Rom 6:8 (Dead With Christ)

It seems as though the closer that i grow to the Lord, the more He begins to correct me...not encourage me. You would think it would be the other way around, but...it's not. (*sigh). so...i've been seeking Him on how to overcome. I understand the scriptures on Rom 6:2 about The Sin Nature, and what part that plays in my walk with the Lord daily. I've studied further into baptism to give me a greater understanding of what happened when i received Christ into my heart and life. I understand that just because i have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, it does't mean that THAT alone is going to keep me from falling into sin, but rather, it is the method by which God uses to speak to me and correct me, in effort for the Holy Spirit to conform me into His image from my own. Moving on to being freed from sin, (or better known as the Sin Nature), i am still trying to understand that one more....i am lead to the scripture that speaks of being dead WITH HIM....

"NOW IF WE BE DEAD WITH CHRIST, WE BELIEVE THAT WE SHALL ALSO LIVE WITH HIM."

this word, "if" should be translated "since." so it would read: "now since we be dead with Christ..."

The purpose behind the Beleiver dying WITH Christ on Calvary and being buried WITH Him, is not only to free one from sin, with the sin debt being justly paid, but the end result of the "New Life IN CHRIST" is to which the Spirit is pointing to. We use the Cross not only as a means for salvation, but also for our daily walk with the Lord.

(We Believe)
those words proclaim the imperativeness that the use of Faith be CONTINUED, in order to have victory over sin. We are not only to believe that our sins were handled on Calvary, but as well, the Resurrection of Christ has guaranteed our vctorious walk over and above the dominion of sin.

This does not mean that we live in "sinless perfection," that won't occur until the First Resurrection of Life. It does mean though, that the Believer is now free from sin's dominion.

***I'll talk about this more later, but the reader should realize that the Cross of Christ is something that we need to put into every part of our lives on a daily basis. One would say, can you justify that statement with scripture. Absolutely I can.

If you will look to the story in Numbers 21, it is where the Children of Israel were being bit by serpents as a result of their complaining. And what was the remedy for that? The Lord told Moses to make a brass serpent and to set it up on a pole. For the cure, the Children of Israel were to look upon that brass serpent on the pole and they were healed by doing so. What the brass represents is the judgment of God upon us for our sins. The serpents are the constant reminder of our sin, as it bites us everyday. (we are either haunted and tormented by past, present or future sin in our lives) on a daily basis. The reason that it was set upon the pole, was to signify the Cross of Christ. How Christ "became" (He was NOT sin, nor had He EVER sinned), but rather, He "was MADE sin for us," (2 Cor 5:21), so the brass serpent on the pole was Christ taking our sin upon Him, who "knew no sin," and all we have to do is look upon what He has done for us...to reckon what He has done and that it abolished sin "once and for all"," on the Cross at Calvary, FOR US!

Once again, another implication of what Christ did for us, go to Exo 15:23-27...This is where the bitter waters were "made sweet," This is also a type of Christ and what He did for us. Moses was instructed upon them finding bitter water, with nothing else to drink, to take a tree and cast it into the waters. Upon doing so, the water became sweet. Sometimes, if not all of the time, life can be bitter...either circumstances, struggles, being wronged or harmed by others or ourselves...and all of this is cause because of, none other than sin, deriving from the "Sin Nature" that man has been since the fall of Adam in Eden. But, if through these things, we can cast the Cross of Christ into each one of these situations, God makes sweet what once was bitter. The sweetest thing that He has done is not to necessarily deliver us from the current trial or situation that we are in, for that would be a matter of "this life," and not the "life to come," which is eternal and forever. But rather, the sweetest thing of all, is the salvation He has given us, and the means by His Cross to allow Him to show us that our old nature is dead (the old man, born in the image of the First Adam, which is a fallen state), and raised in the Newness of Life and in being "made into the image of Christ." So what God does in us through our lives now, is transforms us from the image of "self" and into the image of Christ, through what He has done for us. No method other than this can help us and lead us to God.

Jesus said, "I am the Door." If we look to the old testament in Exodus and see where the Children were instructed to put blood of their sacrificed lamb on the doorposts in order to escape the death angel, that was a fortelling of Christ and what He is saying in John 10 about being "The Door." He clearly states that if man tries to come in by any other way than by Him, they are the same as a thief and a robber. Which means that by the Blood of the Lamb is the only way we can make it to God and into Heaven....I think I have made my point. :)

(LIVE WITH HIM)

"With Him" is a personal pronoun, and means that we live with respect to Him. The Believer's New Life, imparted to Him at the moment of believing, is life derived from Christ. We live by means of Him. Again, Christ gave THIS example by His illustration of being "the Vine," and we are the "Branches." Have you ever seen a branch live, growing leaves and blooming that was unattached to a vine or tree...NO. But have you seen a Tree or Vine that lived without the branches or blooming? Yes. WE are the branches most assuredly, and He is definitely the Life from which we draw our substance, for without Him we ARE nothing!

This is not referring to our fellowship with Christ here or in Eternity. He is speaking of what Christ did for us and our appropriation of that great victory within our hearts and lives. How long does the Believer live? As long as Christ Lives, the Believer Lives! Christ is in fact God come in the flesh, which means that because we died with Him and are also RAISED with Him, we live with Him and In Him FOREVER, ETERNALLY, INDEFINITELY!!!