Biblical teaching - T116

The Power of the Preaching of the Cross

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"Do you not know that as many of us were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death ?" (Romans 6:3). To be baptised means : "fully immersed into". We have been fully immersed into the death of Jesus. Alleluia ! How wonderful that his death should be a life-giving message ! Our past was under the yoke of death on account of our sin : eternal death, carrying us into hell, for those who are not converted to Jesus ! So that spirit of death that prevailed over us had to die in order to disappear. The only place where that spirit of death can be swallowed up is Jesus’ grave ! When Jesus died, he took with Him that burden of death that was on us. "Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4).

As a Christian, you can walk daily in "newness of life" only if you understand that you died and were raised in Christ. Have you grasped that in your heart of hearts, through the work of the Holy Spirit in your spiritual understanding ? "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection." (Romans 6:5). If you are truly dead to your past life, sin no longer rules in your present life. This does not mean that you will not go through times of weakness, times when you are no longer grounded in faith in Jesus’ death. As soon as you move away from a position of faith, you fall, as Peter did when he walked on the water, then started to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus.

If you never take your eyes off Jesus and His Word, and if throughout the day, your spiritual understanding never departs from the fact that your past life died in Christ and that in Him you are a new creature, then through faith you can walk in that newness of life which is his gift to you : "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should be no longer be the slaves of sin." (Romans 6:6).

All our problems come from that "old man" : wrong behaviour, jealousy, anger, spite, wrong feelings, uncleanness, etc… The "old man" was crucified with Christ. Notice the phrase used in verse 6 : "knowing that…" We need to know it. Have you got that knowledge of it in your heart, as a revelation of the Holy Spirit ? Do you know that you are a new creature ? Don’t say : "Oh, I’ m far from perfect yet !" You need to say : "Yes, in Christ, I am a new creature. As long as I walk in faith in the Son of God, I am free from sin. I can only sin when I fall away from faith, back into the flesh."

God is calling us to a life of faith, so we receive all things through grace alone : "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." (Romans 6:6). Many Christians are the slaves of sin, because they don’t know that their body of sin was destroyed through the death of Jesus on the Cross. For God, the problem has already been dealt with. It must be likewise for us, "for he who has died has been freed from sin". (Romans 6:7). If you know that your "old man" is dead, because God says so and because His Word is true, if God says that we have been crucified in Christ, then it is a fact. It is not a promise, but something that was actually accomplished two thousand years ago. If God says that thanks to the Cross our old man is dead, then it is done. All we can do then is receive that by faith, because it is the written Word. If Scripture is an authoritative Word for you, then instantly the Holy Spirit will confirm it in your heart and you will say : "Amen, Lord ! Even before I have seen anything yet, I believe it." Don’t wait to see before you believe, but believe first, and then you will see.

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