“⁶ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

⁷ For he that is dead is freed from sin.

⁸ Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

⁹ Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dies no more; death has no more dominion over him.

¹⁰ For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He lives, He lives unto God.

¹¹ Likewise reckon you also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:6-11

As a born again Believer, we now know and understand the reality of the depth of our lost state before we came to Christ.  We know that we know that we are now alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Our old man is indeed crucified with Him and freed from sin.

However, it is here that the rubber meets the road.  Even though we now understand the reality of how lost we once were, in the present tense we fail to reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.  We fail to understand just how saved we are through our belief in Jesus Christ and what He did on Calvary’s Cross.  Throughout most of our lives, we have grown to understand just how faithful the devil is to kill, steal and destroy but do we now know and understand just how faithful our Lord Jesus is to bring us life and life more abundantly?

Too often when trials and tribulations come,  we attempt to resist the devil instead of first submitting to God and then resisting the devil.  If we could just “resist the devil”, the Cross of Christ was in vain.  Allow me to be clear, the devil will not flee unless we are submitted to God through Jesus Christ.

If we do not reckon ourselves to be dead to sin through the finished work of Christ Jesus on Calvary’s Cross, the only alternative is to fight the battle to overthrow our sin nature ourselves which simply cannot be done…period.  This is a reality not an opinion or presumption.  It took the Cross of Christ to give us dominion over our sin nature (Romans 6:14).  Whether we believe (reckon) this to be true in our own hearts and on our own accord, determines whether or not we are free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).  40 days of purpose, 21 days of fasting, feasts, festivals, ceremonies, traditions or psychology cannot give us dominion over our sin nature; if they could the Cross of Christ was in vain.  God forbid, no.

“And He (Jesus) said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Luke 9:23

Fight the good fight of faith daily.  Reckon your old man to be dead with Christ and live unto God through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.  Follow Him into Heavenly places. Faithful is He Who has called you to this glorious Salvation.  Stand still and you will see.

-Donna Clark Warren