Crucified with Christ

Welcome to this weekend's In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley. Today's program highlights a key passage in the book of Romans to show you how Christ broke the power of sin and Satan.

The series The Life That Wins continues. So Paul begins by saying what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound. God forbid he said perish the idea. How shall we that died to sin live any longer therein. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead.

By the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. 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. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God. That is unto God's purposes. Likewise in the same manner reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you for you not under the law but under grace. Now how can a believer have continuous victory in their spiritual life?

Instead of being tripped up today and riding a high tomorrow, is there any way that God can level out these ups and downs in order that you and I can have some real joy and sense of contentment and a feeling of victory in our spiritual life? There is a way and I believe that way is to be found right here in Romans chapter 6 in these verses. So I want to move quickly into the three things that I want to share with you. The first thing I want to say is this. The believer's crucifixion with Christ is a biblical fact.

And I want to remind you of something. In Romans chapter 1 verse 1 all the way to Romans chapter 6 till you get down to verse 11 all of what Paul has said has been doctrine. It's not experience.

It isn't something we're going to experience. He says I'm giving you the facts. Romans 1 all the way through half of Romans 6 are all facts. It has nothing to do with whether I experience anything or feel anything.

It is all fact. And the fact is, I may not feel it, but the fact is he says you and I have been crucified with Christ. If you look in verse 6 of the same chapter, chapter 6, he says knowing this, not thinking this or feeling this, but knowing this.

Knowing what? That our old man, that is what you were before you were saved. Your life, your old nature before you were saved, knowing this that our old man is, that is has been once and for all crucified, nailed to the cross with Christ. That the body of sin, this physical body in which our five senses are operating and in which sin operates and by which Satan tempts us and tries us and defeats us. He said the body of sin might be destroyed. That does not mean annihilated, but that the power working within our lives might be broken.

Now listen carefully to me. When he says that I have been crucified with Christ, he's talking about our spiritual position. So from God's viewpoint, the moment you were saved, the Bible says that your old man was crucified, nailed to the cross, on the cross with him from God's viewpoint.

That is our spiritual position. Spiritually, when you were saved, what did God do with you? Where did he put you?

Now listen, I didn't say, how did you feel? I said, according to the fact, he said, when you were saved, what did he do to you? He crucified you. He put you on the cross, right?

Look, if you will. He says, knowing in verse three, know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, that is by the Spirit, were baptized into his death. That is, he nailed us to the tree in union with him. Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death.

That, listen, here's the key, like as, that is, in a similar manner, spiritually speaking, this is true. Spiritually speaking, when he died, all believers died with him. When he was buried, all believers were buried with him. Like as Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father, which means by the power of the Father, even so, we also walk in newness of life.

From God's point of view, when Jesus Christ died, listen, it all goes back to union now. When you were saved, you were placed into him. So from God's point of view, when he died, you died. When he was buried, you were buried.

When he rose, you rose. And the Bible says in Ephesians, we also are seated with him in the heavens. So let me ask you this, from a spiritual point of view, where are you? All right, from God's point of view, he sees you physically down here, but spiritually where? Up there, seated at the Father's right hand, which says to us now, listen, that from God's point of view, positionally speaking, positionally speaking, we are in Christ Jesus, crucified with him, buried with him, risen with him, and we are seated in the heavenly. Something spiritually great has happened to us. Here we are the children of God.

He did for us spiritually what he did for Christ, crucified, buried, risen, walking in newness of life, seated in the heavenlies. Spiritually, all those things are true facts. Listen, not feelings, facts. These are the things that Almighty God says he has done in your life and my life. And that's a positional truth.

That is, that is the actual reality of where we are. But if I don't know that, and if I am not aware of that, and I do not exercise the power that is within me, I'm going to keep on living and acting like I am enslaved to sin for the simple reason that Satan's going to tell me I am. How many times have you been tempted and tried and Satan just really launched an all out attack upon you and you say, Oh, God, if you just wouldn't let me be tempted like this, I wouldn't have to sin. You've got it. It's your fault. I can't help myself. If you are saved, I'll tell you what you do.

