RESOURCES — SHORT ARTICLES

 

SHORT ARTICLES BY TOM ELSEROAD
	2020-07-21	If I Am Dead to Sin, Why Must I Kill It Everyday?
		What actually happens when we put our trust in Christ and are born again? When we are born again we do not become sinless. We are a new creation in Christ (2Co.5:17). 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. What God creates in the new birth is an embattled, not yet perfect, Spirit empowered being. Also this Christian life is the life of a fighter (2Tm.4:7). 2Ti 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Earlier Paul tells Timothy to fight the good fight of faith” (1Tm.6:12) So the new birth is a faith battle for holiness. The question, If I am dead to sin, why must I kill it everyday? is a paradox. We can show this by comparing pairs of paradoxical verses. Compare the first verse with the second verse. PAIR 1: 1Jn 3:9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. 1Jn 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. So the new birth creates something like DNA that cannot be content with ongoing sinning. But in this life if we say we have no sin we misunderstand how sin is working. PAIR 2: Rom 6:6 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. Rom 6:11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why do we need to reckon ourselves dead? If you are dead, you are dead. Reckon, or count ourselves dead. As Jesus in reality died, we are to identify with that death by faith for our everyday lives. As Jesus truly died physically for us, we are to get about the business of killing sin in our lives by reckoning ourselves as dead to sin. So the indicative statement, “our old man was crucified with Him”, and the imperative statement, “reckon yourselves dead”, tells us to live in the power of this truth. PAIR 3: Col 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Col 3:5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So the death that we died makes us a fighter. We are a fighter against what we died to (namely, sin). PAIR 4: 1Pe 1:23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever 1Pe 2:1 Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, 1Pe 2:2 as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby We have been born again which is incorruptible, but we are to flee that which is corruptible. Now comparing the four sets of paradoxical verses we can conclude the following. The new birth makes us an embattled, not yet perfect, Spirit empowered new being in Christ. The outcome is guaranteed, but the battle is real! Why this paradoxical approach to the Christian life? or Why does God do it this way? God has chosen to sanctify us through this painful, slow, progressive way because it glorifies Christ and the grace of God more than if He snapped His fingers and made us perfect. God gets greater glory when we fight the battle everyday with the weapons He has appointed (Ph.1:11; 2Th.1:11-12; Ep.1:6, 14). Pastor Tom Elseroad

 

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