To walk in victory as a Christian, you need to have established your faith on a good foundation. The message of the Cross is one of those foundational teachings. As you read this article and the next one, you will gain an understanding of this truth which will set you free from the power of any sin.
Let’s begin with Romans Chapter 6 where we read that we have victory over sin through death. “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.” (Ro. 6:6-7) When I first became a Christian, I read about the need to “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ro. 6:11) I was taught that victory would come by experiencing this state of “having reckoned myself dead to sin”. I understood it in the context of “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2:20a)
Around that time, while living in Toronto, Ontario, I attended meetings conducted by evangelists from a revival that was occurring in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. One of the ministers prayed with me that the Lord would crucify my flesh. I had a wonderful experience of surrender where I knew that I was dead and Christ was my life. I walked in this cloud of glory for a few days, until I faced a few spiritual situations which I did not know how to handle. Like Peter on the water, I looked at my circumstance and began to sink. Then the Lord showed me where my thinking was wrong. He showed me that even though I was crucified with Christ, I was still alive. Galatians 2:20 also says “and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” All those teachings on “reckoning myself dead to sin” had not emphasized living by faith in Christ. I had to realize that even though I needed to die, I also needed to live. This may seem obvious to you, but to me at the time, everything was about learning to die and to let Christ live in me, not for me to live. Thus began my search to understand the walk of faith. How do we walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh? (Gal. 5:16)
We all have some form of understanding about living the crucified life, but it wasn’t until about fifteen years later that I was able to view it in the context of spirit, soul and body. Looking back over my experience in Toronto, I understand now that being dead to this world and alive to God is more than yielding my body to the Lord for Him to live through me. It is yielding my full being to Him. He does not want to bypass my soul to live in my body, but rather transform my soul so that my will is His will and my thoughts are His thoughts. My emotions and my actions, which come out of my thoughts and choices, are mine but they should reflect His will and His thoughts, which I must be conformed to.
So far I have not said anything new or profound, but we must agree on these basic principles before we consider the next one. While trying to put into words our victory over sin, the Spirit showed me in Colossians 3:9-10 that we have put off the Old Man and we have put on the New Man. This is past tense. Right away I turned to Ephesians 4:22-24. In that passage, the verb is present tense, like we need to continue putting off the Old Man and putting on the New Man. Scripture should not contradict itself, so I decided to look at the original text in my Interlinear Greek-English New Testament. In Colossians the English translation of the original Greek is “having put off” and “having put on”, just as has been translated in most English versions. In Ephesians, where the common translation is present tense, the Greek words are also past tense, “have put off” and “have put on”. The translators of the English New Testament should have used a past tense for Ephesians 4:22-24 just like they did for Colossians 3:9-10. If this is correct, it should be confirmed by other scriptures. Isn’t that what 2Corinthians 5:17 says? “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new.” Also, isn’t that what we read earlier in Romans 6:6 that “our old man was crucified.” If we want to overcome sin by faith, we need to know the truth that sets us free. The truth is that we died to sin when the Spirit baptized us into Christ. The old nature that was a slave to sin is no longer alive in us. Sin has no power or authority over us because the old nature that was subject to sin is now dead. We need to stand by faith on this truth.
So, if the Old Man truly is dead, why then do I still struggle with sin? The problem is in our soul: our mind, will and emotions which still need to be transformed. There is a force that we fight against, but Paul calls it “sin”, not the old man (see Romans Chapter 7). Our faith must rest in what Christ has done. We have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3) We continue to die daily, however, but it is not by crucifying again the old man. It is the process of continually putting to death the ways of the old nature. We die daily to the desires of the flesh, which are imbedded in the areas of our soul that have not yet been transformed. As Paul says in Romans 8:13, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”
This process of continually dying to the ways of the old nature is part of the Process of Transformation described in Romans 12:1-2. In my next article, I will continue to explain our victory over sin in the context of our spirit, soul and body. This understanding will help you to be an overcomer through faith in your identification with Christ’s death and resurrection.
Highway in the Wilderness 