“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. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:6-7,12-14). One of the hard lessons that we have to learn in this life is that we are almost never in control. We can plan and prepare and stress and worry but the harder we try to keep all the balls in the air that we are juggling, the quicker they will slip through our fingers. But once we have finally come to terms with how little we control in our life, it is that much easier to hand control over to Christ. And once we finally decide to put Christ in charge, the biggest question we'll be asking ourselves is why didn't we do it sooner? He's so much better at it than we are. As long as we try to hold onto our sins, we are trapped under the strictures of the laws of this corrupt and fallen world. Letting sin have dominion over us just means that there is no control at all, only chaos. But if we give up our lives and die in Christ and surrender any illusion that we are in control, then we escape from under the law, with all of its finitude and limitations and the impossibility of peace and tranquility, and instead we are subject to Grace. We are still not in control under Christ's dominion, but at least someone is in control, and He, unlike us a lot of the time, is always committed to doing what's best for us. Compared to the reality of Christ's love for us, our soap bubble egos and the feeling that we have or ought to have control over the consequences of our voices are insubstantial illusions and nothing more, like little wisps of mist and fog that boil immediately away with the intensity of the full noonday sun. Therefore, that feeling of being trapped or confined by our weaknesses and flaws, our vices and addictions, our lusts and our fears and our short tempers, is just as imaginary and non-binding as our sense of control. Whatever punishments the law might heap upon our heads for the mistakes that we have made, we only have to declare ourselves legally dead to the laws of this world and seek asylum in the Kingdom of God and subject ourselves to the Grace of our Savior Jesus Christ. The Prince of this World has no jurisdiction in the Kingdom of Heaven. The laws and the limitations of this world do not apply in the Court of Grace. As long as we abide by the covenants and laws set forth in God's Kingdom and can claim citizenship therein by virtue of our compliance, then we owe no duties, debts, or obligations to this world. I hope that none of us will delay in applying and qualifying for citizenship under Christ's dominion and do everything we can to embrace the freedom that He offers us, rather than clinging to our citizenship under the laws of this world, where we are free to choose whatever we want, so long as what we want is to be and remain miserable forever.
