We have mentioned that the blowing of trumpets heralds the Jewish New Year celebration. The trumpet of the Lord that is sounding today in the spirit realm is announcing triumphantly that a new year is at hand, the Year of Jubilee, the era of the Kingdom of God.

Now is the time for deliverance from the oppressor and a returning to what has been lost. Christ on the cross destroyed every scrap of Satan's legal rights to us and to the remainder of the creation. The mortgage has been paid to the penny. Jesus holds the title to the creation and has the keys of Hell and of death. It remains for the Church to take possession. The eviction papers are in legal order. The old landlord and the old tenants must be thrown out by force.

There may be those who will question our position that overcoming sin is a process wrought over a period of time in the Christian believer and with his cooperation.

They will maintain that the sin question was settled once for all time on the cross, and that if the believer takes a proper attitude toward the finished work of Calvary, sin as a result will no longer be a force in his life. Or if it is a force, God no longer sees or regards it.

There is truth in this doctrine. Christ on the cross did conquer Satan (Colossians 2:15) and our old man (first personality) was and is crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6). Clearly, this is scriptural.

Continuing along the same line we would caution against the believer's wrestling with the sin in his personality. It is impossible for us by our own will power, even our will power in prayer, to master the sinful tendencies that we observe in our behavior.

It is godly to use self-control in all things as much as we are able and to resist our fleshly lusts and appetites. If we do not we never can make a success of the Christian discipleship.

However, struggling against sin may result in the resurrection of our old nature rather than its death. The cross and the resurrection of Christ are God's remedy for our sinful, self-centered nature. We reckon (count) that we are crucified and resurrected with Christ, and by faith we are to rest securely in this established fact.

There are two realities that cause us to believe reckoning ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6:11) is not the entire answer to the fact of sin in the acts, words, and thoughts of the believer in Christ.

First, we Christians who believe wholeheartedly in Romans 6:11 still find ourselves committing sins, and God is concerned about sin and judges it whether practiced by believer or nonbeliever (Romans 8:13).

Second, there is Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments to indicate that the overcoming of the enemy, of sin, is a continuous process in the life of the saint (Deuteronomy 7:22; Romans 8:13; I Corinthians 15:25; II Corinthians 7:1; 10:5; Galatians 5:16,17; Ephesians 4:22-32; and many more). To be continued.