Be Who You Are in Christ and Overcome Sin

I have never had a substance addiction. I have never depended on something so much that I experienced withdrawal symptoms when I lacked it. However, I have experienced the feeling of repeatedly surrendering to a thing harmful to me.

There was a time when I could never resist a particular sin whenever it knocked at my door. Again and again, I vowed to God this would be the last time. And again and again, I failed. I became hopeless after succumbing to this sin for what felt like the thousandth time. Its lure was too powerful, and I thought I would never overcome it.

There are moments when sin can make us feel hopeless. The more we grow spiritually and see the holiness of God, the more acute our awareness of sin. This realization of our shortcomings can lead to despair and acceptance of a life controlled by sin. But the gospel of Christ gives us a bright hope for our battle against sin. We can overcome it because of who we are in Christ Jesus.

Our Identity in Christ

If we call ourselves Christians, we proclaim an identity; we profess we have a specific characteristic unique to the Christian identity. And this our union with Christ. At its core, to be a Christian means to be united to Jesus Christ. The New Testament consistently says believers are in Christ or with Christ (For instance, Phil 3:9, 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Cor 1:30; 15:8, Col 2:6, Eph 6:1, Gal 2:20).

To grasp the significance of who we are in Christ, we must first understand who we are without Him. Before Christ, we were united to Adam, the first man and representative of mankind. Due to this union, when Adam sinned in the garden, we also sinned with him and became slaves to sin (John 8:34). However, when we believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit gives us a new life and moves us from the first Adam to the second. We now have a new nature and identity; we are united to Christ.

Paul describes this union as being baptized (which means immersed) into Christ. He writes in Romans 6:3-5, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”

This text also explains how our union with Christ allows us to partake in His death and resurrection. And these two truths are significant in our battle against sin.

Crucified with Christ – The Old Man Dies

When the soldiers nailed Jesus to the cross, He became sin for us, and when Jesus died, He defeated sin. Since we share in His death, our old nature died with Christ, and sin’s dominion over us broke with the old man’s death.

Romans 6:6 says, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”

The old nature is like a man shackled to a giant boulder. The boulder is much heavier than the man, so the man can’t help but follow wherever it goes, even if it rolls to perdition. In his exposition of the bondage of the will, Augustine describes the old man’s state as non posse non peccare, which means “not able not to sin.”

Christ’s death ends the old nature’s enslavement to sin.

Resurrected with Christ – The new man lives

When Jesus returned to life with a new and glorified body, he gave us the opportunity to share in his resurrection and receive a new life and nature.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Romans 6:8 says, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.” And Galatians 2:20. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

If the old nature were a man shackled to sin, in the new nature, his chains are broken. He is free not to sin. Augustine calls this state posse non peccare, which means we are “able not to sin.”

Implication of our union to Christ

Our union with Christ is not an ornament to marvel at, but a tool to battle sin and glorify God.

Paul writes in Rom 6:12-14, “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”

Our identity in Christ—dead to sin and alive to God applies in two ways. We can overcome sin and temptation, and we can do righteous deeds.

Overcoming sin

Although the chains that bound us to sin are gone, sin still indwells our flesh and tempts us daily. But since we are dead to sin, we can resist its pull. We don’t have to obey its passion. This is a crucial truth that I didn’t fully appreciate for a while. I am able not to sin! Sin has no dominion over us!

Despairing over sin or repeatedly surrendering to its power is the old man’s stuff. In Christ, we can and will overcome sin.

This does not mean killing sin is now easy. The battle against sin will require us to give our all and make significant sacrifices. But we will fight it with the assurance that we can overcome it in Christ Jesus.

In Colossians 3, Paul gives several examples of sins we must kill in the flesh.

In verses 5-10, he says, “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.”

One day, Christ will return and transform our body of sin into glorious bodies like His. On that blessed day, sin will be no more in our flesh, and we will be unable to sin forever. But until then, we fight and overcome day by day.

Doing righteous deeds

We could only sin when we were in Adam, and our best works were like filthy rags before a holy God. But in Christ, we can do good deeds. We can now use our bodies as instruments of righteousness, whereas before they were instruments of death.

In Colossians 3:12-17, Paul gives a beautiful list of things to do with our new nature.

He writes, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

The Gifts of God are Irrevocable

Changing one’s identity based on feelings and mood has become fashionable in our culture. It is not so in God’s economy; our identity in Christ is permanent. Once we have been born again of the Holy Spirit, we can not return to our former selves. The old man is dead and gone forever.

Be Who You Already Are

The great preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones once said, “Our greatest need is to become who we already are in Christ.”

Many Christians are unaware of their identity in Christ and, as a result, are unaware of their power to overcome sin. I, too, did not fully grasp the significance of being united with Christ and its ability to overcome sin. Even that sin that tripped me up constantly. It beat me because I did not realize I was dead to sin and alive to God. But since I learned to be who I already was in Christ, I have been free of that sin for two years by His grace.

As Kevin DeYoung says in The Hole in Our Holiness, it is “only by knowing our position in Jesus that we can begin to live like Jesus.”

So be who you are, Christian; be who you are by grace. You are united with Christ, which means you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, mortify sin, pursue holiness, and do good works for the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

    Grace and Peace to you!