Romans 6:1-11

Calvary is the key to the Christian life - PRESENTLY!

There is no victory for believers that was not first His.

Warren Wiersbe: "As far as God the Father is concerned, I was saved when He graciously chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world, but I knew nothing about divine election until after I was converted. As far as God the Son is concerned, I was saved when He died for me on the cross, and I knew that great truth from the earliest days of my life. But as far as God the Holy Spirit is concerned, I was saved in May 1945 when the Spirit of God convicted me and I trusted Jesus Christ. Then what God had planned from eternity all fell into place in my life."

A life of holiness begins with identifying WITH Christ in His death and resurrection.

Romans 6:6

Romans 6:11

We have been justified by FAITH in His death for our sins.

Understanding our union with Christ at Calvary is the key to progressive sanctification.

Romans 6:6

We are forgiven because He died on our behalf.

We are delivered because we died with Him.

2 Corinthians 5:17

R Paxson: "...this accomplished fact can only become an actual reality in the believer's experience as faith lays hold upon it and enables him moment by moment, day by day, though temptation assail him, 'to reckon' it true. As he reckons, the Holy Spirit makes real; as he continues to reckon, the Holy Spirit continues to make real. Sin need have no more power over the believer than he grants it through unbelief. If he is alive unto sin it will be due largely to the fact that he has failed to reckon himself dead unto sin."

Most believers lack a proper emphasis upon growth.

We are freed from the penalty of sin by His finished work.

We are freed from the power of sin by His finished work.

Colossians 2:6

Calvary is as much the foundation of sanctification as of justification.

Confession deal with the "penalty", not the source!

C. Ussher: "The believer can never overcome the old man even by the power of the new apart from the death of Christ, and therefore the death of Christ unto sin is indispensable, and unless the cross is made the basis upon which he overcomes the old man, he only drops into another form of morality, in other words, he is seeking by self-effort to overcome self, the the struggle is a hopeless one."

Marcus Rainford: "It is not to be a mere passing impression of the mind when we are undisturbed by active temptation; no mere happy frame of spirit when under temporary refreshing from the presence of the Lord; non self-flattering consciousness of a heart exercised in good works; from none of these is the believer to infer his practical mastery over sin, but on the ground that Christ died unto sin, and liveth unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Ian Thomas: "I must recognise that the enemy within the camp -- the flesh, the old nature, self, I, the old Adam, is a usurper. By faith I must reckon him to be in the place that God put him -- crucified with Christ. I must realise that now my life is hid with Christ in God; that He is my life."

Credit: Adapted from Miles J. Stanford's The Complete Green Letters