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February 2012Under New Management |
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Pastor Mike Osladil Imagine a person imprisoned and
sentenced to hard labor breaking rocks for the rest of his life. Day after day
he wakes up early, and after a small meal starts his daily work of breaking up
rock with a sledge hammer. He continues to labor this way day after day. But
one day, he receives a pardon. No longer must he labor under his cruel
taskmaster. His captors no longer have legal jurisdiction over him. What would
you think if he remained in prison and continued to break rocks? The reality of
his freedom has not yet sunk in. Now, we can understand if an infant
Christian does not yet understand all the ramifications of what it means to be
a Christian. But we who have been in the faith should know better. As a believer in Jesus Christ, God
set you free from the ruling power of sin (cf. Rom 8:1). How did this take
place? When you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior, God gave you a new
Master. The Holy Spirit now leads us
(cp. Rom 8:2 with 8:14). You are under new management. And the
Holy Spirit will not have any rivals telling His subjects what to do. The Holy
Spirit has freed you from the ruling power exercised by sin. Because you have been identified with
Christ’s death you have been freed from the position of having sin as
your master (cf. Rom 6:7). How did God’s Holy Spirit free you from the
controlling power of sin? Why are you not condemned to a life of
servitude to your sinful disposition? “The power of the life-giving Spirit has
freed you through Christ Jesus from the power of sin that leads to death” (Rom
8:2 NLT). In Romans 6 Paul teaches that we have
been freed from sin as our master. Never again will the sinful disposition hold
the position of master over us. But in Romans 7, Paul shows that even though we
have been freed from sin as our Master, we are not strong enough in ourselves
to live a victorious life. You cannot live a victorious life in your own
effort. Although the sinful disposition has
lost its position of master over us, it still remains with us and tries to
exercise control over us. Even if we reckon that we no longer hold the position
of slave under our sinful disposition, we cannot experience freedom from its
controlling power as long as we try to gain that freedom through self-effort.
Every time we try to get away from the controlling power of our former master
on our own, it takes us captive against our will. Unless someone more powerful
than the sinful disposition intervenes on behalf of us and sets us free from
the controlling power of our former master, we are doomed to a life of
servitude to a disposition that has no right to exercise power over us. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit has
intervened on our behalf. At the time you put your trust in Jesus Christ you
were set free by the Holy Spirit from the controlling power of the sinful
disposition. At the time when you were “born again,” at the moment you trusted
Jesus Christ as your Savior, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom. 8:9).
This indwelling of the Holy Spirit provides the basis for the Spirit’s
controlling power being made available to us as believers. Allow God’s Spirit to lead you out of
the prison yard of sin. You have the power you need to fulfill God’s will for
your life by the Spirit dwelling within you. Your source of power comes from
depending moment-by-moment on the power of God’s indwelling Spirit working in
and through you. As a believer in Jesus Christ you
cannot produce the holy life God desires in yourself. The Holy Spirit produces
it in and for us through His power. Thus, the Holy Spirit produces what the old
covenant law demanded but could not produce.
“For God achieved what the law
could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, He condemned sin in the
flesh, 8:4 so that the righteous requirement
of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:3-4 NET). Paul uses the concept of walking
for a purpose. The appropriation of the power of the Holy Spirit is not a
once-for-all act that delivers you from the controlling power of your sinful
disposition forever. Just as walking is
a step-by-step procedure, so the appropriation of the controlling power of the
Holy Spirit is a moment-by moment procedure. Paul is not saying that we,
as believers, are perfect, but he implies that believers are characterized as
those “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” During those moments when we, as
believers, are depending upon the power of our own humanity to enable us to
have victory over sin, our sinful disposition will take control of us against
our will. During those moments when we are depending upon the power of the Holy
Spirit, we will experience freedom from the sinful disposition’s control, and
our lives will be characterized by holiness. How can you escape the prison yard of
a life dominated by sin and continue to become more like Christ? The Holy
Spirit gives us one victory after another over the controlling power of the
sinful disposition as we keep submitting to Him. So many skirmishes can be won
during the course of our life as we appropriate the power of the Holy Spirit,
but the whole war is not completed in victory until we have gone to be with the
Lord. |
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