Renewing Your Mind (Victory Series Book #4): Become More Like Christ (4 page)

Romans 6:1–14

Key Point

We are no longer slaves to sin, because we are alive in Christ and dead to sin.

Key Verse

If we have been united with [Christ] in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

Romans 6:5

B
iblical commands should be obeyed. Biblical promises should be claimed. However, the only appropriate response to biblical fact or truth is to believe it! The first 10 verses in Romans 6 declare the truth about our spiritual union with Christ. We choose to believe that Christ has triumphed over sin and death, and so have we, because we are alive “in Christ.”

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:2). How can we as believers “die to sin”? We can’t, because we already have. “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (verse 3). We have also been buried and raised with Christ (see verses 4–5). We cannot be united with Christ in His death and not be united with Him in His resurrected life. Jesus didn’t just die for our sins; He also came to give us life: “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” (verse 8).

Although Scripture tells us that we died with Christ, the defeated Christian tries to put the old self to death but can’t do it. Why? Because he or she is already dead! “For we know that our old self was crucified with him” (verse 6). It is false reasoning to ask what experience we must have for this to be true. The only experience that had to happen took place 2,000 years ago, and the only way we can enter into the experience is by faith. We cannot do for ourselves what Christ has already done for us. We don’t make anything true by our experience. We believe that what God has done and said on our behalf is true. When we choose to believe God and live accordingly by faith, it works out in our experience.

We don’t do the things we do with the hope that God may someday love us. God loves us, and that is why we do the good things we do. We don’t labor in the vineyard with the hope that God may someday accept us. God has accepted us, and that is why we labor in the vineyard. What we do does not determine who we are. God has determined who we are, and being new creations in Christ should determine what we do. When we choose to sin, it does not make us sinners any more than sneezing makes us sneezers.

Christ defeated death when He was resurrected, and He defeated sin when He died once for all our sins (see Romans 6:8–10). “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (verse 11). Counting ourselves dead to sin does not make us dead to sin. We are dead to sin because of our new life in Christ; therefore, we continue to believe it, and it will work out in our experience. Sin is still powerful and appealing, but our relationship with sin has changed. When we are tempted to sin, we should respond by faith and say, “I am alive in Christ, and sin is no longer my master.”

What does Paul mean in Romans 6:2 when he states that believers have “died to sin”? How have they triumphed over sin and death?

What happens when we try to do for ourselves what Christ has already done for us?

What is our motivation for believing God and living accordingly by faith?

Have you ever fallen into the trap of believing that what you do determines who you are? Explain.

How can you stand up to Satan’s temptations?

Whoever thinks or considers that he is dead will not sin. For example, if lust for a woman gets hold of me or greed for silver, gold or riches stirs me and I say in my heart that I have died with Christ . . . the lust is immediately quenched and sin disappears. The addition of “alive to God in Christ Jesus” does not seem to me to be superfluous. It is as if Paul were saying that we are alive to God in wisdom, peace, righteousness and sanctification, all of which Christ is. Living to God in these is the same as living to God in Christ Jesus. For as nobody lives to God without righteousness, peace, sanctification and the other virtues, so it is certain that no one can live to God except in Christ Jesus.

Origen (AD 184–253)

Mark 2:23–28

Key Point

The letter of the law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Key Verse

We have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

Romans 7:6

T
he Pharisees were strict in keeping the law, but they added many rules and regulations that were intended to keep believers from breaking the law. Their tactic was similar to building a fence around the law, but in practice the fence itself soon became a law. We do the same thing today. For instance, in 2 Corinthians 6:14 we are told not to be unequally yoked. So, to keep our Christian children from marrying a nonbeliever, we
establish additional rules like, “You can’t date nonbelievers or associate with them.”

That may be wise in some cases, but it is not a law. Jesus ignored man-made rules, but He never violated the law. In fact, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). How, then, do we as believers relate to the law?

The term “law” in Scripture is often associated with specific commands, especially the Old Testament Mosaic Law. But the concept of law is much broader. The Hebrew word
torah
, which is the basic word for “law” in the Old Testament, is related to the Hebrew word
hora
, meaning “to teach or instruct.” The fundamental meaning is not “command” but “instruct.” The word eventually came to be used for the entire Word of God. The Jews use the word “Torah” to refer to the first five books of the Old Testament. Christians have used the term “law” to describe sections of Scripture and Scripture as a whole, including commandments as well as promises. The latter is what Jesus meant when He said that He came to fulfill the Law. He kept all the commandments and fulfilled all the promises.

The law of God is an expression of His will. Just as there are physical laws that govern nature, so there are His moral and spiritual laws, which are the expression of His moral nature, that govern the personal and moral spheres of God’s creation. For this reason, in the Old Testament both believers and unbelievers were subject to the overarching principle that following God’s laws led to blessings, while disobeying them led to misery and destruction.

