TAKE OFF YOUR GRAVE CLOTHES; YOU ARE ALIVE NOW
Romans 6:11-14 Charles e Whisnant, 45.76 June 05 2011
Remember when Christ raised up Lazarus from the dead and out of the grave? He still had his grave clothes on, and Jesus said, “loose him, and let him go.” Like Lazarus, we need to get rid of the grave clothes.
HOW DO WE TAKE OFF THE GRAVE CLOTHES?
1 Peter 2:1 “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speaking,”
HOW DO WE OVERCOME SIN?
The secret of victory over the flesh is found in our obeying these three instructions:
11Likewise(3779) reckon(3049) ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign 936 in your mortal 2349 body 4983, that ye should obey 52 19 it in the lusts 1939 thereof.846
Neither yield 3936 ye your members 3196 as instruments 3696 of unrighteousness 93 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 2961 over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Paul is saying: “You must know and fully believe what I have just said, or else what I am about to say will make no sense. The truth that you are spiritually dead to sin, and the reality that you are spiritually alive to Christ are not abstract concepts for your finite minds to attempt to verify. They are divinely-revealed, foundational axioms behind Christian living, apart from which you can never hope to live the holy lives your new Lord demands.”
1A KNOW the Facts 6:3, 9 The Truth upon which we can build our Christian life is God’s Word.
1B The believer is one with Christ
2B Isaiah 1:2-3; Philippians 4:8-9; Colossians 3:8
2A RECKON: 6:11 Consider the Facts as True
1B “To affirm it so.” “To count it to be true.” To continually count on the fact that God has actually done what He said he would do. Keep on counting yourselves to be what God says you are. Think about this in a detailed and logical manner, reason about it. Put together with your mind. Take all of the truths of 6:1-10.
2B Four Reasons why it is difficult to understand this principle:
1C Maybe you have never been taught this.
2C Satan does not want you to believe this.
3C Remember this is not believed by experiential feelings.
4C There is still the conflict with sin.
3B What do you do when you affirm that you are dead to sin and alive to God?
1C We have confidence in temptation: 1 Corinthians 10:13
2C We have the confidence if we do sin we will still be saved.
3C We have confidence in death. There is life after death on this earth. John 11:25-
3A YIELD: or Offer your Body to these truths. Romans 6:12-14 I am to cease from my own living and loving and yield myself to the expression of Christ’s love.
1B I Peter 2:9-10. 2 Corinthians 3:18.
2B We are not slaves to sin, but slaves to Christ.
3B Since sin is no longer in your soul to reign, sin will want to reign in your body.
4B Philippians 3:20-21, 1 Corinthians 15:50-54, Romans 7: 15-17, 23-24.
Oswald Chambers writes that...
Eternal life was the life which Jesus Christ exhibited on the human plane, and it is the same life, not a copy of it, which is manifested in our mortal flesh when we are born of God. Eternal life is not “a” gift from God; eternal life is “the” gift of God. The energy and the power which were manifested in Jesus will be manifested in us by the sheer sovereign grace of God when once we have made the moral decision about sin.
“Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost”—not power as a gift from the Holy Ghost; the power is the Holy Ghost, not something which He imparts. The life that was in Jesus is made ours by means of his Cross when once we make the decision to be identified with Him. If it is difficult to get right with God, it is because we will not decide definitely about sin. Immediately when we do decide, the full life of God comes in. Jesus came to give us endless supplies of life: “that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eternal Life has nothing to do with Time, it is the life which Jesus lived when He was down here. The only source of Life is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our principal care therefore must be to "walk in the Spirit" Galatians 5:16) and "be filled with the Spirit," (Ephesians 5:18) and all the rest will come spontaneously and inevitably. As the ascending sap in the tree crowds off the dead leaves which in spite of storm and frost cling to the branches all winter long, so does the Holy Ghost within us, when allowed full sway, subdue and expel the remnants of our sinful nature. This describes a continual process, one which will not attain absolute perfection in this life, but indeed will attain such perfection in the eternal life to come when we are glorified and finally fully free from not only the presence of sin but the pleasure of sin! Hallelujah!”
