We consider it a terrible idea for believers to continue or persist in sin. If you ask us, we know His grace is sufficient even for our sins, no matter what we do. We know He will continue to forgive. His mercy and grace, His favor, multiply and overflow. Just because God is so kind and full of abounding grace doesn’t mean we want to take advantage of that grace.
As believers, we died in Christ and with Christ. We died once and for all. We no longer live under sin’s rule. That is why we do not want to sin and take advantage of the grace of our good God and Savior, Jesus. We don’t live there anymore. We are dead to sin. Since we are dead, we can’t continue to live there.
I am sure you remember what happened. We underwent baptism and immersion, uniting with Jesus in his death. We entered into union with Jesus Christ. Upon trusting, we accepted the gift of life and salvation, and God placed us in Christ Jesus. We left behind that self-absorbed, independent lifestyle. Dying with Him, we entered a new land of grace and life. We were baptized into Jesus.
We died with Jesus. He buried us with Him, and He placed us in the grave with Him. So, when our Father God, I AM, Abba, raised Jesus from the dead, He raised us with Him. We, too, have been resurrected to live a new, fresh life. A new way of living and behaving is here. We live by His grace in a completely new life. We walk in the newness of true life.
God planted us in the likeness of His death, sharing His death to be in Him and with Him, as our Father resurrected Him from the dead to a new life we live for our Father. We are permanently in Christ, His death, and the new life we received in His resurrection. We live in a world of light now, as we live in the land of grace.
We clearly see now that our former selves are crucified, ineffective, inactive, and powerless. Our old man is nailed to the cross so that we will no longer be instruments of sin, slaves to sin. Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ. The miserable life of sin no longer runs the show. Our death frees us from sin, loosing and delivering us from its power.
Since we died with Christ Jesus, we now live with Him. He included us in His death, conquering sin and making us part of His resurrection to real life. We now live the abundant and full life the Lord Jesus gives us.
Death has no power over Jesus. Our Lord has the key to death and hell. Jesus rose from the dead, defeating death, never to die again. Death is no longer the end. Jesus’ victory over death means He and we are beyond death’s power.
Jesus died one time and now lives. Do you realize Jesus brings God down to us? He is God in human flesh. As a human, Jesus defeated death, our enemy, and gave us life. He has canceled the power of sin. He now lives as always to please our Father.
We must believe that all this is true and act like it. We died to sin and live to God through Jesus. Our relationship with sin is broken, but our relationship with God, our Father, is alive. We now live in unbroken fellowship with God in Christ. Sin is a dead language to us. It means nothing. God speaks, and we hang on every word. We are dead to sin and alive to God, all by what Jesus did in dying, being buried, and rising again. Never allow yourself to see yourself in sin; rather, see yourself alive in Jesus. Know that you are dead and not responding to sin’s attraction. We live for Jesus.
That is what the resurrection means. Jesus conquered death and lives right now and forever. We have a wonderful, abundant life through Him right now, and sin and death have no teeth.