Implications of Being in Christ - Part 6

Last time we looked at our death to the world and its religious system. Today we examine the implications of our death to the world's temptations and lusts.

Colossians 3:3-5 tells us that since we died with Christ we are to put to death our members that are on the earth. What does he mean by this? He goes on to explain what those are. He lists such things as fornication, evil passions, covetousness and the like. These are the things that are not to have a place in our lives. Our death with Christ is a powerful truth that helps bring into our behavior the facts that are already true of us. We have died with Christ and since that is true, we are to look at those behaviors as though they were targeting a dead man. They are empty and ineffective.

The apostle John tells us that the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life are not of the Father, but are based in the world. This world system is contrary to God and an enemy of him. John says that if the love of the world in us, then the love of the Father is not.

Dying with Christ means that we should no longer live according to the lusts of men, but for the will of God. (I Peter 4:1, 2) Peter says that we should arm ourselves with this knowledge. The person who has suffered to the point of death no longer lives for the passions of the world. These two things are contrary to the other. You can't have both the lusts of men and the will of God at the same time. It's one or the other. And the person who recognizes his spiritual death will follow the will of God. The truth that God wants us to understand is that because we are in Christ, when he died, we died with him so that Paul tells us in the book of Romans that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed so that we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)

But how does this work? How can my death with Christ give me any power to have victory over sin? This leads us to the discussion for next time. When we died with Christ we died to sin. We'll look more at this next time.