Living the Crucified Life

“Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.” Romans 7:4-6

Before salvation, you were captive to the sin of envy - wanting what you could not have, desiring what others had. After salvation, you still experience the same problem; but you are all the more miserable because you realize God condemns the sin of covetousness.

The path to victory lies in the purpose and work of the cross. Because you were crucified with Christ, you are no longer enslaved to sin. Envy has no claim on your new life which is lived in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

You have been raised with Christ - made a partaker of His resurrection power. By faith in what God accomplished by the cross, you can put on the new man - alive to God, filled with the Spirit, made in the image of God.

Living the crucified life is a bold act of faith. You may feel envious and be mentally assaulted by it. But now with Christ in you and you in Christ, you have a new source of power to cope with the problem. You can overcome; you can conquer; you can be content. It is supernatural living - to be experienced, not understood, as you choose to present yourself and your affections to Christ each day as one alive from the dead.

“...so that we serve in newness of the Spirit...” Romans 7:6