The Wisdom of the Cross and our Sanctification
By Jay Wegter
To grow as a Christian, you must know the resources you have against sin because of the gospel.
Walk by the Spirit (Gal 5:16), power to resist and escape temptation (1 Cor 10:13)—live as a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). How will Christ save His people from their sins? In His atoning work is as both Priest, and sacrifice, He offered Himself (Heb 7:27; 9:25-27). His substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection is applied to His people by the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we must know how Christ’s death was my death to sin, His burial the abandonment of my old life, His resurrection, my start of new life. You cannot grow to spiritual adulthood unless these truths become yours—in other words, you learn to explain them to your own soul.
Christ came to destroy the works of the devil (1 Jn 3:8) the lawlessness of our breaking God’s commandments (1 Jn 3:4). We need to mark this down in our age of permissiveness: Christ saves His people from damnation by saving them from their sin Romans 6:21-23. He does not save without saving from sin. Grace does not take the danger out of sin; God’s grace conquers sin by bringing victory over its service/slavery.
The Gospel is the victory won by Christ at Calvary. You must know the content of this victory in order to reckon this victory.
Because of Christ’s substitutionary death for all who would ever believe, sin’s dominion is broken for God’s people. Says the apostle: “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Rom 6:6-7). Christ as Creator and Ruler of all did not need personal victory over sin and the world. He came to earth as overcomer for the sake of His bride. “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Rev 3:21). He gained the victory over sin, death, and hell, the world, the flesh, and the devil in order to give that victory to His church.
Everything Christ endured from His birth to His ascension was for His people. His vicarious life had one great aim for His people—to give them life, righteousness, sonship, pardon, holiness, adoption, and victory—all out of His infinite stores of grace (Rom 6:23). He gave His life to make the believer an overcomer in both position and practice—in both standing before God, and in Christian walk (1 Jn 5:4-5). His conquest over the enemies of our souls was not merely an example to follow (1 Pet 2:21)—His conquest and victory is the believer’s possession by sovereign decree, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD” (1 Cor 1:30-31).
By faith and obedience, we participate in His conquest over the enemies of our souls.
We enter His victory by faith and obedience resulting in the conquest of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Victory was gained decisively by Christ, our mighty Champion, but we are to daily appropriate that victory. In Colossians chapter 3 we see three aspects of appropriating Christ’s victory over sin. 1) We are to practice occupying our minds upon things above where Christ is; for believers are united to Him, and our lives are hidden in Him (Col 3:1-4). 2) We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and as those dead to sin we are to mortify the lusts generated by our old natures (Col 3:5ff.). 3) We are to put off the behaviors of the ‘old man’—casting them off like a dirty garment, refusing to give them expression (Col 3:8-9), and put on the behaviors of the new man. These ‘garments of grace’ are to characterize all our relationships. Sin and lust are not merely conquered by abstaining from their practice, they must be replaced with godly behaviors (Col 3:10-4:6).
Thus, the only possible way we can live for God is to ‘die with Christ’ to the old life of sin and self. This co-crucifixion is exactly what happened—the sin natures of all who would ever believe were judged in the crushing of the body and soul of our Savior 2000 years ago. The tearing of Christ’s flesh was the legal judgment of our sin natures (Grk. made inoperative) (Rom 6:6). Our co-crucifixion with Him was to this end; so that we would ‘no longer live for self, but for Him who died and rose on our behalf’ (2 Cor 5:14-15). By reckoning these truths (spiritual realities) by faith, the reality of ‘cocrucifixion’ is worked into our daily walk so that victory over sin becomes inseparable from our Christian experience.
The victory Christ won is the rightful property of His church. He overcame the enemies of our souls to give that victory to His church.
But it is NOT a victory that is enjoyed passively. The saint is commanded to enter Christ’s victory by feeding the mind upon gospel realities. We are commanded to reckon, to count, to consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus by means of His cross. This doctrine of co-crucifixion is frequently neglected because it is difficult to understand, and therefore not viewed as practical. But the Apostle does not relegate this doctrine of co-crucifixion with Christ to the realm of theory. He immediately plows it into practical use. The believer is to reckon, count, consider himself dead to sin and alive to God—then present the members of his body to God as instruments of righteousness (Rom 6:11-13). The message of Christ and Him crucified assures us that the message of the gospel is God’s power to all who believe (Rom 1:16-17).
In Romans 6:1-23 we learn how our union with Christ is to be lived out in daily life.
