Identity in Christ

We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)

Romans 6:6-7

We are now dead to sin, so how come we keep sinning!? You look around and you see those that call themselves "Christians" doing things that are not very Christ-like. Inside you also know that you didn't instantly become perfected when you came to Christ. You still struggle with your sinful nature. Were we really freed from sin? Can this verse be taken as truth?

Scripture is true, sin no longer has dominion over us, but we can still choose to follow it. We have been slaves to this cruel master for so long (since birth), that it hard to understand living any other way. But that is exactly what God calls us into. He wants us to stop the life we lived before that lead only to death and begin to live a life that really is living. This can be very difficult, because we thought we knew what living really was. Just like the example of the farmer that discovered arsenic in his well, we have been drinking water that has made us sick, but we never knew what is was like to live a healthy life, to drink from a pure source. We are so used to going to the arsenic contaminated well that we do it by habit and go to it instead of the well of pure water. We choose the carbon-monoxide instead of oxygen.

It seems crazy, but its true. This happens for three major reasons. First, we have spent are whole life living one way and we often follow that path without thinking, like a reflex. We have trained ourselves that this is the solution and we often don't take the time to question it. Second, the flesh, the traitor within will often encourage us to follow the old path. He'll tell us that its much easier, and quicker and we won't have to think about it. Finally, the world continues to bombard us with messages that this is the right way to do things. It runs on principles opposite to the Kingdom of Heaven, yet it often speaks loader, and so it can seem to be right.

So much of the old man was trained for survival in a world apart from God. But now that Christ has reconciled us to God we no longer need to fall back into these things.

We Need to be of Worth. Before we so wanted to be of worth. We needed people to see value in us. We tried really hard to create something to offer others so that they might like us. We needed other's praise so we could feel we were valuable. We may have even been prideful convincing ourselves that we really were better. We may have boasted to build ourselves up, or we may have gossiped and slangered others in order to bring them down. But now we know that God delights in us. He has shown us that we are His treasured, and only His judgment really matters.

We Need to Feel Safe. Before if someone said something that we felt might be attacking us we needed to try to defend ourselves. We needed to retaliate in anger, or run and hide, or put on a front acting like "it was only a flesh wound" when it really hurt. Now the Lord is our defender. He comes to our aid and makes up for our failing. He are able to rest in his security instead of fighting a battle where we are continually in defeat.

We Need Love. Before we tried to find that love in friendships and relationships, maybe even wrongful sexual relationships. We grabbed hold of these very tightly because it was all we had in this love-starved world. But now we know that God Loves us with an everlasting love, we don't need to fear rejection. Now we can live a life of love toward others because we are confident in His Love.

We Long for Intimacy. Before we may have tried to find this intimacy with a girlfriend. We may have even related to them sexually before entering into marriage, seeking that belonging, but not really committing or revealing ourselves. But now we are in relationship with Christ we are known and accepted by him and so we also are able to accept others as well as share ourselves without shame.

The things we did to protect ourselves before in an environment apart from God, didn't really work before and are now pointless in view of the life that we now have as children of God. We need to learn to let go of these disfunctional compensation strategies and hold fast to the Way, Life lived in the Truth of our reconciled relationship with God. The Spirit is our guide as we daily renew our mind, forgeting these silly ways of the past, and living a new life, a life not poisoned by sin.

So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Romans 7:21-25