, he is talking about us being baptized by the Spirit of God into Jesus’ body. Paul says that, so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death. No Christians were missing during this operation, we were ALL baptized into Jesus. Why would us being baptized into Jesus’ death be significant? He will answer that question in the next verse.)
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: 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. (In the same way that Jesus was raised from the dead and now walks in newness of life, we too have been raised from the dead and should walk in newness of life. Walk as though you are alive from the dead, even though your actual resurrection is yet future. We will see more of this in the next verse.)
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: (Paul is assuming that you knew that we were planted together in the likeness of Jesus’ death! Didn’t you know this? In the same way that Jesus died, you also died. So, if this is fact, then you can be confident that you will also be resurrected in the same manner as Jesus. It is important to note that the tense that Paul uses here is future, ‘we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection’. Our victory over sin is based upon something that God did for us in Jesus and it hinges upon a future hope of being resurrected in a new and glorified body. God wants us to live ‘as though’ this is already a fact. As you believe God’s word, over your own daily experience, you will see actual freedom from the power of sin!)
Rom 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Again Paul talks about knowing something. This is something that all Christians should know. Our old man, the flesh, the mortal body, the body of sin, the thing that leads all people down the path of sin, was destroyed when Jesus died! Why? So that we should stop serving sin.)
Rom 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. (This should be wonderfully good news by now! When Jesus died, you died, and we know that dead men don’t sin! ALL believers are dead and freed from sin.)
Rom 6:8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:(Once again, notice the future tense. Paul says that we shall also live with Christ.)
Rom 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. (This should really be the point of rejoicing for us. Since Jesus died and was raised in a new immortal body, he no longer has death reigning over Him. Now if we were baptized into Jesus’ death, then we also are free from the dominion of death.)
Rom 6:10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Here is where many people get things wrong. Somehow they turn this ‘reckon’ into a work that we need to accomplish. The word reckon simply means to count. The instruction from Paul is this, Since Jesus is dead to the dominion of sin and death by His own death and resurrection, in the same way you should now also count (reckon, impute, account) yourself to be dead, resurrected, and in a new body and therefore free from sin and death.)
Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. (Based upon something that is not tangible at all, in fact, based upon something that will yet take place, DO NOT let sin reign in your mortal body anymore! Do not obey the lusts of your mortal body any longer. Notice that he did not say that it is impossible that you could let sin reign, rather he said, let not sin therefore reign. The slave trade has ended, it is over, you can now go free and live in holiness. Your flesh is dead, along with the lusts thereof, now walk as though you are dead to sin and alive unto God.)
Rom 6:13 Neither yield ye your members (members in the Bible are simply eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet, sex organs and so on) as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Live as though you are already dead and resurrected in an immortal body, sin and death being a thing of the past!)
Rom 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. (This is a strong statement that Paul makes here. He boldly says that sin will not have dominion over a Christian! He is confident that living in faith of Christ’s death and resurrection, our participation with Him, and living in hope of a future resurrection where all this will really come to pass, is enough to keep a believer living above the dominion of sin, even in this life!)
Rom 6:15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Rom 6:17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. (Here Paul says that by obeying a form of doctrine, they became free from being the servants to sin. Most people believe that victory over sin lies is in their humility, or self denial, but Paul says that it was by simply believing a doctrine. Freedom from sin is as much a free gift as forgiveness of sins is a free gift. Just like there is nothing you can do to save yourself from the penalty of sin, even so there is nothing you can do to save yourself from the power of sin.
Freedom from sin is not you stopping your sin, freedom from sin is God putting your flesh to death in Christ Jesus. Freedom from sin is not you living a life of holiness, although freedom from sin will result in holiness. Freedom from sin is God taking your mortal body and baptizing it into His Son, crucifying your flesh, and then raising you again in an immortal body, never to die again.)
Rom 6:18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. (Not only did God set you free from sin, He also thereby made you the servant of righteousness. You now have the ability not only to stop sinning, but also to do righteousness!)
Rom 6:19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Rom 6:20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ( The key to victory over sin is eternal life. Life forever with Jesus in an immortal body. That is where victory lies. Sin brought death, Jesus brought life. That is our cure. There is no other. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. If you are in Christ then full provision for victory over sin has been made for you. You have been given eternal life!)

I hope this has been helpful to some of you. I know that there is a lot of confusion over this passage and the subject of freedom from sin. I believe this to be the straight forward gospel approach to it. Any other ‘formula’ would not be gospel. The message of Romans 6 is good news. It means that all those that don’t have the will power to deny themselves, those that never were good at being religious, now have the freedom to walk above sin in a way that religion could never produce in a person. You can walk as someone that is alive from the dead and you don’t have to be super human to do it. The answer is simple, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk ye in Him. If you believe this good news, thank God for what He has done for you in Jesus, and then walk in the liberty whereby Christ has made you free!