I have found that the best way to kill a temptation that is attempting to entice me to sin is to present myself totally to God in my helplessness. I fall before the throne of grace presenting my body, my members, to Him as instruments for righteousness. I pray. I study my Bible, specifically things in the area under attack. Sin can exercise control once it passes through the will, but it does not have to reign there. 

21 For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, 22 WHO DID NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; 23 who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. 24 Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that having died to sin, we might live to righteousness; by His WOUNDS YOU WERE HEALED. 25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2:21-25 (LSB)

The Lord gave the Church a wonderful gift when He knocked Saul of Tarsus off his horse and effectually called Him to be His Apostle. His Epistle to the Romans is a huge piece of the doctrinal foundation of the Church. In Romans 3:20-5:21 he covered the doctrine of justification. This is God’s declaring the believing sinner righteous. In Romans 6:1-8:39 he covers the practical ramifications of this justification. This is the doctrine of sanctification, which is God’s producing actual righteousness in the believer. Many take missteps in their theology by confusing these two aspects of our salvation. Justification is a legal term referring to a judge declaring a person charged with a crime to be not guilty. When a sinner believes the Gospel by God’s grace through faith, He justifies them. This is His monergistic work, His alone. On the other hand, sanctification is the synergistic work of God and the believer in “working out the believer’s salvation with fear and trembling.” This is the work of transforming the believer into one who bears Christ’s very character.

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:1-4 (LSB)

All whom God has justified will experience personal holiness (1 Corinthians 6:9-11a; 1 Timothy 1:12,13). This is true regardless of the believer’s life before justification. I had a “discussion” with a person not long ago who was convinced that she had committed the unpardonable sin. When did she do this? It was long before her “salvation” as she called it. Justification is beyond the understanding of the unregenerate mind. Many will read what we teach about God declaring sinners to be righteous by His grace through faith and say that our  “religion” actually encourages us to sin since the level of our sinlessness is no factor in it. Paul addresses this objection in these first four verses of Romans 6 (above).

The fact is, it is just the opposite of what the naysayers claim. Paul asks, “How shall we who died to sin still live in it? ” He is saying that the one declared righteous by God also died and was reborn in Christ. This is our regeneration. All in Christ are New Creations. This one-time event immediately precedes the one being effectually called by God to Christ believing and repenting. Every one of them are “in Christ” (6:11; 8:1), and He died in their place (5:6-8), therefore, they are counted dead with Him.

What does it mean that all who are “in Christ” have been baptized into Him? All genuine believers have been spiritually immersed into the person of Christ. This means that they are united and indentified with Him. This is the result of their placing saving faith in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17; 10:2; Galatians 3:27; 1 Peter 3:21; 1 John 1:3). This baptism or immersion into Christ is actually into His death. What does that mean? All in Christ are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection.

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