Still resisting the process?

Who has a harder fight than he who is striving to overcome himself. (Thomas a Kempis)

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also live with him. We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:6-11 NLT)

We were set free - nothing should give us greater hope that our lives are on a new trajectory than hearing those words. Especially when it doesn't seem like much has changed because we are still struggling with lifelong habits. Remember - change isn't always instant. We might 'change' in spirts and spits. We can stand assured that we have been set free, though. We might just need to see that freedom worked out a bit in our lives. God is in the process of implementing his grace while we are in the process of putting it into use through our faith!

It can be hard to understand the two actions of 'salvation' and 'sanctification' at times. Salvation is instant - the work has been accomplished to wash away our sins, making us new creatures in Christ Jesus. Sanctification is a process - the work of 'putting off' our old sinful patterns and habits, while 'putting on' the new patterns and habits that Christ has provided a way for us to incorporate into our lives. One is immediate - the other is a process. As with any other 'process', the 'implementation' requires our cooperation.

We are no longer slaves to sin. It has no hold on us. Does that mean we won't ever be tempted again to return to old habits, old ways of thinking, or old ways of responding to life's stressors? No, it means when we are tempted, we have a means of escaping that temptation - incorporating a new set of responses that are uniquely 'Christ-like' because he gives us the ability to respond in ways we had not previously even considered. When Jesus asks us to 'put off' a particular habit, hurt, or hangup, he doesn't just leave all the work up to us. It isn't accomplished through sheer willpower. 

He gives us his Spirit, making scripture alive within us to help us know how we can respond differently. He gives us his power, sometimes way beyond anything we could even imagine, but definitely different than our own sheer willpower. He gives us his presence, walking with us through those times of temptation and trial, helping us see the pitfalls that await us if we choose to walk apart from him. The power of sin IS broken - we push back that power IN HIS GRACE and IN HIS POWER. We don't change without the process - so perhaps we need to stop resisting the process so much. Just sayin!