You take a big black mark and you mark that out of your vocabulary. I can't help myself because it's a lie. It is Satan's lie.

It is a lie straight out of the pit of hell. Because what he has done in our life, he has freed us to live a liberated, joyful, happy, obedient life. So the life of the believer, the believer does not have to be tripped up in the body. We do not have to violate the law of God.

We do not have to sin against God. We have been freed at the cross. What he did 2,000 years ago, positionally and spiritually, he says, Like is Christ, like is Christ, like is Christ. Like he was crucified, we've been crucified. Like he was buried, we've been buried. Like he rose, we've risen. Like he said the Father's right hand, we are seated with him in the heavenlies. If that's God's point of view, I am equipped and indwelled for the presence of the Holy Spirit.

And in him, absolutely, totally adequate in him to face every single situation victoriously. Not going down in defeat unless I choose by an act of my will to willingly violate the principle of God and sin against him. I no longer have to disobey him because the power has been broken. And what he wants us to realize is not only has it been broken, but our position, our position enables us to live victoriously. All right, let's go to the next point.

That's this. That the believer, the believer has been crucified with Christ and that runs contrary to personal feeling. The problem with feeling is this, that feeling changes. Feeling is not based on fact. It is fact first, then feeling. If you put feeling before fact, you're going to have a problem. But let me ask you this, does the Bible say that your old man was crucified?

Yes or no? It didn't ask you if you felt like it. He didn't say that you're going to have victory if you feel like it. He says your old man was crucified once and for all.

Crucified, dead, buried, risen, sitting in the heavenlies. That's God's factual viewpoint about you. So therefore, if you come up with feeling like, you say, well now, I feel so overwhelmed by sin.

I'm going to tell you again, that's the devil's lie. You're going by your feelings and not by fact. And you say, when I go back, it is fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, fact, and not your feelings. You say, all right, then it has nothing to do with feelings.

What do I do with these feelings of mine? I want to show you in just a moment. There are three words I want you to jot down in this last point. And the last point is this. The believer's crucifixion with Christ is his promise of daily victory. The believer's crucifixion with Christ is his promise of daily victory.

Let me show you why. There are three words I want you to jot down here beginning in verse six. Let's go back to verse six.

Three things. First of all, he says, we're not going by feelings. He's given us the fact. Now, on the basis of that, how can you and I exercise that fact in our daily life to give us victory? The first thing is verse six, knowing this.

That is, first of all, I've got to remember, what do I know? I know, I don't feel this, but I know this. I know that the old Charles Stanley was crucified, buried, resurrected, and is present in the heavens. I know that the power of enslaving sin was broken in my life and that I am no longer a slave to sin according to the word of God. That means I'm freed to exercise a life of obedience to God.

I know that. Knowing this, the old man was crucified, the body of sin might be rendered inoperative in the lives of God. All right, the second word I want you to jot down is verse 11.

Likewise. Now, you see, when he says in like manner, likewise, in such manner, he's talking about as Christ is the pattern. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, what does he mean by reckon? To reckon a thing is sort of an accounting term. If I reckon something, I consider it as such.

I declare it to be true. What he's saying here is this. When he says reckon yourselves, he says, consider a thing to be done and hold it before you. Continuously hold that truth before you.

Consider a thing to be done and hold it before you. When he says that you and I are to reckon ourselves to have died unto what? The rule and the reign and the realm of sin, but alive unto God, not through, but in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And here's what he means. Now, look, you attempted tomorrow and today sometime, what do you do? Reckon yourselves indeed to have died to sin's realm and reign and power. So when temptation comes, the devil puts it on you, you say, sorry, because I don't have to yield because I'm not in that realm and I am dead to its reign and its rule in my life because he that's ruling within me is greater than he that's in the world. I don't have to yield. And friend, when you and I say I do not have to yield, I resist sin's temptation on the basis, not a feeling because sometimes I'm telling you Satan's going to, he's going to attack you, he's going to cover you with the most awesome cloud of dark temptation, frustration and fear if you go by feeling your son.

