When asked the question if we should keep on living in sin, now that we know that the grace of God is so great, and without condition, this was the answer of Paul the Apostle in Romans 6:2
"Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
6:3 Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
6:4 We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.
6:5 For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].
6:6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.
6:7 For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].
6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
6:9 Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.
6:10 For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].
6:11 Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
6:12 Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions."
Paul also wrote to the Galatian church and said:
Gal 2:20-21
"2:20 I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
2:21 [Therefore, I do not treat God's gracious gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose]; I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if justification (righteousness, acquittal from guilt) comes through [observing the ritual of] the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain. [His death was then wholly superfluous.]"
The question he asked was: Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? If you know this fact, and really trust that you have died with Christ, and were raised with Him, by the Holy Spirit, you can know eternal life right now, right here on earth. You don't have to wait for death of your physical body to be set free from the sinful nature dwelling in your natural body. You can die now, and be resurrected with Christ, and be seated with Him in heavenly places, right now (Eph2:6)
How does it happen? How do I get there? Believe in Jesus Christ. Believe that He died for you. And as a physical manifestation of what you believe, get baptized, to manifest the fact that you died with Him on the cross of Golgotha, and that you were raised with Him to the newness of life.
Rom 8:11 says: "And if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [then] He Who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also restore to life your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies through His Spirit Who dwells in you."
Realise this. You have been made alive by the Holy Spirit. Realise that you have died to sin, this will make your body inactive to sin.
Let Christ rule in your body, now that you are truly and unquestionably free. If someone is truly free, it means that he can decide to submit himself to bondage again, but is also free to submit himself to new life in Christ. So let Christ rule in you. You have been baptised into His death, and raised to the newness of life. Gal 5:1 says "IN [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off]."
Freedom is not stepping out from under all authority, and becoming your own God. Freedom is being loosed from death that reigned over us, and stepping into Christ Who is life, and who justifies you with His grace!
Why try to better yourself, when you can die to sin altogether? Watchman Nee writes in his book "The Spiritual Man" that God's way of dealing with sin is completely different than man's way. Man tries to justify himself by trying to change his behaviour, while God removes the sinner from the scene of action. It is only in dying that we truly live!
We know that Christ died for our sins. We know that He became sin for us, to that we could be made the righteousness of God. Why then is it so difficult for us to understand that we too have shared in His death, and resurrection, and have died to sin once for all. Receive this by faith, in other words, believe that this is true, and experience the bliss of knowing that your sins are altogether atoned for and you are justified by the Living God!
Bless you!
