Fight the Bully!

Many people have been bullied growing up.

Sin is a bully.

The crucifixion of our “Old Man” was the means of us being released from the power of sin as our master.

We read this in Romans 6:6-10:

“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.”

The crucifixion of our “old man” was the means of us being released from the power of sin as our master.

In order to understand vs. 6, which is a key to knowing how to live victoriously in Christ, we have to define these various words and phrases.

Old Man is all that we were in our unsaved life in our former relationship with Adam.

It is our un-regenerated human spirit. It was our dead human spirit before we were saved.

The phrase was crucified with Him shows our old man or old identity in Adam was killed with Christ, so it could be replaced with our new identity in Christ through Christ’s resurrection, as we read in vs. 8-10.

The phrase body of sin refers to our physical bodies which are an instrument of the power of sin.

When the power of sin tempts us and we yield to it, it controls our soul and then our bodies become an instrument of sin.

The phrase, done away with means to render something powerless.

The phrase that we should no longer be slaves to sin means sin is no longer our master, since we are removed from the master/slave relationship we had in our unsaved life.

Our old man has been removed and replaced with the new man, which is united with Christ as our new Master.

A Literal and expanded translation of Romans 6:6 reads like this:

“We are to make sure we understand this, that our old man (our spiritually dead human spirit, all we used to be connected with Adam) was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body, which is the instrument of sin, would lose its power over us, so we should no longer live as slaves to the power of sin as we did in our unsaved life.”

Someone shares a memory of when a bully was demanding his lunch money every day and since he was smaller, he would give it to him.

He said this:

“Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons. But then the karate lesson guy said I had to start paying him $5 a lesson. So I just went back to paying the bully.”

Too many people feel it is easier just to pay the bully than it is to learn how to defeat him.

This is the way some believers approach the bully of sin.

Living a victorious Christian life begins with knowing. Knowing our old man was crucified to set us free from sin’s power over us.

Knowing that Christ rose from the dead and we were raised with Him to live a new life in Him by faith.

A life that no longer ruled by the bully of sin.

Fight the bully!

Sin has no control over us any longer.

May we trust Christ to live through us!

Blessings!

Pastor Ken Keeler, Director of Church Ministries