Page 26 - Overcoming Addiction

had determined should be done to break the power of sin over mankind, and call a
people back into fellowship with Himself. When Pilate, the Roman government
official over the territory of Jerusalem, said he found no fault in Christ, he was
acting as the Old Testament inspectors who were to examine the Passover lambs
and insure they were without defect, spot, or blemish. Pilate examined Christ, and
said, “I find no fault in this man.” When Pilate hesitated to put an innocent man to
death, the jealous Jewish religious leaders induced the people to demand that
Christ be slain. We read.

Matthew 27:25
And all the people said, "His blood shall be on us and on our children!"

Indeed, the blood of Christ was shed for all mankind. We must individually
make public confession that we receive Christ’s life as a ransom for our own. If you
have not done this, I urge you to do so now. Then as a public testimony of your
faith in that which Christ did on your behalf, the Scriptures instruct you to be
baptized.
Baptism serves as a parable of what God has done for you through His Son. A
person is baptized by being submerged in water and then raised back up. Waters
are symbolic of death. What is pictured in baptism is the believer being joined
with Christ in His death. In effect one is testifying, “When Christ died, I died, for
Christ died in my place.” When one comes back out of the water it is symbolic of
being joined with Christ in resurrection. Christ did not remain in the grave. On the
third day after His crucifixion He rose again. Baptism is a symbol of the believer
rising with Christ to a new life where sin no longer reigns over them.

Romans 6:3-6
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ
Yahshua have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried
with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised
from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in
newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of
His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin
might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin...

Overcoming addiction is wrapped up in this issue of no longer being slaves to
sin. There is only one way to be freed from sin, and therefore freed from addiction.
This is by faith in the atoning work of Christ. Do you believe that He died to pay
the penalty of your sin? Do you believe that He died that you might live? Then
confess it, and be baptized in obedience to the command of Christ. Begin to testify
by your words and your actions, by confession and baptism, that God has made a
way for you to come out from the captivity of sin into the freedom of life in Christ.
The following Scriptures testify of the awesome work of Christ as the
deliverer of man from the captivity of sin and the penalty of death.