Page 115 - Overcoming Addiction

longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their
behalf.

All has been provided for the child of God to enable them to live a life
immersed in the life of Christ. We need not sin. We can always choose to live for
the pleasure of God. His Spirit in us will fill us with His desires, and empower us
to carry them out. We must cast off the low thinking that grips the church today,
for many Christians believe themselves still to be slaves to sin. The church believes
it is more natural for them to sin than to practice righteousness. Consequently,
they live out what they believe. Yet the testimony of Scripture is that Christians
have died to sin and are alive to God.

Romans 6:11
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ
Yahshua.

“Consider yourselves to be dead to sin.” How easy it is to pass over these
words without comprehension. As a Christian I am dead to sin. It has no hold over
me. I am completely free of its authority. The dominion of sin has been shattered.
I am now alive to God in Christ. I am a partaker of the divine life. The same Spirit
that is in Christ is also in me. It is God’s pleasure that I am alive to. It is His
desires that I seek. I am no longer bound to low, fleshly living. I am no longer
obligated to fulfill the desires and passions of the flesh. I am free! I am the Lord’s!

Romans 14:8
If we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore
whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.

It is with some difficulty that we lay aside our slave mentality, for we come
from a long line of slaves. Our ancestors have been enslaved to sin for the past
6,000 years, all the way back to Adam. The mind staggers to realize the freedom
that has been given to us in Christ. Can it really be true? Is it really no longer
inevitable that I will commit sin? Can I truly walk in righteousness?
Perhaps the most profound expression of the Christian’s new life is found in
the words of Paul.

Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me...”

What a depth of transformation is revealed here! “It is no longer I who live.”
The old sinful creature I once was is no longer alive. When Christ died on the
cross, I died with Him. When He arose from the grave I was resurrected to new
life in Him. Now “Christ lives in me.”
How do we enter into such a life? How can this confession become our own?
We enter in as we believe the testimony of Christ.