The statement "because anyone who has died has been freed from sin" probably is not referring to the fact that when an individual dies physically he or she is automatically released from the guilt of sin or the bondages of sin. It seems to us more likely that our guilt goes with us when we die unless we have received the forgiveness of Christ and are abiding in Him. Also we are not at all certain we are freed from all the bondages of sin by virtue of dying physically. If such were the case, death would be our deliverer. We think only Jesus Christ can remove the chains of sin from us.

What then does Paul mean when he says, "because anyone who has died has been freed from sin"?

We think Paul means when we choose to count ourselves crucified with Christ we no longer are under the authority of the Law of Moses. Therefore Christ can forgive us and deal with us as He will without regard for the requirements of the Law. Remember, a large part of the people addressed by the Epistle to the Romans were Jews and Paul was forever assuring them that righteousness no longer is found in obedience to the Law of Moses but by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well then, we find as far as God is concerned our first personality is on the cross with Christ. Our new born-again nature, that which is of Christ and is Christ, for Christ is now our Life, is at the right hand of God in Heaven.

Having established these two facts, let us proceed.

The great bulk of the Bible is written to the first, dead personality. Almost all of the Old Testament and almost all of the New are addressed to the first, dead "you."

One of the massive errors of contemporary Evangelical thinking, a philosophy borrowed from the Gnostics, is that our behavior on earth in our body is not truly significant as far as our eternal salvation is concerned because we are "saved by faith alone." What Evangelicals mean by this is not actual faith in the faithfulness of God but belief in a theological position. This is pure Gnosticism.

The truth is, the new covenant is fulfilled only as we in our old, dead personality, by praying without ceasing, keep the commandments of Christ and His Apostles; not the ceremonial statutes of the Law of Moses which were a covenant with Israel, but all the laws and principles that are part of the eternal moral law of God—the law written in the conscience of human beings.

Our new position in the heavens can be established only as we do what the New Testament commands. Our old, dead personality must hoist its cross on its shoulder and follow the Master. To not do this is to partake of the dead religion of churchy "Christianity" and never become a Christian, a disciple of the Lord Jesus.

To be continued.