Rom.6:1, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin.
Rom. 6: 10, For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
As I mentioned earlier this week I am in Africa. Today I am in Nairobi Kenya. I think I’m wanting to talk to you so much about being “In Christ,” (which is at the core of everything I’ll talk about anyway?) is because being so far away from home being in Christ is the most familiar and homey thing I know. So, let’s talk a little about victory over sin in our daily walk. Everything in the Christian life is to be understood from the reality that as Christians we are “In Christ.” To be “In Christ” is not so much a theological statement, but a statement about reality in our relationship with Jesus. As a matter of fact, it is the truest thing about you, in terms of who you are as a new creation. As a born again believer your life is now “hidden with Christ in God;” which means it is impossible to see yourself, or to approach your life, and the battle with sin, without looking through the grid of Christ himself. Verse 10-11 in Romans 6 says that Christ died to sin once, and because you are in Christ His death to sin is your death to sin. It also says in that verse 10 that He is at this moment living to God, and because you are in Christ, and He is in you, He is living He is living that life to God in and through you. That is why it says in Romans 6:11, that when you get tempted you can simply stand on the fact that you also are dead to sin and alive to God “In Christ.” The Christian life cannot be reduced to a formula because the Christian life is a relationship with a real person, but there are some practical “how to’s” in appropriating this relationship. When The temptation to sin comes against you simply remember and stand on the fact that you are “In Christ;” therefore, free from sin’s power because it has no power over Him. When temptation comes restfully hide in the fact that you are hidden with Christ in God, and He doesn’t give into sin. Remembering that you are in Him, simply celebrate in confident faith that He can’t sin.
Temptation can only conquer us when we forget that Christ Himself is now our life, and He Himself is therefore our victory moment by moment as we trust Him.