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Jesus died so I can die
Death to my ADAMIC life, through baptism into Christ’s death, is God’s only exit strategy for us.
The only way to get a sinner to stop sinning is to kill him.
Penal Substitution – Punished in my place
This doctrine of penal substitution is a holy cow in the West. It means that I was not on the cross with Christ, but only my sin. This doctrine now triggers an obsession with forgiveness of sin but is powerless in the face of un-crucified Adam’s enslavement to sin. If ever you saw a Trojan horse theology this is it. It’s presented as a peace offering but introduces powerlessness.
If you REALIZED and BELIEVED that you were crucified with Christ, and thus dead to sin, as Rom 6 and many other passages say so clearly, then forgiveness would become a byproduct and death and resurrection the main feature.
Most evangelicals and charismatics were taught that we don’t have to stop sinning because God loves us so much that he killed His son in our place and we are now free to carry on sinning and still go to heaven. This is then said to be “grace”.
The above statement is probably a bit severe, because most churches do preach some sort of holiness, and some sort of battle against sin, but the deliverables and outcomes are usually vague and ambiguous.
Having said that it is important to note that the idea that Jesus died so I can live is false.
Jesus died so I can also die
The life He promised follows your own “crucifixion-death”, as the resurrection. There is no shortcut.
The Bible teaches that sin kills and that we are all under the curse of death from God Himself. All of us will die because of this curse.
BUT
God has made a way to save us from the second death.
If we die to self and to sin by FAITH and BAPTISM in “Christ Crucified”, then we will be resurrected into eternal life. Those who do not die to self and to sin by faith in Jesus will be resurrected into eternal condemnation and the torment of Gehenna, which is the second death.
You die with Christ on the Cross or you die alone in hell, a.k.a the second death.
Those who do not die through faith in Jesus will not be allowed to die in hell either. If you do not die to sin and to self WITH Jesus, by faith, then you will be left alive in hell. Death will not be available to you anymore and at that point, you will beg for it.
Grace never did and never will tolerate sin
The cross is not some loophole to keep sinning and still go to heaven, it is about me HAVING BEEN CRUCIFIED WITH JESUS and thus being DEAD to sin.
The critical success factors are BELIEVE and DEAD.
I believe I am dead to sin in Christ. Crucified WITH HIM.
A foolish doctrine
This is not an intellectually satisfying story. But this is the story in the Bible.
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1:18
Believe you are dead to sin OR reason it away based on how powerful sin still feels to you.
The determining factor is FAITH. Do you SEE BY FAITH Gal 2:20 or do you believe what you see in the mirror?
20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 2:20
Not theology but power
Make no mistake this is not some philosophy, it is reality and it is power.
IF you BELIEVE then there will be real power in your life. Freedom and Resurrection upon crucifixion.
20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
James 2:20
29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him.
1 John 2:29
John the Beloved believes in victory over sin
5 And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin. 6 Whoever abides in Him does not sin. Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.
1 John 3:5-9
Grace does not tolerate sin
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Romans 6:1-10 NKJV
1 Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness? 2 Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? 3 Or have you forgotten that when we became Christians and were baptized to become one with Christ Jesus, we died with him? 4 For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. 5 Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. 6 Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.
Romans 6:1-6 NLT
He who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin
1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. 3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
1 Peter 4:1-5
Baptism is a spiritual portal
Baptism unites us with the death of Jesus and the resurrection, the Bible teaches very clearly though that we must take up the cross daily and die die daily and abide in that death.
Christ gave it all and offers the same path by faith and in the Spirit
Doing an altar call or saying the sinner’s prayer or believing once as a philosophy in Jesus and the cross is simply not what scripture teaches.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
Philippians 2:5-9
“Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” —
Galatians 6:14.
38 “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.39 “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.
Matthew 10:38-39
“Then said Jesus unto His disciples, ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'” —
Matthew 16:24.
26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.28 “For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—29 “lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 “saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
Luke 14:26-30
21 Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”
Mark 10:21
