Dead to Sin

As Christians, we are called to live a holy life. So we battle or struggle to overcome sin. Just as with any other battle, it first starts and is sustained by the mind. Your mind has to be adequately ready for battle. If you are already defeated psychologically before a battle then you are already on the path to failure even before the start but if you are prepared mentally and mentally sustained you have a higher chance of winning.

One of the ways we are mentally empowered to overcome sin is by understanding the knowledge of grace in Christ. Knowing certain truths in the word empowers you to overcome sin (John 8:31-32). The Law, tells us what is right to be done and what is wrong to be avoided, but doesn’t provide the empowerment to do. In Christ however we have an empowerment called grace that is available to walk in all righteousness including what is not written in the Law. One such way we access Grace is as Saint Paul explains to understand that we died and rose with Jesus Christ through our baptism. We died to sin but rose to the newness of life for God. (Romans 6:1-14)

This means when we are tempted we remind ourselves that we are dead to sin. Can a dead man steal, be jealous, fornicate, or lust? As we repeat to ourselves that we are dead some grace is accessed to overcome. Declaring other scriptures like ”The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want…”(Psalm 23). Also declaring that “I am the righteousness of Christ Jesus”(1 Corinthian 1:30). Also declaring “Your grace is sufficient for me”(2 Corinthians 12:9) and “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me”(Philippians 4:13).

Let’s thank God for Grace available in Christ Jesus to live above sin and rather do the will of God. Let’s pray that we access it through the knowledge of the word and prayer.