The Cross, Holiness, and Eternal Life [podcast]

“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Romans 6:22

“Until I embraced the cross, I had no lasting victory! No seed-bearing fruit, like clouds without rain, all promise but dry bones within. Christ will only indwell a vessel emptied of self and only he can give complete salvation to overcome all sin to be enjoyed at the marriage supper of the LAMB. Til then we press in abiding in Jesus, so that he may work in us his great salvation. (John 15; Rom 6; Php. 2; Col. 3; etc.) I die -> He raises me up.” Jon Crane

Absolute freedom from sin and the bonds of sin only comes when we are truly dead and buried with Christ and therefore raised up by Him out of sin and its dominion and shackles.

Jesus conquered sin by dying – then He was raised up…. This same Gospel truth, the death, burial, and resurrection is re-enacted in the lives of God’s people daily.

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:” Hebrews 2:14

Read Romans 6 each morning this week.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

1  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 

2  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? 

3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 

4  Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up 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 planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 

6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 

7  For he that is dead is freed from sin. 

8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 

9  Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 

10  For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. 

11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 

13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 

14  For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 

Slaves to Righteousness

15  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 

16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? 

17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. 

18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. 

19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. 

20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. 

21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. 

22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. 

23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

On a personal note: In the past, I could never and had never been possessed by the deep satisfaction and fulfillment that now fills my life as I choose to do things God’s way, and not my own. The cross is God’s way. Every disciple reading this, who is learning that cross truth, can certainly concur!

“Better is the end (resurrection) of a thing

than the beginning thereof (death and

burial): and the patient in spirit is better

than the proud in spirit.” Ecclesiastes 7:8

Karen Cochran testifies:

“I can certainly concur. Dying to self is the answer. I use to live in anxiety and fear (even as a Christian) and would excuse it and say oh well that’s just the way God made me. That leaves one hopeless. But deep in my soul I knew there must be more. Then the Lord showed me the missing key. Dying to self. And now as I take myself to the cross to die the death I now can say I have experienced more peace and joy than in all the years as a Christian. It is a joy that can only come from Jesus not from the world.”

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