Identification with Christ & How To Stop Sinning

I love this topic! I got saved listening to a sermon on this very subject. If you're a Christian and understands this message and it is mixed with faith, it will forever change your life. You will live in victory over sin, the devil, the world and anything else that stands in your way. You will have no more fear of giving in to temptation. Your pornography addiction, your temper, over eating... all gone. You will be free from all sin, all of the time, day or night, guaranteed. Now in some of you there are warning bells are going off. "Is he saying that he is perfect and will never sin again?" Is he teaching sinless perfection? No and no. I probably will sin again in my life time, but that does not mean that I am not free from all sin, all of the time and have no excuse. There is never an excuse for a Christian to sin. All Christians are free from all sin, and we are going to see why and how that is.

What I will write about now will be new to a lot of people because it is not taught in church meetings. Many like me having read this topic in the past, just skipped over it, not understanding. I call it "Identification with Christ". This is what happened outside of our experience, when we first believed in Jesus. This doctrine is key to understanding how God sees us, and how we see ourselves as Christians.
In Romans ch 4 we learned about imputed righteousness and in ch 5 we learned about justification and in ch 6 we learn about Identification and how to stop sinning. Paul is answering those people who say that if salvation is by faith in Jesus apart from works, than a Christian can just believe and keep on sinning. Where sin grows, grace abounds, right? Lets read how Paul responds;

Ro 6:1 ¶ What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Ro 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

There you have it, Christians are dead to sin. Paul says, "How could we continue living in sin seeing we are dead to it"? He did not only say,"don't sin", he said,"how could you".

Ro 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Ro 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Ro 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
Ro 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Ro 6:7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

Let's get this straight. Paul is saying that you (believer) were baptized into Jesus, crucified with Jesus, buried with Jesus, planted with Jesus, and raised from the dead with Jesus. Wow! Not only that, he calls you dead! He is talking about everything that made up the person you use to be, before you got saved, including your physical body (old man). Do any of you remember that? I know I don't. So we must assume Paul is talking outside of our experience.
Here is what happened. The moment you turned to God and believed only in Jesus for salvation, you were baptized (not water baptism) by the Spirit into the body of Jesus. You became "flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone". (Eph 5:30) This is a big mystery, but you became "One with Christ". All your identity is now in Jesus. Therefore Christ's history is now your history. Christ's life is now your life.

Knowing this, that you were crucified with Christ (therefore your body-flesh-old man is dead), buried with Him, resurrected with Him, and you are now seated with Christ at the right hand of the throne, in heavenly places, in Christ. Wow! That is awesome! It truly is finished, just like Jesus said.

What is happening here? What God is telling us is that when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and are born again, your life is in-explicitly tied to our Lord Jesus's Christ's life. You have eternal life because He has eternal life (being God). You have been made free from sin, because the body of sin (the flesh) was destroyed, crucified on the cross 2000 yrs ago, and is now dead. Your old man... dead. All things are new. Jesus did it all, friends. He conquered everything for us.
Now how do we translate this into our reality? Believe it! I find it pathetic that so many professing Christian's are going around, terrified of sin, the devil and his demons, when Jesus has already conquered them. He left Satan like a dead chicken on the road, and Christian's are going around terrified and addicted to sin. This topic is so important because if we don't see that our life is Jesus, then we have nothing. Christians don't fear sin. Christians don't fear death. We don't fear Satan and his cronies. God is just using him to purify the saints (us). We are in CHRIST! Our life is in Christ... (That is real security of the believer... with Christ, in God)

Col 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Once you understand and believe what happened to you outside of your experience, and how your life is literally in Christ, you stop fearing temptation, the devil, and the world. You really start to live in faith and it is truly life altering.
Back to the matter of sin, if your a Christian, its not why do you sin, its how could you. Christians are free from sin and sin shall not have dominion over a Christian...

Ro 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Why does Paul say that we are not under the law but under grace? Because our flesh (body, earthly vessel) is dead and the law governs only over the flesh. You say "my body feels pretty alive to me". See your experience doesn't matter. God calls your body dead the moment you believed and were baptized into the Lord Jesus Christ. God wouldn't call something that is not, as though it were, would He?

Ro 4:17 ¶ (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and CALLETH THOSE THINGS WHICH BE NOT AS THOUGH THEY WERE.

God calls those things that are not as though they were. You might say "but I don't understand". It is not your business to understand. God says it, we believe it. He called Abraham the father of a great nation when Abraham had no children. For 25 yrs Abraham believed God and had no children and He calls us "dead", and,"alive unto God".

I want to add something here that might cause you to think a while. God will never do anything in us that He hasn't already done in the past in His Son (2000yrs ago). And we live in the faith of that fact, knowing that only in, and through Jesus, do we have everything we need to live holy, godly, overcoming lives.

Col 2:9 For in him (Jesus) dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10 And YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM, which is the head of all principality and power:

Some of the most wonderful words in the bible pertaining to what we have in Christ. Friends, we are complete in Jesus who is the head of all principalities and power! Think on that for a while. That should blow your mind.

So in conclusion, where do we go from here? We believe God. God says we are free from sin. When temptation comes I thank God for freeing me from that sin and what happens? I don't sin. Not because it is some inner strength, but because I truly believe that Jesus freed me from that sin, and all sin. So we walk the rest of our days in these dead bodies, living in the FAITH of the Son of God who loved us and died for us, knowing that we are one with Christ, thanking and glorifying God, holding fast our confidence and hope, and like Jesus told the women who was caught in the act of adultery,"go and sin no more".



Romans 4:5 To him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Jesus died for the UNGODLY! Friend, that is you and me!
It's a FREE GIFT. Dwell on that, FREE GIFT! You cannot do anything to earn it and and the only people the gift is offered to, is THE UNGODLY! This means YOU! This is wonderful news and you don't have to DO ANYTHING, just believe. It's not what you do my friend, it's what He has done... Tetelesti. It is finished.