New Testament believers “in Christ” are not related to the law in the same way. Nonbelievers stand before the law in themselves—that is, as sinners and, consequently, lawbreakers. They live under the condemnation of the law. But believers “in Christ” have the same relationship to the law as Christ. God’s righteous principles for life are all fulfilled in Christ. We are free from the legal bondage of the law. “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

The law became our tutor to lead us to Christ so we could be justified by faith (see Galatians 3:24–25). Now that we are alive in Christ, the law is no longer our tutor. What we could not fulfill in the flesh, Christ fulfilled
for us. Now that we are “in Christ,” we can actually live righteous lives that are consistent with the moral laws of God. However, the means by which we attempt to live righteously have changed. We now relate to God by faith, and live by the power of the Holy Spirit who is our Tutor.

Why did the Pharisees add rules and regulations to the law? How do we do the same thing today?

What does the concept of “the law” in Scripture encompass?

How were Old Testament believers related to the law? How are New Testament believers related to the law?

How have the commandments of the law become promises for you—for instance, “Thou shall not steal or kill” to “I will not steal or kill”?

How has living by the letter of the law kept you from living a liberated life?

Therefore, you that fear the Lord, praise Him, and that you may worship Him, not as slaves but as free men, learn to love Him whom you fear, and you will be able to praise what you love. The men of the Old Testament, fearing God, because of the letter [of the law], which terrifies and kills and not yet possessing “the Spirit that quickens,” ran to the temple with sacrifices and offered up bloody victims. They were ignorant of what was foreshadowed by them, although they were a figure of the Blood to come, by which we have been redeemed.

Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430)

Matthew 11:28–30

Key Point

We have been invited to walk with the gentle Jesus.

Key Verse

Walk with the wise and become wise, for a companion of fools suffers harm.

Proverbs 13:20

H
ow much can we accomplish in the kingdom of God when we operate by ourselves? Nothing! How much can we accomplish in this present Church Age if we do nothing and expect God to do everything? Nothing! God has committed Himself to work through the Church. We have the privilege to water and plant in God’s kingdom, “but God [makes] it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Nothing grows without God, but nothing grows if we don’t water and plant. The fact that nobody hears unless a preacher is sent (see Romans 10:14–15) illustrates the same principle. God could have chosen to bypass the Church, but He has chosen
to work through us. It is His intention that we walk together, and Jesus has provided the perfect example of how that works.

Jesus was a carpenter during His youth, and His handiwork later became useful metaphors for His ministry. Carpenters didn’t frame houses in those days; they fashioned doors and yokes out of wood. A yoke is a heavy wooden beam that fits over the shoulders of two oxen. The yoke can only work if two oxen are in it and are pulling together. For the purpose of training, a young ox is yoked to an older ox that has “learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8).

The young ox will be tempted to stray off to the left or to the right, but the old ox stays on the right path. The young ox may think the pace is too slow and try running ahead, but all he gets is a sore neck. Slowly, the young ox begins to realize the old ox knows how to walk. The pace is right and the course is true, so he decides to learn from him. “Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the L
ORD
will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary” (Isaiah 40:30–31
NASB
).

Being yoked with Jesus does not mean we sit around thinking pious thoughts expecting God to do it all. Nor does it mean running around in endless activities trying to do it all by ourselves. It is a walk with the only One who knows the way, who is the truth, and has the life to make it possible. In Him we find rest for our souls, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light (see Matthew 11:29–30).

What would we learn from Jesus if we walked with Him? We would learn to take one day at a time and trust God for tomorrow (see Matthew 6:25–34). We would learn the priority of relationships. We would learn to love people and use things—instead of loving things and using people. We would learn what it means to be compassionate. Jesus said, “Go and learn with this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’” (Matthew 9:13).

This passage in Matthew 11:28–30 is the only place in the Bible where Jesus describes Himself, and He says, “I am gentle and humble in heart” (verse 29). With all the harshness and vulgarity surrounding us in this fallen world, we have been invited to walk with the gentle Jesus. Imagine that!

Why shouldn’t we ask or expect God to do all the work in the kingdom?

Why do we try to build God’s kingdom for Him instead of waiting on the Lord?

What is the practical significance of being yoked to Jesus? How does that work?

What is your tendency as a young Christian when yoked together with God? To run on ahead? To drop out? To stray off to the left or right?

Is being yoked together with God a liberating or binding concept to you? Why?

Draw near to Me, so that you may become sharers of the divine nature and partakers of the Holy Spirit. Jesus called everyone, not only the people of Israel. As the Maker and Lord of all, He spoke to the weary Jews who did not have the strength to bear the yoke of the law. He spoke to idolators heavy laden and oppressed by the devil and weighed down by the multitude of their sins. To Jews He said, “Obtain the profit of my coming to you. Bow down to the truth. Acknowledge your Advocate and Lord. I set you free from bondage under the law, bondage in which you endured a great deal of toil and hardship, unable to accomplish it easily and accumulating for yourselves a very great burden of sin.”

Cyril of Alexandria (AD 376–444)