We have been studying this week the reality that the old you, the sinful you, died with Christ on the cross (Romans 6:1-6); you have been set free from sin. You now have absolutely no identity from your past and no labels from the world. Your only identity is as a believer.
Therefore, we drop all worldly terms and labels, not speaking of ourselves as "addicts" or that we are "in recovery,". We learn to exchange the use of the worldly word "triggered" for the biblical word "tempted" (1 Corinthians 10:13), and there are many other terms we lay aside and replace with truth.
Today we examine the effects of the gospel truth that we were crucified and raised with Christ. Here it is:
“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.”
Romans 6:6-7
Question 1. From Romans 6:6-7, what are the effects of the truth that “our old self was crucified with Him?” Please write them here:
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This passage teaches us three powerful truths that are connected with our old self dying on the cross with Jesus:
That the body ruled by sin might be done away with. This means our old self, which was dominated by our own sinful desires and was ruled and led by sin, was “done away with.” It was crucified. It was then buried. It doesn’t exist.
That we should no longer be slaves to sin. A person can be a slave only as long as he or she is alive. The fact that our old selves died means, by definition, that we cannot be slaves to sin any longer.
That we might be set free from sin. Freedom is found in death to self, and the result of the cross of Jesus is the freedom of all who believe.
The person of Job in the Bible went through a lot of suffering, so much so that he sometimes wished he had never been born. Notice what he says about this, and see how his statements apply to our study today:
“Or why was I not hidden away in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day? There the wicked cease from turmoil, and there the weary are at rest. Captives also enjoy their ease; they no longer hear the slave driver's shout.”
Job 3:16–18
Question 2. From Job 3:16–18, please list all the benefits people experience in death:
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Physical death brings relief from turmoil, rest to the weary, and freedom to captives. However, we must be very careful to state that no human being should ever take their own life by suicide to escape the hardships of this world.
This is especially true when considering that our old selves have already died with Jesus Christ! We have already died spiritually! Therefore, we are at rest, and we are free from sin’s domination; that is, “we no longer hear the slave driver’s shout”!
Here is an exercise that you can do to see how to apply and live this truth. Because you died with Jesus Christ on the cross, picture yourself in a casket. Now picture something that tempts you: porn on your smartphone, drugs that you’ve taken, alcohol, or another area of struggle.
Now, what if someone put those things all around your casket? Will you just give in, take them, and gratify your flesh? No! You are dead! This is how you are set free from those things, because “one who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:7).
Friend, we are dead to sin because we died with Christ on the cross, and now we should live like it!