The cross remains the focal point of Christ’s victory over sin and death.

Ultimate victory over sin was wrought there.
Sin’s relentless march was halted there.
Its final downfall happened there.

Christ’s crucifixion is not a distant event that happened to someone out there in a far away place, a very long time ago and without present day repercussions for us. We tend to think of it as a distant event detached from present day reality. However, for the true follower of Christ, it is not. It’s a death with major, present day, life-transforming repercussions for we too were included in His death.

He died our death so we too died with Him because all who make a profession of faith in Christ have been united with Him in His death and resurrection – Romans 6:5
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We enter into a union with Christ the moment we profess faith in Him. Union with Christ is every believer’s default position.

This union with Christ is symbolised and affirmed in water baptism making water baptism a significant milestone in the faith journey of a believing Christian. Our union with Christ is marked externally by water baptism – an outworking and outward marker of a faith professed in Christ. Romans 10:9
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Baptism marks your commitment and firms your faith. It demonstrates the sincerity of your faith.

As a result of your union with Christ you too have undergone what Christ underwent on the cross – death by crucifixion. It is there at the cross, as Jesus was literally crucified, we too were crucified with Him, and the body of sin brought to nothing, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin (Rom 6:6). Because we are all slaves to sin – John 8:34 “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

So His death was our death and His crucifixion our crucifixion. And just as Jesus’ death was not without purpose or objective but “the death He died He died to sin once for all” (Rom 6:10), so too was our death with Him to sin. We died with Him to sin so that sin would no longer control us.

His one time death was sufficient to count for all who’d believe in Him. He did it once, but for all and on behalf of all who would put their faith and trust in Him. His death was not for a select few or an “elite” category of Christians but for all.

That act of crucifixion on the cross centuries ago was not just the crucifixion of one man but of countless multitudes in Him.

We were not neutral observers or innocent bystanders but active contributors and actual participants in it. We actively contributed to His death and were included in it too. It is very much a death we all are involved, immersed and invested in.

Because Christ died my death for me and on my behalf, it follows then that I too have died to sin. Hence the reason why I am free from sin: “For one who has died has been set free from sin.” (Rom 6:7)

That is why for those who are in Christ, sin is no longer a bondage or involuntary habit we cannot break free from but a choice. We are no longer slaves to sin or helpless to its advances and demands on us. Not any more. We have been set free from it and are in no way indebted or obligated to it. We are now under no obligation whatsoever to the flesh – aka “the body of sin” (Rom 6:6) – which has been decisively “brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” having been crucified with Christ.

“So then, brothers, we are not obligated to the flesh to live according to the flesh,” (Rom 8:12) precisely because “God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,” (Rom 8:3)

True freedom from sin (both from its power and its penalty or wages) is only secured through death with Christ – For he that is dead [to sin], is justified [freed] from sin (Rom 6:7). In Galatians 5:24 the Apostle Paul categorically states that, “those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

These are not truths that are yet to happen at some point in the future but have already taken place and are done deals simply not open for debate or negotiation – they are real facts. These are deep truths you cannot afford to allow the enemy to mess with.

Christ’s accomplishments on the cross are irreversible and non–negotiable. They are not open for debate. We are called to rest in them. Not strive to achieve them.

Only those who wholeheartedly embrace their death with Him experience His victory over sin. When we don’t embrace this truth and walk in the freedom Christ wrought on the cross, we undermine what He died to achieve.

Christ defeated death and sin on the cross.

As real as Christ’s crucifixion was on the cross, so was yours.

Jesus’ victory on the cross is very much your victory too so you don’t have to live in defeat any more but in victory over sin and, over death too.

Christ suffered and died on the cross so that we would no longer continue living in sin.

You cannot be in Christ and not have died with Him on that cross. You are in denial if you think so. And your denial can be very costly – victory over sin in your life.

Accept and learn to live with your death with Christ.
Embrace, celebrate and rejoice in your death with Christ.
Memorialise, meditate on and declare your death with Christ.

The cross is the focal point of our victory over sin and death too – and the reason why we remain focused and centred on it even as we move on.

It was my cross You bore
So I could live in the freedom You died for…

Worthy (Elevation Worship)