20/12/2011 - FREE FROM THE DOMINION OF SIN

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Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:11

The devil uses different situations to take us away from the divine presence. However, we should not fear his strategies because we are no longer under his control, but rather under the divine grace. However, if there is weakness in your heart, the enemy will see it and will approach you stealthily, awakening your interest in something wrong. He will obviously draw your attention to something forbidden by God\’s Word. What to do at this point? The right thing to do is to fulfill what we are learning in this verse: we must reckon ourselves as dead to sin and, by extension, to the temptations of the flesh.

From the moment the One who has never sinned died for the lusts and became sin in our place, we were made free from our transgressions and iniquities. This happened because Christ suffered all of them on the cross of Calvary. So from that point on we have had the right to claim our rights in Him. As He died once and for all, He no longer has to die for anyone (I Peter 3:18), so we can declare that we are forever free from the entanglements of the enemy. The death of Jesus in our place has set us free from all suffering.

Whenever any temptation comes upon your life, or if the enemy wants to show you are in his hands for having done something wrong, consider yourself to be dead to the temptations and reject any lie uttered by the master of deception. Because we have died in Christ, we must not allow any suggestion of evil to prosper. The statement according to which we are dead to sin rids us of any punishment. What you have to do is to confess your trespasses and avoid being carried away by the father of lies (John 8:44).

Note that the divine counsel not only tells us to consider ourselves dead to sin – this means that we need not heed the calls of the evil one – but it also instructs us to reckon ourselves to be alive to God, which means we are able to put the heavenly power into action. Just as the dead no longer need to pay bills neither do we have to pay what we owed to enemy for having done his will in the past!  However, it is necessary to believe and to consider ourselves able to accomplish the divine plan.

Reckoning yourself alive to God is of the utmost importance – reconnected to Him to fulfill His plan. Before our salvation we were dead to God, cut off from Him and therefore unable to perform the tasks He gave us. Now things are reversed. We just have to believe in what the Lord speaks because by being dead to sin and alive to Him nothing will be impossible for us.

However, the fact that Jesus died for us once gives us the assurance that we do not have to suffer any punishment for our mistakes and that we are doers of the divine will.

In Christ with love, 

R. R. Soares