(“Dead to Sin”)
“How shall we that are dead to sin
live any longer therein?”
(Romans 6:2)
God became a human being by taking the form of His son, Jesus (John 1:14). Jesus had to become flesh because it takes a human to deliver the human race. Animal sacrifices could never finally deliver the human, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sins. God declares that, “sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me” (Hebrews 10:5-6). His human body was the sinless vessel suited for the sacrificial work of reconciliation. “To wit, that God was in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them” (II Cor. 5:19)
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The word “reconcile” means “to change from one state into another” or to exchange. What needs to be exchanged? Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born-again of God’s Spirit. At Nicodemus’ birth he inherited a sinful spirit which had to be replaced by a holy and righteous Spirit. Without that Holy Spirit indwelling him, it was impossible for him to comprehend what Jesus was saying. He could not learn the things of God without the Holy Spirit. There had to be an exchange of spirits! The human vessel called Nicodemus wasn’t the problem. It was a fallen satanic nature that caused his blindness and sinfulness. Nicodemus, as well as everyone born into the world must have an exchange take place in their spirit center. For only this spirit exchange can reconcile us back to God and produce in us the “new creation” (II Cor. 5:17) which is our new identity.
Through the fall, we were indwelt by a satanic nature which caused us to commit sin. Romans 6:17 says that we were “slaves to sin” or in bondage to Mr. Sin. This self centered sin spirit is so deep in our consciousness that it appears to be just naturally us. Ephesians 2:1-3 gives us biblical clarity on our fallen condition: “Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” This passage is saying that Satan expresses his sinful nature through us, deceiving us and making us think it is us.
Jesus told the Pharisees that they were “of their father the devil” because they expressed the devil’s lust through them as if it were them (John 8:44). So in our fallen state we have inherited a satanic nature that enslaves us in our spirit’s center, and causes us to sin.
Through the redemptive work of the cross, God has provided a way for His children to be delivered from this satanic rule and brought back to Himself. God sent His Son Jesus to take our place on the cross, vicariously becoming what we were, so that we might become what He is. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Jesus) also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he (Jesus) might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them (us) who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15)
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Now how did God through his Son Jesus accomplish this? II Cor.5:21 gives us the key. “For God hath made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Let us begin by looking at what the Bible calls “sin.” There are two grammatical uses for “sin”: one is “sins” (a verb), and the other is “sin” (a noun). “Sins” are the action of the producer Sin. The word “sin” in II Cor. 5:21 and many such verses throughout Romans is rendered a noun: The Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament by Ethelbert W. Bullinger says, “Sin is not merely, however, the quality of an action, but a principle manifesting itself in the activity of the subject, the ‘man of sin,’ II Thes. 2:3, the personal embodiment of sin.”
Therefore, "Sin" is a person (Satan) expressing himself through our humanity. Then "sins" are the forms of manifestation that Sin takes, somewhat like root and fruit. If a gardener had a weed in his garden, he would not go out daily and cut off the top (sins) of the weed, he would permanently eliminate the weed by cutting it out at the root (Sin). The cross has provided permanent deliverance to the sin problem. John the Baptist declares that Jesus, the lamb of God, takes away the sin (not sins) of the world” (John 1:29) and does it by “laying an ax to the root” (Matt. 3:10). Now, how did God deliver mankind?
God made the human Jesus become sin,(2 Cor. 5:21) because only a perfect vessel could contain sin and vicariously die to it for others. It is a very strong thing to say that Jesus became sin, for it means that he took on Satan. The only way for God to deliver mankind was to become what we were and die to it. For we know that in a death the spirit comes out of the body. Likewise, the spirit of Satan came out of the human Jesus who represented all humanity. Jesus’ dead body was in the grave without a spirit for three days, signifying that it was completely dead. Then the Holy Spirit of God came into that dead body and raised Him from the dead. And not only Him, for we were raised with Him as well (Romans 8:11).
This truth that Paul writes, as Peter says, “is hard to understand”(II Peter 3:16), so let me reiterate: Christ died as us. “He was made sin,” expressing as us the sin nature. Therefore, in that death, out of our bodies went the false nature forever (Romans 6:6&10). Then Christ, in that risen body, representing us, raised us up with His own nature of Holiness. Christ replaced Satan as us! To put it simply, Jesus was joined to Mr. Sin (Satan in us) in His death, that we might be joined to Mr. Righteousness (Jesus) in His resurrection.
The blood of Christ covers the product of sin, which are sins; while the body death replaces the producer of sin. Romans 5:10 says that “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” When we were hopeless sinners and enemies to God we were saved by His death. But now as helpless saints we shall be saved daily by His resurrected life, in us and as us.
There was a great exchange of spirits! That is why the mystery of the Gospel is “Christ in you” the only hope of glory (Col. 1:27). Now through the cross, we are Christ in our unique human forms.