How to Use "The Lust Dare"
Day #21: Sin Shall Not be
Master
“For sin shall not
have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
–Romans
6:14
3 weeks! Congratulations! For the
last 3 full weeks, you have been actively fighting the battle against lust. You
have continued on till this 21st day and have conquered enemy after
enemy. You no longer are letting sin have dominion over you, but are beginning
to live under grace instead.
The passage above comes from a very
poignant passage of scripture.
“What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How
shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that
as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were
buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
For if we have
been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our
old man was crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be
slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if
we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ,
having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion
over Him. For the death that He
died, He died to sin once for all; but the
life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon
yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” –Romans 6:1-14
This passage illustrates this beautiful thought that we were buried with Christ, and then rose again with him. Our sinful nature was buried, and then we arose a new man. We truly are, as the phrase goes, born again. This is a pretty radical idea, and it can be hard to grasp. This idea of being “born again” is one that has been difficult to grasp since the day of the phrase’s conception. Nicodemus sure scratched his head at that one.
“Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” –John 3:4-6
The thing I love about this last passage is the distinction between the flesh and the Spirit. Our flesh was buried with Christ, and our new self is born of the Spirit. That is so exciting! No longer is sin our master, and the flesh what rules us. No longer do we have to be ruled by the lusts of the flesh, nor do we have to let it regulate us. Instead, we are born anew of the Spirit. And as such we are able to obey the command to “not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”
Sin shall not have dominion, we are born new in the Spirit, and we now live under grace!
“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which
Christ has made us free, and do not be
entangled again with a yoke of bondage.”
–Galatians 5:1
Today’s Dare
Today I challenge you
to take pen and paper and write out all the sin that has entangled you in the
past. Whether you write that out as a letter of confession, or as a list, or as
a prayer, it does not matter. But then take that letter, and bury it. I am not
kidding. Grab a shovel, dig a hole in the ground as deep as you have the energy
to do, and bury that letter. Bury it deep. Remember that symbol of your sin
being buried with Christ, and take a deep cleansing breath as you are now free
to live in the Spirit.
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