Our baptism was a “funeral rite” which marked our decisive break with the values of the present age (Rom 6:3-11). Now as those set free from the dominion of sin, we show who our new Master is by our conduct. We are to revolt against sin in the Name of God who is our rightful Ruler and Master. According to Romans 6:6, it was our old self that was crucified with Christ. The old man (old self) was crucified in order to set us free from slavery to sin, putting sin “out of business” as a ruling tyrant in our lives. Our old self was all we were prior to salvation in Christ.
The believer’s faith response to God’s work of co-crucifixion is to “reckon” or count our old self as having died with Christ. When we reckon or count, it means we are regarding ourselves as God does (Rom 6:11). Our old self was what we were before we were created anew in Christ (2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:10). The sinful values of the “old self” are described in Titus 3:3 and Ephesians 2:1. What does it mean to ‘reckon’?
The most important sermons are the ones we preach to ourselves.
As a young believer I found that reckoning myself dead to sin was a tremendous help in overcoming temptation (Rom 6:11). But part of my problem was I was still living with a ‘grit your teeth’ mentality. I was so centered on what I had been saved from, sin; I was forgetting what I was saved to, communion with God. I was neglecting the second half of verse eleven in Romans chapter six, “[reckon yourselves] alive to God in Christ Jesus. The growing saint must learn, as I had to learn, that we are saved to fellowship with God, and therefore our revolt against sin is crucial in maintaining our relationship with the Lord.
A biblical understanding of sanctification regards holiness to consist of our relationship with the Lord more than the mastery of a moral code. In Romans 6:11-13 we learn that God has consecrated us to Himself by the death of His Son. Our obedient response to God’s action is that we must not let sin go on reigning unopposed in our daily lives. Our willingness to put sin to death is our “revolt” against sin. By our ongoing ‘revolt’ we express our loyalty to the Lord as our rightful Ruler and Owner.
Every sin we allow begins with a breakdown in faith first. There are only two rulers or masters: sin and righteousness (6:16). Unbelief takes us to sin as a false source for satisfying our needs. It is our love for God that drives our revolt against sin—the more we trust in His love by faith in Christ and the gospel, the more we will express our love to Him by putting sin to death. Reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God is inseparable from maintaining and caring for our relationship with God.
Romans 6:15, 16, 17, 18 describes the believer’s new orientation to God as being “obedient from the heart.” At the moment of salvation, the cross of Christ produces in the believing sinner a form of obedience that is ‘from the heart’. This means that the believer is united in mind, heart, will, and affections concerning the gospel and its ethical demands. The believer regards the true nature of freedom to be living life according to God’s design. Therefore, the obedient Christian exhibits a joyful willingness to be ruled by God’s Word.
But to maintain a united heart in obedience, the Christian will have to frequently reason with himself – ‘preach to himself’—even argue with himself concerning the nature of true freedom which is submission to God. The biblical definition of freedom is union with Christ manifested by abiding in Him. For by union with Christ we have freedom from condemnation because of our unchanging state of justification. Those united to Christ are free from guilt, fear, and condemnation. These freedoms mean that the Christian may approach God anytime in bold and free access (Eph 2:18).ⁱ
According to Romans 6, progress in holiness involves both the cross and the resurrection.
We pursue holiness by putting to death what God has already sentenced to death—our sin and old man on the cross. And we live out the new life given to us by the indwelling Spirit of Christ. God regards us as being legally dead to sin, and alive to Himself in Christ Jesus. We are to regard ourselves the same way.ⁱⁱ
Preaching the gospel to ourselves each day helps us see ourselves as God does. ‘Reckoning’ involves both the cross and the resurrection: the cross secures our death to sin, and the resurrection our newness of life. Though our absolute freedom from sin will not take place until the resurrection, Christ’s resurrection gives us the promise of defeating sin and living for God here and now.ⁱⁱⁱ
Romans 6:1-8:13 establishes us as beneficiaries of Christ’s death and resurrection. Calvin notes that mortification (putting sin to death), and vivification (new life) are an essential demand rising out of union with Christ in His death and resurrection. A radical life change or “moral renewal” takes place after conversion. Change proceeds from our union with Christ in His death and resurrection. There is no “fiction” in the believer reckoning himself dead to sin and alive to God, for sin and death have truly lost their hold on those ruled by God’s grace in Jesus Christ. The moral benefits of being united to Christ are guaranteed—there will be deliverance from the old era of sin and there will be newness of life lived out toward God (Rom 5:17-21). Our Lord’s death and resurrection cannot fail to produce the effect the Father intends. “Christ’s death and resurrection have made possible a profound change of attitude and motivation, a real sense of belonging to Him, a new freedom to resist sin and serve God because of His justifying grace.”ⁱᵛ
Union with Christ necessarily brings us into conformity with Christ.
