How Dead People Do Battle With Sin

How Dead People Do Battle With Sin

I want to fight, today all I can think about is a raw bare knuckle match between me and a worth opponent, blood and sweat flying in every direction. It’s probably because I have been listening to the Christian Metal group ‘For Today’ all of today, actually that exactly it. What with lyrics like:

“…Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Saviour. The One that died to buy my victory, and gave me a new name. Let my name be feared at the gates of hell, as I exalt the Saviour. In the name of the Holy One of God…”

For Today – Devastator

and

Tell me, where are the ones with the heart for warfare, The ones that died to say, "This is the price you pay"? Step up! There is no glory without death. Step up. Who will answer the call? Death is glory!”

For Today - Phoenix

It’s no wonder I feel like a fight, with lyrics like that who wouldn’t want to run out and headbutt a demon with the Word of God pouring into someone’s life? Which brings me back to the topic of “How Dead People Do Battle With Sin”. As a Christian we are in a battle, between Life and Death, between Sin and Righteousness, between Heaven and Hell. Paul wrote in Romans 7 that when he desires to do good, evil is present. We are in a battle. If we are genuinely following God our hearts long to honour and obey Him as He calls us to, as He calls us to be Holy as He is Holy. So what holds us back from Holiness? It’s pretty clear to me that the biggest obstacle in our pursuit for holiness is sin, sin infects the life that the Spirit puts in us, sin is like a cancer of the heart that causes us to distance ourselves from God as shame and guilt fill the places He wants to fill. So if our goal is holiness and our obstacle is sin, how do we overcome sin?

Sin, what is sin? Most of the translations of the word ‘sin’ in the bible mean ‘to miss the mark’, to miss the mark of God’s Holy standard and Righteousness. Where does sin come from? Well we know sin entered the world when the serpent tempted man to disobey God in the Garden of Eden. So sin must come from satan. The goal of sin is to cause us to disobey God, satan’s chief end is get us to disobey God. He knows each one of us have evil desires (James 1:14) that war within us so he plays his cards just right to try get us to act on them, and if we are not diligent he will be successful. So our obstacle to being holy as He is holy is the enemy who is hell bent on destroying us and removing us from the grace of our Lord Jesus. So for us to overcome sin we have to overcome our enemy the devil, already you are probably thinking that sounds a lot easier than it is because he is much, much smarter and more powerful than we are. If we go up against him without faith in God, without His grace and covering we will find ourselves beaten senseless, probably to an inch of our lives!!

Consider Acts 19:13-18…

“Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done.”

Ok, did you see that? I mean 7 sons against 1 guy? This sounds like a Steven Segal movie to me but what is key here is that the evil spirit in the man said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”. That is one scary thought, which leads me to another question... Is my name known in hell, I should seriously hope so!

The key to overcoming our enemy and sin lies in our identity in Christ, James said “Resist the devil and he will flee from you”. So we know that it is possible to overcome our enemy, but if we cannot overcome the enemy in our strength then we most definitely cannot overcome sin in our own strength. So if the key to overcoming sin lies in my identity in Christ, what exactly is my identity in Christ? The answer for me is one who has died to sin but is now alive in Christ, one who has been crucified with Christ, one who no longer lives but it is Christ who lives in him, one who is a new creation, one who is in every sense of the word.. dead! So picture a corpse in a tomb, do you think they struggle with sin? Do you think they struggle to look at something else when a beautiful woman walks down the street wearing what looks like nothing more than an eye-patch? Do you think they struggle to tell the truth, even if it hurts? I somehow don’t think so, why? Cause they are dead of course. Our old self struggled in sin, but our new self is alive and hidden in Christ. Our old self is like that corpse in a grave, dead.

What matters when you are dead? If we can approach sin and our enemy with that state of mind, that we in ourselves are dead and that Christ is fully alive in us then it is Christ who overcomes not us. If we are hidden in Christ, He fights the battles for us. If we choose to go back to the old ways of the old self, even for a moment, we will find ourselves powerless to the power of sin. Sin has no power over you if you are dead!! There is no glory without death, Jesus is our hope of glory (Col 1), there is no hope without death. Die to yourself, if you need more scripture consider Jesus’ words in Matthew 10: 39,

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

and the words of Paul in Romans 6:3-7,

"Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin — because anyone who has died has been set free from sin."

...Because anyone who has died is free from sin... Will you lose your life for His sake? I can promise you He can do a lot more with your life than you could on your own.

So in closing what happens after we die? Do we cease to exist? Do we just walk around saying, ‘oh, I’m dead, so if Jesus wants to help that person He can do it, I mean He is alive in me, all He has to do is turn the autopilot off and take control…’ Very thankfully no, this quote from you guessed it ‘For Today’ puts it perfectly for me:

“I will rise from the ashes of my own death to abundant life under the cross,

and I will not be turned back,

But I will come with an army;

For He will raise up a generation to seek His face.

Now is the time for those who have died to rise,

And lift the sound of our voices high;

Kingdom come!

Kingdom come!”

For Today - Phoenix

#justathought