This positional victory over sin through grace is perfect. In Christ, God has taken the believer beyond the necessity of sin’s lordship. In Christ, sin’s power is broken, and its claim is canceled. Several times in Romans 6 God declares the believer’s perfect freedom from the power of sin.

Romans 6:18, 22

 “And being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. Now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life.”

Romans 6:14

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under law, but under grace.”

If they teach anything, these words tell us that the believer in Christ need not sin and that sin has no rightful claim upon him. Let us get this thing straight and have no confusion in our minds about it. God nowhere says that we are not able to sin, but He clearly says that we are able not to sin. In other verses in Romans 6, God states explicitly that sin still has power over the believer because the believer permits it. In other words, the believer sins because he wants to, because he yields to the allurements, the charms, the call of sin, or because he does not claim his privileges in Christ.

Just here, I can almost hear the murmur of doubt in the heart of some reader as he says, “Is such victory possible?” Most of us have an inadequate conception of the meaning of the cross and the power of Christ. We imagine Him able only to carry us safely over the borderline of the new sphere of life and unlock the door into heaven but utterly impotent to keep us victorious and Christlike amid the temptations of a sinful world. We are so ready to believe in the strength of the devil and so unwilling to believe that we are indeed spiritual multimillionaires, “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” But such you and I are, even while living as spiritual paupers. But “He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think,” and will prove that He is so able if we but give Him the chance.

Perhaps some reader, if we were talking together personally, would ask me the questions that have been asked many times. Can this truth of complete and continuous victory over sin be brought from heaven to earth? Can it be brought out of the realm of the doctrinal into the realm of the experiential? Would it really work if it were applied to my temper, jealousy, worry, pride, resentment, and hatred? In my daily walk in a world reeking of sin and placing temptation before me at every step, can I be kept unspotted and unsullied? Can the relationship “dead to sin” be actualized in my spiritual experience here and now?

My answer to you would be, “Test the power of Jesus Christ’s victory over sin on your besetting sin and give Him a fair chance to prove to you that He can save to the uttermost, even to make you dead to that sin. Take the sin that is dragging you down into the very depths of despair and let Him, who is your sanctification, make you dead to it.”

A missionary came once for a talk. Her face was the picture of despair. By her own confession, hers was a joyless, peaceless, powerless life. She found no joy in Bible study, no reality in prayer, and she had no love for souls. She had dreaded having me come to that school to lead a series of evangelistic meetings because she thought she would be expected to do personal work among the girls, and she was utterly devoid of both desire and power for such a task. Her body, as well as her spirit, was ill, and she had already told her Chinese co-workers and her fellow missionaries that because of ill health, she did not intend to return to China after her furlough. We talked together about the life of victory in Christ, but she repeated repeatedly that while she believed it was for others, she knew it was not for her. She knew intellectually the Bible’s truth about victory over sin and was familiar with every Bible verse I quoted. She had read many books on victory in Christ and could have told any person who came to her seeking help the way to victory. But she was living in utter defeat and abject discouragement. Deep down in her heart was a hurt. There it had been for four years, eating away at her spiritual vitals like a cancer. To that hurt, she was wholly “alive.” We talked for hours, but she left me as she came—in despair. However, a deep, quiet assurance of complete victory for her came into my heart. I knew that victory in Christ was God’s will for her, for He had said so in His Word, so I confidently claimed His promise in 1 John 5:14-15 and thanked God for the answer to the prayer as I fell asleep.

1 John 5:14-15

¹⁴ And this is the confidence that we have in Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. ¹⁵ And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.

Before breakfast, there was a tap on the door. What a gloriously radiant face greeted my eyes as I opened it, and she exclaimed: “Oh! it’s gone, and I know it will never come back again!” What gone? The hurt. How? The Lord Jesus Christ, her Victor, had presenced Himself in the spot where the hurt was and had made her dead to it. Since that time, seven years ago, God has used that missionary to help many others who were defeated have joy and peace of victory over sin.

Sanctification is separation from sin, and Christ is the Separator, and He sanctifies by indwelling, possessing, and controlling. Victory is not a mere blessing, doctrine, or experience, but it is a Person. To have Him acknowledged as sole Proprietor of the whole being and allowed to act as such is to be assured of victory over sin. To have Him crowned as Lord and in control is to have victory already. This throws light on what real victory is and what it is not. Some of us may not have victory because we are altogether too superficial in our thinking. We trifle with this crucial thing. We think we shall obtain victory by reading literature on the subject or hearing messages at a conference or an interview with some Christian leader. Yet, at the same time, all the time, we are unwilling to face God alone so that He may show us both what sin is and what victory is.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Dear Lord, we hang our heads in shame. You have done everything for us and are everything to us, so we have no excuse for continuing to sin.