The Christian life does not begin with your striving, nor does it continue by your effort. The gospel is not a call to self-improvement or a demand for better performance. It is the declaration that, in Christ, something decisive has already happened to you: you were crucified with Him. This union with Christ in His death and resurrection is not a theological abstraction—it is the very foundation of your freedom, sanctification, and sonship.
The Old Man Executed, Sin’s Dominion Broken
Scripture is unambiguous: your “old man”—the entirety of who you were in Adam, enslaved to sin—was crucified with Christ. This is not a metaphor, nor is it a future hope. It is a finished fact.
“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6)
God did not leave you to wrestle endlessly with the old nature. He destroyed its power at the cross. The result is not partial relief, but total liberation: you are no longer a servant of sin. The body of sin has been rendered powerless. This is not the fruit of your discipline, but the outcome of Christ’s death applied to you.
Dead to the Law—Free from Condemnation and Debt
But the cross did more than end sin’s reign. It also ended the Law’s demands upon you. The Law, with its relentless requirements and condemnation, has no claim on a man who has died. In Christ, you died to the Law itself.
“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.” (Galatians 2:19)
This is not a minor doctrinal point. If you imagine that God still holds you to the Law’s standard, you will inevitably live under a cloud of condemnation, fear, and a perpetual sense of debt. But the gospel insists: there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. The Law’s demands have been rolled off you, because you died in Christ. To return to the Law as a rule of life is to deny the very death that freed you. It is to forfeit the liberty of sonship and to embrace bondage once again.
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” (Romans 8:1-3)
Life by the Spirit: The Only Way Forward
The Christian life is not a matter of willpower or self-reformation. It is a matter of reckoning yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ. The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now indwells you—not to help you keep the Law, but to impart resurrection life.
“But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11)
This is not a call to self-effort. To live “after the flesh”—to attempt to fulfill God’s demands by your own strength—results only in death and futility. But to mortify the deeds of the body through the Spirit is to experience true life. The Spirit does not bring you into bondage or fear; He brings you into the liberty of adoption, where you cry, “Abba, Father,” as a beloved child.
“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:12-15)
What Is Lost If You Miss This
If you set aside this truth—if you imagine that sanctification is achieved by your effort, or that the Law still stands over you as judge—you lose everything that Christ’s death secured. You forfeit the freedom from condemnation, the liberty from bondage, and the assurance of sonship. You trade the Spirit of adoption for a spirit of fear and debt. This is not a secondary matter; it is the difference between living as a slave and living as an heir. To return to Law or flesh is to deny the finished work and to place yourself back under what Christ has already ended.
The Only Formula: Christ, Not You
This is the “formula” of the Christian life: as you received Christ—by faith in His death and resurrection—so you walk in Him. Sanctification is not a process of self-improvement, but of ongoing renewal as you agree with God about what He has accomplished in His Son. The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free. Stand in that liberty. Refuse to return to the yoke of bondage. Reckon yourself dead to sin and the Law, and alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
