Romans 6:6, Romans 8:11, the old self dying is not the end of the story, because the old self was not crucified so you could be left as an empty shell trying to be good, the old self was crucified so the new self could live. And the new self does not live by its own strength, it lives by the Spirit, this is what Paul means in Galatians 5:16, not grit your teeth and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh, not white knuckle your way through the day and hope you survive, walk by the Spirit. The Spirit is the power, the reckoning is the posture and the daily life is where the two meet, Romans 6:12-13, instruments, tools, the body is sin’s tool.
Now, Paul says the same body can be a tool for righteousness, the same hands, the same eyes, the same tongue, the same feet, they were tools sin used freely, now they can be tools God uses. You have a body, that body has hands, those hands are going to reach for something today, the question is not whether you are strong enough, the question is who you are presenting those hands to, sin as an instrument of unrighteousness or God as an instrument of righteousness. The thing you look at, the thing you say, the place you go, the person you call, the thought you let stay, every one of those is a member being presented.
Here is the freedom in that, you are not fighting to become someone else, you are presenting who you already are, alive from the dead, alive to God in Christ Jesus, the old self is dead, the new self is you. And the pull you feel when the old pattern calls, here is the detail that should set you free, you do not negotiate with a corpse, the old self is dead. So, when that voice comes, when the old pattern whispers, when the shame says, this is who you really are, you are not listening to the real you, you are listening to a voice that lost its owner. It is like a former landlord showing up at a house he no longer owns, ratting the handle, demanding to be let in, you do not owe him anything, the deed changed hands. The old self was crucified, it has no authority, it has no throne, it can make noise, it can make you afraid, it can rattle the handle all night, but it cannot make you its slave, not anymore. Most people have spent years trying to be good enough for God and they have measured themselves by the struggle, they thought the fight was the point, they thought the exhaustion was holiness, they thought the shame was humility, they thought if it was hard, it must be working.
Romans 6:6 is not telling you to fight your way to freedom, it is telling you the freedom is already yours and the fight is just you learning to walk in it. Romans 6:6, the war was won before you ever woke up to it, the door was open before you ever knocked, that changes everything about how you face the day, that is what Romans 6:6 actually says, not that you should kill yourself, not that your body is evil, not that your personality was erased, but that the person you were under sin in Adam was crucified with Christ. That the body of sin, your body as sin’s tool, was rendered powerless and that you are no longer in bondage. You are free and the whole thing hangs on one word “with,” you were crucified with him, his death was your death, his burial was your burial and because he rose, you are alive, alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Now, Paul says the same body can be a tool for righteousness, the same hands, the same eyes, the same tongue, the same feet, they were tools sin used freely, now they can be tools God uses. You have a body, that body has hands, those hands are going to reach for something today, the question is not whether you are strong enough, the question is who you are presenting those hands to, sin as an instrument of unrighteousness or God as an instrument of righteousness. The thing you look at, the thing you say, the place you go, the person you call, the thought you let stay, every one of those is a member being presented.
Here is the freedom in that, you are not fighting to become someone else, you are presenting who you already are, alive from the dead, alive to God in Christ Jesus, the old self is dead, the new self is you. And the pull you feel when the old pattern calls, here is the detail that should set you free, you do not negotiate with a corpse, the old self is dead. So, when that voice comes, when the old pattern whispers, when the shame says, this is who you really are, you are not listening to the real you, you are listening to a voice that lost its owner. It is like a former landlord showing up at a house he no longer owns, ratting the handle, demanding to be let in, you do not owe him anything, the deed changed hands. The old self was crucified, it has no authority, it has no throne, it can make noise, it can make you afraid, it can rattle the handle all night, but it cannot make you its slave, not anymore. Most people have spent years trying to be good enough for God and they have measured themselves by the struggle, they thought the fight was the point, they thought the exhaustion was holiness, they thought the shame was humility, they thought if it was hard, it must be working.
Romans 6:6 is not telling you to fight your way to freedom, it is telling you the freedom is already yours and the fight is just you learning to walk in it. Romans 6:6, the war was won before you ever woke up to it, the door was open before you ever knocked, that changes everything about how you face the day, that is what Romans 6:6 actually says, not that you should kill yourself, not that your body is evil, not that your personality was erased, but that the person you were under sin in Adam was crucified with Christ. That the body of sin, your body as sin’s tool, was rendered powerless and that you are no longer in bondage. You are free and the whole thing hangs on one word “with,” you were crucified with him, his death was your death, his burial was your burial and because he rose, you are alive, alive to God in Christ Jesus.