Sin has no power

Yesterday's blog also reminded me of another great message from Aaron.
When I first went to Antioch in September 2005, I heard him say something along these lines, adapted from Romans 6-8:

Do you think there's any sin in your life that you're never going to get rid of? It just has you convinced that you'll never be able to get rid of it. It tells you you might be going to heaven, but as long as you're on earth that sin is going to be around, so you might as well get comfortable with it. It's been with you so long, you just can't imagine yourself without it. It has you in a headlock and it's beating you up, it's just mocking you. There seems no escape.

But we can't listen to ourselves. We easily fool ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 says,
"The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" Since we can so easily deceive ourselves, it's important to find out what God has to say.

Here's what Romans 6:6-14 says:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, 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 he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves 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 evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

6:18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

We are dead to sin! Sin has as much power over us as over a dead man! We are dead to sin! We don't have to listen to temptation. We don't have to pay it any attention. Its opinion carries no weight.

And although we will never be sinless, we will sin less. We won't be perfect, but there is no sin that can remain in power over you. Recognize and believe yourself to be free from the power of sin through the cross. Sin has no power over you. You just have to believe and appropriate that truth.

My prayer is that this will start in you a realization that things don't have to be the way they are. You can be free. I pray you realize and use the power that Jesus gives you over sin. There will be struggles. But I pray it drives you to seek him more for his power, but also for himself and the great interpersonal relationship he desires you to have with you.