But he says reckon yourselves in the light of all temptation and sin, what? Declare yourselves to be free from its power, free from its enslavement. You died to its reign, therefore it can't reign over you no more. You died to its realm, you died to its rule. It is no longer true in your life regardless of what Satan says. And listen, even when you fall, confess it to him and thank God you do not have to do it. You know why we sin?

Because we choose to. Listen, and what he's saying in this chapter because of our relationship to Jesus Christ, we are no longer slaves to obey the temptation that Satan throws at us. So first of all, I know something.

I know that I'm dead, that I died. I know that I have the privilege of reckoning on the basis of I know that I died, that sin's reign and realm and rule in my life is no longer effective and active unless I willingly in this moment choose to yield to sin. The third thing he says, verse 13, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, unto its realm, unto its reign, unto its rule. Don't yield your eyes to see your ears, to hear your mouth, to speak your hands, your body. Don't yield your members of your body as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin's rule, reign and realm, but rather yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the what? Alive from the dead to walk in newness of life. And your members as instruments of righteousness unto God, for verse 14 says, let's read it together out loud, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Now, do you believe that or not?

Is that true or not? Knowing, reckoning and then doing what? Yielding myself to Almighty God under his purposes, I can walk in newness of life day by day.

Let me tell you what that does for you. Number one, if you are saved by the grace of God, you are not enslaved. And if you are enslaved by anything, my friends, because you have chosen to violate, to disobey God, you have brought back into your life those old things that are foreign to your new nature, that's foreign to being a Christian and whatever that habit may be, Almighty God freed you. You chose, you chose to bring back into your life the garbage, the filth, the entanglements that God freed you from and once you accept your position in Christ and declare it to be true by faith, Almighty God who has already freed you will untangle your life. But you see, every person who's saved ought to be taught that the moment they're saved, you don't have to be saved and then get all goofed up out there somewhere in your life and then finally by some new experience, somebody bring you back to God.

If there's something in your life that ought not to be there, you chose for it to be there. And I'm saying if you'll claim your position in Christ, you'll claim the power that is yours in Him and by faith if you will reckon it to be true, He says you will be freed because you already are free. Listen, what is a positional spiritual truth will become an actual material truth in your personal experience once you accept the fact of your position, reckon it to be true, believe it to be true, He says it will become a reality in your life because spiritually it is already a reality.

But you have to claim your position and exercise that on a daily basis. Now let me just say one last thing in conclusion. Our God having provided all of that for us, if you think for a moment that because you're saved by the grace of God and you're no longer under law but under grace that you can sin against God and disobey Him and violate His principles and get by with it, I want to tell you something. The more truth you know, the more intense is the chastisement of Almighty God. And I want to say to every young person who is listening, knowing the truth of your salvation, if you continue to disobey God, rebel against Him, rebel against your parents. If you choose your own way in violation to God's way, you can expect God to throw the monkey wrench in everything you do. The more truth you know, the greater the consequences of sin. And I want to challenge you, my friend, if you've never received Jesus Christ as your Savior, do it now.

Do not wait to turn your life over to Him. The moment you're saved, what you've heard this morning, if you want to accept your position because you see, you don't have to be a Christian for a long time like many of us were before we ever heard the truth. If you're willing to trust Him today as your Savior, God will begin your Christian experience in victory. And you can live the victorious life. You can live victoriously with a hope, not a sense of helplessness but joy in your life. That whatever happens, you're in the heavenlies. Indwell for the power of God and security is yours. Joy is yours. Peace is yours. And everything that you'll ever need, He says, is yours in Christ Jesus. God intends for His children to live victoriously by the teaching of the Word of God, not in the pits but in the heavenlies. And today, right now, you have a choice by faith of getting out of the pits into the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, our living, loving Lord. It is my challenge, my hope, my plea, my desperate plea to you that you'll hear this again. Talk to your friends. Ask whatever questions are necessary. You only have three things you can do.

You can know something, you can reckon something, and you can yield something. And once you're willing to do that, you'll be on the road to victory in your spiritual life. Thank you for listening to Crucified with Christ. We would like to invite you to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness. Stop by InTouch.org slash 45 years to learn more. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.