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Welcome to day three of our look at Romans chapter six, our daily drive time
devotions through this great chapter of the Bible. This chapter that helps us to
answer the question, how do you win in this battle against sin? How do you have
daily victory?

Now let me just say as we begin this chapter today that the war against sin is
already won. One day we're going to be with God in heaven where there is no sin.
The war is won.

So what we're really talking about here is how do we win the daily battles in
this war that we know is already won? I don't want to suffer daily defeat. Even
though I know someday I'm going to live in victory for eternity, I don't want to
suffer daily defeat today.

So how do we win in this daily battle? And these next few days as we walk
through these verses of Romans six, we're going to be talking together about
what we need to believe, what we need to choose, and what we need to offer in
order to enjoy God's victory in a daily, day by day basis. What do we need to
believe to change, to trust God on a day to day basis when it comes to this
battle against sin?

Well, Romans chapter six, verses six to ten talks about that. Paul says there,
"For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin
might be done away with, so that we should no longer be slaves to sin, because
anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him.

For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again.
Death no longer has mastery over him. The death that he died, he died to sin
once for all.

But the life he lives, he lives to God. " Notice what these verses say, they
bring back into focus some of the things we've talked about the last couple
days. Notice in verse six, "Our old self was crucified with him.

" Our old self was crucified. The Bible talks a lot about our old self and our
new self. And in one sense, it's the person I was before I became a Christian,
and it's the person that I am now, that I am a Christian.

It's before Christ and after Christ in my life. But it also has to do with our
old nature, what the Bible calls your flesh, your inner desire, not your
physical flesh, but your spiritual flesh, your inner desire or your tendency
towards sin. When the Bible talks about this old nature, it's not talking about
the feeling of being tempted.

It's the inner part of you that inevitably is going to choose to say yes to
various temptations. Before you became a believer, your old nature was your only
nature. We all have this, this natural propensity to sin, because of the fall of
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

Your new nature was given to you the moment you gave your life to Christ. Your
new nature is the new life, the new power to live that you've been given because
of what Jesus Christ has done for you by his death and resurrection. And one of
the most critical aspects of growth in our life as believers is learning how to
trust God concerning both our old and our new nature.

Here the Bible tells us our old self was crucified with Christ. So you trust God
by believing what God says. God has made, in essence, God has made death to work
for us and not just against us.

The death that Jesus died for us, it also crucified the old nature. Now as we
talked about yesterday, that does not mean that we are never tempted to sin.
That doesn't mean even that we can't choose to sin, but it does mean that we
have a new power not to sin because of what Jesus did for us, and we are
forgiven for our sin.

My old self was crucified. And that is so that in the last part of Romans 6
verse 6, so that we could no longer be slaves to sin. We're going to talk about
that a lot on day five of this look.

So we can no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed
from sin. So I no longer am a slave to sin. And so I make the choice, if we've
died with Christ in verse 8, I make the choice to live with Christ and make him
my life.

Here's the point. God has not left our growth to chance. The foundation of your
growth, your sanctification is nothing less than the death and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.

That means two things. First, because of the power of Jesus's crucifixion, you
no longer have to be controlled by that old sinful nature. Did Jesus really die?

Yes. And because he died, you no longer have to be controlled by the old sinful
nature. God has given you a new power in life.

The second thing that this means is that because of the power of Jesus's
resurrection, you have a new nature. Was Jesus really resurrected? Absolutely,
yes.

And by the power of his resurrection, you can begin to live out the new life
that God has made you to live. But do I need to believe to change? I need to
believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Not only that it happened 2,000 years ago, but also that it means something for
my life every day today. What do I need to choose to change? I need to choose
what Romans chapter 6-11 talks about.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
That's my choice, to count myself dead to sin, but alive to God. Now, to count
means to compute.

It's an accounting term. As believers, we're not only to appreciate the death
and resurrection of Christ, we're to appropriate the death and resurrection of
Christ. It's one thing to know something.

It's another to reckon or to count something as it talks about here. How do we
learn to count in a different way than we've counted all of our lives? To count
ourselves.

We've always seen ourselves a certain way, but now God is saying, "Start seeing
yourself in a new way. " Romans 6 says, "Count yourself dead to sin. " How do
you do that?

Well, think of it as an accountant, and in your mind's eye, just picture an
accountant's ledger sheet. Let me say that sentence again. And in your mind's
eye, just picture an accountant's ledger sheet.

If I put two columns on a sheet of paper, one with the heading "dead to sin" and
the other with the heading "alive to sin," where would you count yourself? Now,
I've talked to a number of people about this, and most people would count
themselves in the middle, like on the line in the middle. They haven't counted
themselves totally dead to sin because the truth is they still struggle with sin
sometimes.

And in our moments of complete honesty, I've heard people say, "I don't want to
count myself dead to sin because there's still some things I might want to do in
that sin column, some things I want to selfishly hold on to. " We think, "I
don't want to put myself in the 'alive to God' column because I still might want
to do something in the sin column. " But if you're a believer, you are dead to
sin.

It no longer has power over you, and it also no longer has the same enjoyment,
attraction. Oh, you're still tempted. But you've found, once you became a
believer in Jesus Christ, that Satan says, "Oh, this is going to be fun," and
there's pleasure in sin for a season, maybe for a moment.

But immediately you realize, "This isn't what I was made for. This isn't why God
put me on this planet. " If you're a believer, you are dead to sin.

Count on it. And you are alive to God. Same ledger sheet.

Where would you put yourself if you had a "dead to God" and "alive to God"
ledger sheet? You're alive to God. Not because of what you've done, but because
of what Jesus Christ did for you.

Now, I do not want to leave you with the impression that this process of God
making us holy, of us living in a new way, is easy. God is building holiness
into the lives of very imperfect human beings. That's why he's God, and we're
not.

And so we struggle, and we stumble. And oftentimes we wonder if we're making any
progress at all. I've always liked the way Chuck Swindoll said it.

It's spiritual growth is three steps forward and two steps back. It often feels
that way. And when it feels that way, Satan's going to come with a temptation.

He's going to come with a temptation to tell you, "You know, you're really more
alive to sin than you are to God. That's where your life is. That's where you
need to be.

Put yourself back in that column. Jesus Christ died for you, and Jesus Christ
was resurrected for you. You are dead to sin.

Count on it. You are alive to God. Count on it.

Do not let Satan tell you that lie. You have a new life that's been given to you
by God. It starts in this planet and heads all the way through eternity.

Now, as you and I talk to God together about what he's done in our lives, let's
focus on his goodness and his grace by praying these verses that we've just
talked about back to him. Father, we thank you that these verses are the truth
about us. We know that our old self was crucified with you so that our body of
sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

And God, we know that if we died with Christ, we will also live with him. We
know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he can't die again. Death no
longer has any power over him.

And we know that the death he died, he died once for all. And all includes us.
All includes me.

And the life that he lives, he lives to God. And Lord, we want to live a life
for you, because of you, in appreciation of all that you've given us. Thank you
for your grace.

Lord, help us to count ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God. Help us to do
that in this moment. Help us to do that today.

To see ourselves as you see us through eyes of faith. In Jesus' name we pray,
Amen.