However, the believer is not passive in this moral renewal. He has a profound obligation to the One who has brought him from ‘death to life.’ The believer has life because of the righteousness of justification (Rom 8:10-11; Phil 3:9). The indwelling Spirit presses upon the believer the obligation of rejecting the dominion of the flesh (Rom 8:12-13). The Spirit is our pledge of ultimate victory, He continually leads us to put sin to death (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13-14). There is an unbreakable link between ultimate victory and a life of putting sin to death by means of the Spirit (Rom 8:9-13). As one Christian author said, ‘it is long obedience in the same direction.’
Our walk of obedience flows from being ‘right with God’s righteousness’. In other words, our faith, love, and honor are directed towards God’s Name—His Name is expressed in His righteous work of salvation. Our relationship to God is to be lived out through the ongoing presentation of the members of our body to God (6:12-13ff.). The result is a life of unselfish love to God and neighbor. Holiness is preeminently expressed in love (Rom 5:5). God has taken possession of us and the benefit of this new relationship with God results in a God-ward life in which our consecration to Him brings Him honor and brings us joy. “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit (the ‘fruit’ of slavery to God)ᵛ, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life” (Rom 6:22).
What Romans chapter six is describing is the active appropriation of Christ’s victory (Rom 6:11ff.):
“Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Rom 6:11-13). True believers are overcomers in Christ, and overcoming is how they are to live.
All that Christ has accomplished at the cross is ours by virtue of being in union with Him. When the Spirit placed us in Christ, all of the benefits of Christ’s ‘crosswork’ became our possession—‘deeded’ to us in the New Covenant. But this is a ‘positional truth’ that is not immediately experiential. You may wake up tomorrow morning and not ‘feel’ dead to sin. In fact, if you allow yourself to be gripped by fear, anger, resentment, or lust, you may ‘feel’ very alive to sin!
Paul’s point is that true believers are to reckon themselves dead to sin regardless of how they feel. This reckoning is not an attempt to make something fictional into something real. It is an appropriation of Christ’s victory by faith—to actively seize it. The Lord accomplished a mighty conquest of our souls’ enemies (Col 2:14-15). Our part is to believe it and act upon it—what Christ accomplished in His atoning work on our behalf is bedrock reality for His people. Reckoning that to be so is how we participate in victory that Christ has purchased for us.
We must be convinced by counting God’s promises about us in Christ as fact that through Christ’s substitution on our behalf, we are truly dead to sin. We must reckon ourselves dead to sin before we can fight sin successfully. Romans 13:14 has a wonderfully relational way of saying the same thing in terms of considering oneself dead to sin by virtue of His atoning death. “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” The gospel order is, reckon yourselves dead to sin, then say ‘no’ to sin’s overtures. Christ has killed the sin that defiled and enslaved us, separated us from God, and brought judgment upon us. Therefore, we are to ‘take to the morgue’ the sin that Christ has slain (Col 3:5). Put sin to death by starving it—by refusing to let it have expression through your body and spirit.
Defining myself as crucified with Christ is a positional reality; it is an act of obedient faith.
At the moment of salvation, the Holy Spirit set me apart in Christ as belonging to God. Set apart to Him is an accomplished fact that allows me to live the rest of my earthly life as God’s own possession (Heb 10:10, 14). The more I trust in this fact that I am set apart from sin unto God as His child devoted to Him, the more I will understand why Christ does not want to share my heart with idols (Eph 3:14-17).
Our part in preaching the gospel to ourselves is to view these treasures by faith, meditating on them until we can explain their wealth to our own souls. Always be matching His all-sufficient Savior-hood with our sinner-ship—always dwelling upon how His redeeming work is a perfect fit for our ruin by sin (Heb 7:25-27).
Christ’s work in His atonement was a purchase—not only of eternal life, but also of ourselves as well. To have received God’s free gift of redemption is also to have become God’s own possession. It is to be owned by the Lord as His cherished possession (1 Cor 6:19-20). It is to be Christ’s ‘slave’ who is ruled by His Word. What follows for the rest of our lives is giving our selves back to God in daily presentation, in overflowing gratitude (Rom 6:12-23).
The Word of the Cross is a message filled with divine power.
