The Power in Us

Romans 6 is one of Scripture’s great chapters – a recommended chapter to memorize, (I would recommend the NIV or NRSV translations). Romans 6 describes how we come out from under the control of sin: We are no longer in slavery to sin – we have been freed from its control. We are ‘dead’ to sin and alive to God in Christ.

Paul writes ‘Offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master for you are not under the law, (Torah), but under grace

… (and) now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God the benefit you get leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.

It’s like this. Before we believed in Jesus we lived under the demands of the Torah (Mosaic) law, but because we couldn't keep it we were guilty of sinning, and as slaves of sin, we were in the prison of sin.

But now, through believing in Christ who died for all the sins of humankind, the charge against us has been canceled, all our sins have been forgiven, the door of our prison cell is open, and we are completely free to walk away from the prison and lifestyle of sin. Sin no longer has a right (authority) to control us. Even though the temptation to sin can still be powerful, there is another power in us, the presence of the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Jesus himself.

The Holy Spirit pours the love of Christ into our hearts with two astonishing results. First, we long with all our hearts to serve and live and obey and please Jesus, and second, even in those moments when we turn back from Christ to satisfy the desires of our sinful natures, and we rush back into the prison cell and sin all over again, we immediately find that Jesus has taken away the pleasure of sin, there is only a deep sense of regret and sorrow that we have failed him.

So the first step to overcoming temptation is to know what God has done for you, get your perspective right, and regularly ‘present yourself to God as one who has been brought from death to life, and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.