I am entering into a new day with my walk with Christ…
It began when my husband came home one day and said that he had sat and read through my entire blog in one setting (which floored me by the way because my husband is not a reader). He then looked at me and said, “you talked so much about all the sin you struggled with… and I just don’t see it.” (now I am speechless, because one of my fears is being a hypocrite in my home,)
Then I read this about a month ago:
You will meet well-meaning Christians who teach about crucifying oneself. But I have good news for you: That has already been done. You are in Christ. He was crucified once for all. He died for you so you never need to die again. Because we have our identification with Him, we have all the power needed to live the rest of our lives above the drag and dregs of slavery. Death to sin is an accomplished act, a finished fact. It has all been taken care of. A victorious walk begins with our knowing this fact. Christ’s “Emancipation Proclamation” has put to death the whole idea of slavery to sin. Having died to sin’s power, we are now free to serve our new Master.
~ Chuck Swindoll
I read it and my first thought was, Chuck are you getting a little senile in your old age? Of course we have to crucify our flesh… we have to keep that old man and that old self dead… Right?
So this has been on the forefront of my meditation for months… since my husband’s comment. Then I received a message from a friend asking me about my thoughts on the mortification of sin… and I had to ponder again.
My conclusion and answer to them…
How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 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 beenraised 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.
Romans 6:2-11
Christ took care of our sin. He mortified it. If Christ made it dead… it’s dead. He pulled it out by its root… and maybe just like a weed pulled out by the root it might continue to appear alive in me for a little while… but dead it is and the obviousness of its dying death should be evident in my newness of life. If we are truly His we cannot help but pursue Him and to serve righteousness… not sin.
Then earlier this week my daughter was working on her Bible study and she asked me how/if we could not sin… (yes, these are the questions I get at 8am, lol). I answered her that as long as we live in this body we will struggle with sin… but if we belong to God, then we are to be in the process of being conformed to the image of His Son, Christ… and His Son did not live in sin, He did not sin at all, so if we are truly being conformed into the image of Christ… then sin will become less and less an issue for us.
Then another push from my God came through my husband again… as he came home again after blog read where I once again had referenced my past sins. He shared with me that he did not need to read this… and if I mentioned it so much, then their was still something to it. That stuck me. Pierced my heart. I left to head out the door to a sisters in Christ fellowship and all the way I prayed… and asked God to show me what I was missing.
To my heart he said:
Nicole, when your husband looks at you and says he does not see this sin, how then do you think that I see you, when I am the One who washed you clean? Let it go. You have been forgiven.
I then argued with God and said, but God if I let it go, I am afraid that I will forget your mercy and your grace.
He said again, Let it go. Show My victory. Show freedom. Your sin is dead. Show My victory.
You see, all these years, I have held on to who I was out of fear that I would forget who I am. I was afraid if I forgot all that He had forgiven that I would love Him less… and I never want to love Him less… I only want to love Him more. I thought I needed to remind everyone that I know what it means to be a sinner and to be forgiven and I thought people needed to know the depths from which He lifted me so that I could display how great His love and grace and mercy truly is… I feared losing the emotion of my salvation…
Silly me, I forgot that perfect love casts out fear…
This morning I watched a Precepts For Life message with Kay Arthur in the book of Matthew …
Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic,
“Take courage,son; your sins are forgiven.”
Matthew 9:2
As I watched she said, God wants you to know that your sins have been forgiven. You are now holy to the Lord, set apart, you don’t have to worry about your sin, you don’t have to fear… God has given you His Spirit… His Spirit will help you remember that you are holy unto the Lord…
I think God is making His point with me quite clear.
Therefore I am in a new day with my Lord… I am showing His victory. I am not yet perfect. I have not yet arrived. I have not yet obtained, but I am forgetting what lies behind and pressing forward to what lies ahead… and what lies ahead is victory. His victory!
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world;
and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.
1 John 5:4