Our death with Christ
Orientation
Many believers assume sanctification and fruitfulness come from trying harder to keep God's commands, leading to frustration and bondage.
- The Law's demands and its power to condemn are finished for those in Christ.
- You are no longer tethered to a covenant of performance.
- Returning to self-effort produces only futility and spiritual death.
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
— Romans 7:4
Clarification
Sanctification is not a process of incremental self-improvement but the reality of Christ living in you as your life.
- Fruitfulness is the outflow of Christ Himself, not the result of striving to keep commandments.
- The 'law of sin and death' is overcome by the higher 'Law of the Spirit of life,' not by your willpower.
- The believer's body is dead because of sin, yet the indwelling Spirit gives life because of righteousness.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
— Romans 8:2
Structure
God's logic for the Christian life is union with Christ's death and resurrection, empowered by the indwelling Spirit.
- Cause: Christ died for us and we died with Him. Effect: We died to sin and the Law.
- Cause: Being joined to the risen Christ. Effect: We bear fruit unto God.
- Cause: The Spirit dwelling in believers. Effect: He gives life to the body and will quicken our mortal bodies.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
— Galatians 2:20
Weight-Bearing Prose
The core assertion is that believers experience sanctification not through law-keeping but through union with Christ’s death and resurrection, empowered by the indwelling Spirit. This is a definitive, positional reality, not a progressive self-earned maturity. The Pauline categories are clear: we died to the Law by the body of Christ to be joined to another—the risen Christ—so we might bear fruit to God (Rom 7:4). This fruit is produced by Christ living in us as life, not by commandment-keeping. The operative principle is the ‘Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,’ which sets us free from the ‘law of sin and death’ (Rom 8:2). The body remains dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness, and the same Spirit that raised Jesus will quicken our mortal bodies (Rom 8:10-11). The practical experience hinges on the mind: the carnal mind, focused on flesh and performance, is enmity against God and leads to death. The spiritual mind, agreeing with the Spirit’s testimony concerning Christ’s work, leads to life and peace (Rom 8:5-7). This is the structure of grace, excluding human effort as the means of growth.
Integration
This truth is your anchor. You have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with your spirit that you are a child of God (Rom 8:15-16). Your assurance and your growth are both grounded in what Christ has done and the life He is in you. There is no pressure to advance or perform to secure this standing. It is finished. Your part is to rest in this union, to agree with the Spirit’s testimony. Christ is your sanctification. He is your life. Any fruit that appears is His life flowing through the branch. Let this settle you. The work is His, the life is His, the witness is His. You are a child, secure in the Father’s love, joined irrevocably to the Son, and indwelt by the Spirit of life. This is your permanent state, your landing place of peace.