Keep The Change

Knowing  this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Romans 6: 6-10 NKJV

It was January 31st, 1865 and it was one of the most important pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States congress.  For on that day, congress passed the 13th amendment which outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude in these United States.  Our nation had nearly been torn apart by civil war on the way to this historic  moment.  From April 12th 1861 through May 9th, 1865, the American countryside would be soaked in blood as families fought against one another in the brutal conflict that would ultimately decide the future of our nation.  Slavery turned out to be the hot button issue which had ignited a nation  into war.  Like it or not, a good portion of this nation was built by slave labor.  Although these events occured well before I was born, I was also once a slave.  Depending on our relationship with Christ Jesus, many of us remain slaves even today.  For as the apostle Paul tells us in Romans 6, our old man, our former self, is no more.  For that body of sin which once inhabited us was put away by the death of Jesus.  As Paul tells us, this was accomplished so we "Should no longer be slaves of sin."  A  short definition of the word slave reads, "A person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them."  This, christian, was that old man that Christ put away by His death.

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of  the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (By grace you have been saved)
Ephesians 2: 1-5 NKJV

Now, it is also in Ephesians 2 where Paul shows us exactly where we WERE before Christ intervened.  Truly, we were slaves to sin.  Following our own desires and not those of our Lord.  Yet, the important thought to remember here is that this was how we were, this was our "Old man."  It was he who Christ put away through His death on that cross.  As we accept the Lord Jesus, it is this old man who no longer defines us.
One piece of advice that I've heard from many a pulpit pounder when I've faced troubles in my own life is "You need to change!"  Now, this statement may hold a bit of truth to it if I was indeed engaging in inappropriate behavior.  However, for a pastor to blindly suggest that one needs to "Change" may be a piece of bad advice.  For when Jesus put away that old man, that change within us was made!  What else is there for us to change?  Christ, through His death, has freed us from that sin to which we were once enslaved.  Christ has thus completed the needed change in our lives.  That person who we are now in Jesus has been redeemed through the mercy and love of our Lord.  Of course, others may still tell us that we need to change.  To them we may say, "Keep your change!"

~Scott~