“5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His Death, we shall be also in the likeness of His Resurrection:
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.” Romans 6:5-7
The sin nature of which we were all born with due to the fall of Adam is not rendered ‘dead’ upon Salvation but WE are dead to our sin nature. It’s dominion dethroned as the Spirit of God takes up residence in our heart and life and begins His mighty circumcision without hands; removing those things which are not pleasing to God. Superintending the work of God to create in us a new creature.
“17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 For. 3:17-18
From glory to glory, we are changed into the image of God. We now have the liberty to not sin. Our sin nature’s dominion has been isolated by the power of the Holy Spirit because our faith has been placed solely and exclusively in the Cross of Christ. Under Grace, sin has no dominion (Romans 6:14) and we are free to be who the Lord has created us to be.
…and then we stumble. We fail the Lord in one way or another. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is heavy on our heart and repentance on our lips. We are forgiven but not delivered from this sin, whatever this sin may be, that has so easily beset us.
In order for this to not happen again, we place some kind of rule (law) or method in place to forbid such sin. Kind of like a check and balance system; a back up system for Grace. If Grace doesn’t do it, the system of which we have put in place to ensure or ‘sinless perfection’ will keep us from sinning.
With good intentions and a sincere heart we march on…and we stumble again. This vicious cycle doesn’t end because we have put ourselves back under law. We are no longer dead to our sin nature because the rule (law) of which our faith is now placed seems ‘good’ but evil remains present.
“21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:21-24
Our members war against the law in our mind to do that which is ‘good’ and brings us back into captivity. The sin nature, which was once dethroned by the Holy Spirit, is no longer isolated because our faith has been moved from the Cross of Christ to break the power of sin to a ‘rule’ or law which seems good and right. This shift in our faith from the Cross of Christ is outside the parameters of the Holy Spirit’s commission to maintain sin’s dominion in our hearts. Before long, just as the prodigal son, we too are eating with the swine.
“For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of Sin and Death.” Romans 8:2
But praise be to God for the ‘Message of the Cross’. The illumination of this Scripture given to Jimmy Swaggart, one who many has wrongly deemed ‘unfit’, has set many a captive free; this writer being one. Who are we to call dirty what the Lord has cleansed? I thank God for Bro. Swaggart and the entire ministry at JSM (Jimmy Swaggart Ministries). This message is not a new message nor a new revelation but understanding of what the Holy Spirit gave the Apostle Paul in Romans 6, 7 and 8.
The Holy Spirit does not work outside of the parameters of the Cross of Christ. We can recite “He Who is in me is greater than he who is in the world” all we want but if our faith is not EXCLUSIVELY in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, Who HE is and what HE has done to break the power of sin; the Holy Spirit is NOT going to superintend the work of God in our lives. We are made free from the Law of Sin and Death only when we are IN Christ Jesus; submitted unto Him; denying ourselves daily and follow HIM, not our abilities, intellect, talents or will power.
This is a fight of faith we fight DAILY, not just once at Salvation. We don’t get Saved everyday. No, that’s silly. But we do look solely and exclusively EVERYDAY to the Cross of Christ, the Author and the Finisher of our faith for dominion over sin.
There is liberty in the Cross of Christ; liberty not to sin. Sin’s dominion has been dethroned at the Cross of Christ for whosoever will believe. It is not the wooden beam but Jesus Christ. HE is the Source and the Cross His means by which HE afforded us this liberty.
Seek ye first the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ and Him crucified…be determined to know nothing else among you.
-Donna Clark Warren
Living in The Spirit 