Don't Go Digging (The Date of Your Death)

What's the second date on your tombstone? Mine is November 24th, 2004. That's the day that Jesus Christ dug a ditch, threw Alexon Haig Enfiedjian in it and buried him under ten tons of dirt. He's been dead and rotting down there ever since. "You died." (Col 3:3) "You were crucified with Christ." (Rom 6:6) "The old you is gone." (2 Co 5:17) "Your old life is over." (Col 3:3) "You've been buried with Christ" (Rom 6:4) "You can't live like you used to anymore, because that you is six feet under." (Rom 6:13). The Bible tries to make it abundantly clear to us: The moment you trusted in Christ's death and resurrection, you died. The purpose of your death was to free you from all the sin that you were enslaved to (you're dead...dead people can't sin), and to give Christ an opportunity to raise you to a new life...a life that could be free from all of the sin and sickness that you caused when you were alive, and can be full of all the glory and grace now that Christ is alive in you! We can't live lives of sin any longer...we literally can't. We're dead. Now it is Christ alive in us (Gal 2:20) and He empowers us to live lives of purpose and passion to the God who slayed us and brought us back to life through His Son. The purpose of your new life is to glorify God by living your new life for Him...not sin! 

But sometimes we like to go digging. Any time you use your new life for sin, you're essentially going to your grave site, digging up your odorous, rotting corpse, attaching strings to it's arms and legs and puppeteering it into sinful, sensual situations. Pretty sick, right? But that is what it is like when a Christian tries to sin. You can't go back to that. Your old life is over. That you has long been dead, gone, buried. Christ lives in you. Your hands, your feet, your mouth, your eyes, your ears, your life: they are His; for the accomplishing of His will and purposes. That is why you died and why you now live!

Sin died with you, don't go digging it up. 

"Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness." Romans 6:13