When the converted sinner hears what Christ has done to slay our old man and how we have been resurrected to an entirely new form of existence—it opens his understanding to spiritual realities that are life-changing/transformative. He discovers the source of power for personal holiness, it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27). This has a crucial application for our methodology in making disciples. We proclaim Christ, admonishing and teaching—training in righteousness (Col 1:28-29; 2 Tim 3:16-17).
The power of the message of the cross believed produces consecration and devotion to Christ. Our disciple-making must be characterized by both proclamation and practice, by exhibiting the supremacy of our Savior and by exhorting believers who are now alive in Christ to follow Him without limits or reservations.
Bare principles and moral injunctions will not produce lasting change in the listener.
In the final analysis, our most impassioned pleas for our listeners to be good, to try harder; to stop sinning—must be joined to the display of Christ and His cross—or the flesh will conclude that within itself are the resources necessary to resist carnal desires. We must preach to our hearers what we preach to ourselves—namely that Christ is the Divine Architect of the new man (Col 3:9-11; Eph 4:20-24). The new man is complete in Another (Col 2:9-10).
The cross of Christ has created the new man. Christ’s mediatorial work has poured us into a life mold—totally shaping us to live for God’s glory (Col 3:10-11). On this side of the cross, true discipleship is living the new life Christ has wrought for us. But we do not live a life of self-denial so that Christ will accept us—no, God has accepted the believer in the Beloved (Eph 1:3-6). Discipleship, with its lifestyle of self-denial, is living the life Christ has wrought for us. It is the new man asserting himself.
By means of the Holy Spirit, our Savior lives through us (Gal 2:20). Paul’s overflowing joy as a disciple of Christ emanated from his understanding that he was living an exchanged life. Paul could say with complete confidence that Christ was living His life through Paul. The old Paul had been crucified with Christ. The new Paul, like every believer is a new man, a new creation. It is a daily cognizance of the reality that Christ lives in me. Paul was animated by this truth—it permeated his understanding—Christ is expressing His personality through the vehicle of my fleshly body (Gal 2:20). Paul was so conversant with his divine resources/assets in Christ that he could say of himself, “It is no longer I who live!”
Admittedly, these gospel spiritual realities of identification with Christ stretch our understanding/comprehension to the limit.
Just to think that in the mind of God, the elect were so fully identified with Christ their Head as to gain His life. So intimate was this identification that in Christ’s crucifixion, our fallen human natures were judged so that we should no longer be slaves of sin (Rom 6:6). This is Paul’s victory cry—those who have died are freed from sin—sin is no longer master over them (Rom 6:5-10ff.). Our Adamic nature with its original sin—that bottomless vile vent of rebellion and pollution was once and for all judged in the body of Christ in His death. That is the basis for our victory over indwelling sin.
Grace is commonly defined by professing Christians as boundless kindness, but not as absolute obligation.
Paul, in Titus 2:11-14, corrects this misnomer by declaring that grace instructs us in holiness; it fits us and motivates us to live our entire lives as set apart to God’s calling as His possession—to present ourselves back to God without reservation as our daily privilege (Rom 6:11-13). In this life, you will never outgrow your need for the gospel—for Paul states: “And now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace [the gospel], which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32).
In Revelation chapter 21, the victory joined to overcoming is set up in stark contrast to those who are overcome by the world. Scripture refers to them as ‘cowardly and unbelieving’ and not heirs of eternal life. What a cause for sober reflection! Those who do not overcome; but instead, are overcome by sin and the world (lay down in it), will not enter heaven (Rev 21:8; 2 Pet 2:18-22; Phil 3:18-19). One cannot have his sin and heaven too.
Victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil is not an option, it is the condition necessary to finish the race. Because by a work of divine grace, believers have been radically identified with Christ—Christ’s victory belongs to them—they are to live a life reckoning this truth. Those who live obediently by faith in Christ are overcomers (1 Jn 5:4-5). Thus, the citizens of heaven are said to be overcomers. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (Rev 21:7).
The Lord has purchased believers for Himself. Our reasonable, rational service of worship is to present ourselves back to God daily as those alive from the dead. In speaking of the conversion of the Romans, Paul states concerning their sanctification: “. . .and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification” (Rom 6:18-19).
End Notes:
i Peter Jensen, At the Heart of the Universe, pp. 157-160
ii David Peterson, Possessed by God, p. 100
iii Ibid, p. 99
iv Ibid, pp. 95-96, 101
v C. E B. Cranfield, Romans a Shorter Commentary, p. 146