Lesson 7: “Victory Over Sin”
No man can serve two masters and no man can simultaneously live two lives. No man can at once be the slave to righteousness and the slave to sin.
A favorite verse shows us that once we have been crucified with Christ, we have died and it is no longer our life living in us. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). We now know that it is the life of Christ that lives within us by faith.
Paul begins Romans 6 by asking a question that contains its own answer. “How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it?” (vs. 2). He further explains that whoever is baptized into Christ, is buried with Him into death; that the same glory of the Father that raised Him from the dead, would cause us to walk in the newness of life. We know that our old man was crucified with Him so that our body of sin might be done away with and our slavery to sin would be over. Paul ends his explanation with these simple words: “For he who has died has been freed from sin” (vss. 3-7).
Do not think that the cross was only some 2,000 years ago—“Christ crucified is Christ alive. That crucifixion is a present thing. It never can be in the past.” [1] This is powerful
Good News to the Christian. There is present help in present trouble!
Many, even Christians, have a real issue with the cross. The cross speaks to our human frailty and inability to do any good thing. They are offended that all the years of doing and trying to obey to please God counts for nothing. “The offense of the cross is that the cross is a confession of human frailty and sin and of inability to do any good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him for everything and this is the abasement of all human pride. ... But let the cross be preached, let it be made known that in man dwells no good thing and that all must be received as a gift, and straightway someone is offended.” [2]
What is not clearly understood is that you cannot live a different life with the one you have been living. If you would like to live a different life, you must be given a different life to live. It is a gift and it is complete when it arrives.
“The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.” [3]
About those that are slaves to sin and free from righteousness: “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Rom. 6:20). A slave to sin depends “on their obedience to the law of God to commend them to His favor. When they are bidden to look to Jesus, and believe that He saves them solely through His grace, they exclaim, “How can these things be?” [4] “He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility.” [5] You do not belong to yourself, but were purchased by Christ at the cross. You are His workmanship, not your own!
About those that are slaves of righteousness and free from sin: “And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:18). “In none of His subsequent discourses did He explain so fully, step by step, the work necessary to be done in the hearts of all who would inherit the kingdom of heaven.” [6] The slaves to righteousness realize that the work to be done in the heart is done by faith through the
Spirit of God by the power of the cross. The slaves of sin disregard this fact.
The most precious message of 1888 is a message that brings “more prominently before the world the uplifted Saviour, the sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.” It invites “people to receive the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.” [7]
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:7). “On the cross Christ shed His blood to reconcile us to God, in the forgiveness of our sins. (Col. 1:14; Rom. 5:9, 10). ... All created things sprang from His life. So that the power of the cross, by which we are saved, is the power by which the worlds were made. Thus it is that if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature, or a new creation.” [8]
“Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ” (2
Cor. 5:18). “God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself, and in the cross it is that He gives us His life. Failure to realize this is the reason we have failed many times in the ‘crosses’ we have borne. We bore crosses separated from Christ, and therefore the power in the cross was only the power in our own lives. It was nothing. But when we are crucified with Christ, and thus bear the cross with Him, we get the power of the cross, which is the power of the life of Christ. It was a power that all the hosts of Satan could not affect. It was a power that Satan could not hold in the grave. So when the cross comes, if we share it with Christ, then the power of the cross to us is the power of His endless life.” [9]
“But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:22, 23). “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in
Him” (2 Cor. 5:2).
God has already delivered us from the land of Egypt (sin) and the house of bondage
(habits/addictions) thus making all His commandments promises (Ex. 20:2). He has already released us from our bonds and set us free! (Psalm 116:16).
It is by believing what God has already done for us by and through Christ and Him crucified that gives us His life—and sets us free from sin. The Bible teaches this – let it be said of us as it is said of Abraham: “Abraham had such confidence in the life and power of the word of the Lord that he believed that it would fulfill itself.” [10]
“The thing is true whether we believe it or not. ... He has bought us; and having bought us, He has broken every bond that hindered us from serving Him. If we but believe, we have the victory that has overcome the world” (1 John 5:4; John 16:33). The message to us is that our “warfare is ended” and our “iniquity is pardoned.” But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God (Isa. 40:2).
“My sin—oh, the bliss of the glorious thought!
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!” [11]
—Daniel H. Peters
Endnotes:
[1] E. J. Waggoner, “Christ Lifted Up,” The Present Truth, Feb. 8, 1894, p. 82.
s[3] The Desire of Ages, p. 172.
[4] Ibid., p. 175.
[5] Ibid., p. 172.
[6] Ibid., p. 176.
[8] E. J. Waggoner, “Creation and the Cross,” The Present Truth, March 22, 1894.
[9] E. J. Waggoner, “The Power of the Cross,” The Present Truth, Feb. 8, 1894.
[10] E. J. Waggoner, “The Call of Abraham—The Test of Faith,” The Present Truth, July 2,
1896.
For an excellent companion book to these studies, please see Waggoner on Romans:--------------------------
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