No man can serve two masters and no man can simultaneously live two lives. No man can at once be the slave to righteousness and the slave to sin.
A favorite verse shows us that once we have been crucified with Christ, we have died and it is no longer our life living in us. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). We now know that it is the life of Christ that lives within us by faith.
Paul begins Romans 6 by asking a question that contains its own answer. “How shall we who have died to sin live any longer in it?” (vs. 2). He further explains that whoever is baptized into Christ, is buried with Him into death; that the same glory of the Father that raised Him from the dead, would cause us to walk in the newness of life. We know that our old man was crucified with Him so that our body of sin might be done away with and our slavery to sin would be over. Paul ends his explanation with these simple words: “For he who has died has been freed from sin” (vss. 3-7).
Do not think that the cross was only some 2,000 years ago—“Christ crucified is Christ alive. … That crucifixion is a present thing. It never can be in the past.” [1] This is powerful Good News to the Christian. There is present help in present trouble!
Many, even Christians, have a real issue with the cross. The cross speaks to our human frailty and inability to do any good thing. They are offended that all the years of doing and trying to obey to please God count for nothing. “The offense of the cross is that the cross is a confession of human frailty and sin and of inability to do any good thing. To take the cross of Christ means to depend solely on Him for everything, and this is the abasement of all human pride. ... But let the cross be preached, let it be made known that in man dwells no good thing and that all must be received as a gift, and straightway someone is offended.” [2]
What is not clearly understood is that you cannot live a different life with the one you have been living. If you would like to live a different life, you must be given a different life to live. It is a gift and it is complete when it arrives.
“The Christian’s life is not a modification or improvement of the old, but a transformation of nature. There is a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit.” [3]
About those that are slaves to sin and free from righteousness: “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness” (Rom. 6:20). A slave to sin depends “on their obedience to the law of God to commend them to His favor. When they are bidden to look to Jesus, and believe that He saves them solely through His grace, they exclaim, ‘How can these things be?’” [4] “He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility.” [5] You do not belong to yourself, but were purchased by Christ at the cross. You are His workmanship, not your own!