If we died with Christ, we know that we will also live with him. Christ was raised from death. And we know that he cannot die again. Death has no power over him now. Yes, when Christ died, he died to defeat the power of sin one time—enough for all time. He now has a new life, and his new life is with God.
In the same way, you should see yourselves as being dead to the power of sin and alive for God through Christ Jesus.
But don’t let sin control your life here on earth. You must not be ruled by the things your sinful self makes you want to do. Don’t offer the parts of your body to serve sin. Don’t use your bodies to do evil, but offer yourselves to God, as people who have died and now live.
Offer the parts of your body to God to be used for doing good. Sin will not be your master, because you are not under law. You now live under God’s grace. (Romans 6:8-14 ERV)
Some habits are hard to break. Developing good habits can also be hard. Why? Because we all have a selfish nature, which is stubborn and resistant to denying it.
It doesn't matter what the habit is—cussing, eating junk food, smoking, or biting your nails. Even when you know it would be good to stop, it's just not that easy to get our selfishness to step aside. Developing a good habit, like exercise, eating healthy, or reading the Bible, is also a challenge. Again, because it's hard to give up our selfish ways.
So what can we do? We need to make an exchange. We need a new unselfish nature. Here's some good news. When we give our life to Jesus (that's the exchange—His life for ours) we get a new nature through spiritual rebirth. We get a new life.
But that's only half the battle. We still have our own self-will. We still need to surrender our will to Jesus...often.
Here's more good news. We now have God's grace, His goodness and kindness, to enable and empower us to offer ourself, our will, to Jesus. This brings real freedom.
So, who's your Master? ©Word-Strong_2015