Who We are in Christ – Ron Volk
As we are brought along from elementary truths {birth truths} to the identification {growth truths}. Today we are going to have a look at Romans chapter six and see what it has to say about identification.
The believer who knows God as his justification {meaning = to be declared or made righteous in the sight of God} may still have trouble with sin, not as to its end, but sin as to its ruling power. It is not from the offence of sin that he/she seeks to be freed–for he/she sees that God has completely acquitted him from the charge and penalty of sin–but it is from sin as a powerful master.
To know God’s way of deliverance from sin as a master, we must come to the truth contained in the sixth chapter of Romans. There we see what God has done–not with our sins, as that Paul has already dealt with in the preceding chapters of Romans, with ourselves the agents and slaves to sin. He has taken our old man {Adamic nature}, the same place where He put our sins, Namely on the cross {stake} with Christ. Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. The believer sees not only that Christ died for him/her–but that we also died with Christ.
Like Christ, the believer too has died to sin, he/she is one with Christ. Romans 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: So, the knowledge that Christ and we with him in the likeness of His death, are dead to sin, is indispensable to our sanctification {means to set apart for special use or purpose}.
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. We should not look upon these truths–as applying only to a few people, they are the “birthright” of every child of God.
We were connected to Adam, but in Christ we died to the old man and were crucified. Since we are in Christ, we share in His death unto sin and going forward we are to reckon ourselves in relation to sin in Christ, as one who is dead to sin, and alive in Christ. Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The old man/woman “I” in you and me was crucified in Christ. You died and your death dates from the death of Christ. The old man, Adamic nature in God’s reckoning –was taken to the cross with His Son Jesus and crucified and taken into the tomb with Christ and buried.
Our sins were dealt with by the Blood, we ourselves are dealt with by the Cross of Christ. The Blood buys our pardon; the Cross procures deliverance from what we are in Adam. The Blood can wash away sins, but it cannot wash away the old man {Adamic nature}. I {we} need the Cross to crucify us–the sinner. Jesus says to us Mathew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
As believers in Christ, we were joined with Him at the Cross, united to Him in death and resurrection. We died with Christ. He died for us. This is a wonderful truth, for all believers.
This is the distinctive mark of the Christian–the experience of the Cross. Have we truly experienced the Cross? Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
The believer has been united with Christ in His death. In this union with Christ, the flesh, this body of sin-sin-ruined being with its intelligence and its own will and desires–is judged and crucified. This is important, by faith, the believer reckons {believes and acts} him/herself dead unto sin Romans 6:3-14.
If the difference between Christ dying for us, and our dying with Him, has not been recognized, acknowledged, and applied, it may be safe to say that the “SELF” is still the dominating factor in our lives, and as such we are under the law. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Who died on the Cross? Of course, our Lord and Savior died on the Cross {stake}. But who else died there? Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
You believe the Lord Jesus died for your sins because God says so, now take to next step and accept by faith the further fact that you died with Him your old man {Adamic nature} was taken to the Cross with HIM.
Because He died, death has no more dominion over Him, and because of our union with Him, sin shall not have dominion over you, even though it is present in you. Our reckoning ourselves dead to sin in Jesus Christ does not make it a fact–it is already a fact through our union with Him.
Please think and pray on these things, and see if you can act on faith, to accept what God has given each one of us through Jesus Christ.
Your brother in Christ,
Ron
We Belong to Christ (Romans Seven) – Ron Volk
May 12, 2025 by Shirley Gohner • Uncategorized • 0 Comments
I have been reading through the Book of Romans and have gone back to Romans chapters six, seven, and eight. These are wonderful and packed full of meat for us, not to say the rest of God’s love letters {BIBLE} to us aren’t packed full of meat.
We skimmed chapter six in the last article so I would like to look into Romans chapter seven and see what we can glean from it.
All too often we use words like “I must love the Lord and others; I must maintain my testimony; I must witness and work for Him; I must resist myself: I must stop sinning. The feeling of constraint expressed in “I must” sets one up for defeat in Romans 7.
Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. The purpose of God’s law, both in command and principle, is to bring light and cause us to face up to the fact that we are sinful. Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
I have come to see over the years of my conversion, what we seek to do, or keep from doing, in our own strength brings us under legal bondage. The principle of law applies to self-life and can produce nothing but self-righteousness. Thus, the law convicts us of our need for Christ.
The years of struggle and failure we experience are not only to prepare us for liberation from the principle of sin, but the bondage of the principle of law. We are brought not only to the release of Romans 6, but to the deliverance of Romans 7. We exchange the law of sin and death for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
We have been given the key to the problem of law at the very beginning of Romans 7. Romans 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? EXACTLY! All through the years of defeat we have been slowly learning that the harder we tried to live a Christian life, the deeper we came under the dominion of the law of sin. We tried to “be,” we tried to “do,” and there was nothing but failure year in and year out.
Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. As long as we depend on our own strength and resources, all we produced was sin. We hungered for life and brought forth death.
Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Our Father was teaching us what we had to know for our freedom in Christ– and self is our greatest enemy. Philippians 1:21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
Along with Paul, we come to recognize an internal law; Romans 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. All this has been specifically designed by the Spirit to bring us, to the blessed condition of defeat–where we cry from our hearts Romans 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
We must first learn that our having died in Christ on the Cross gives us our foundation for freedom from the power of sin. But unless we learn the answer to the bondage of the principle of law, we will be right back in the defeat of Romans 7, no matter how hard we strive. Law reveals sin and produces bondage. The answer to the principle of sin prepares us for the answer to the principle of law. Reckoning is the key to both, and both have to do with the death of the Cross and our life in Christ. Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in the newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. As Paul tells us in verse 1, as long as we lived and walked in self-life, we were under the principle and dominion of law.
Thanks be to God, we not only died to the principle of sin in Christ on the Cross, but there we also died to, out from the dominion of-the principle of law! We were not only freed from the “oldness of the letter”, but were joined into the “newness of the spirit.”
Now we are able to understand that “I, through the law, died unto the law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I {self} that live, but Christ {my new life} lives in me {new creation} Galatians 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
As the Holy Spirit progressively carries out the will of the Father in our life. His perfect will becomes a delight to us–not a duty. Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Hebrews 7:16 Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.
Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
You may have been wondering, what was he talking about here? The law is still in effect, and we are still commanded to observe it.
The Spirit of truth is not only explicit and thorough in presenting the truth, but He is also exact and pains taking in preparing our hungry hearts for the ability to absorb His truth. Most of His Spiritual work He accomplishes in our lives through natural means, such as prayer, our careful dependance on His Word, meditation, and the sudden changes or alterations in our everyday life. The bondage of the principle of law finally brings us to its goal–the death of the Cross.
Your brother in Christ,
Ron