It is not enough to know our identity in Christ and consider it to be true. We must present ourselves to God as those alive from the dead. In light of these truths, we must ask ourselves, “Does our behavior match our beliefs? Do these truths make a difference in our lives? Is there a gap between what we know and how we act?”

We may know these powerful truths, but if we do not act upon them, then we will not experience the freedom that is our birthright as a child of God. The Apostle Paul declared that we are no longer under the dominion of sin:

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace. (Romans 6:14)

Since we are no longer under the Law, this does not give us a license to sin. We must realize that the purpose of grace is to keep us from sin:

What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it! (Romans 6:15)

Before Christ came into our lives, we were slaves to sin – now we have a choice. We can either follow our former way of living, or we can follow Christ. Which one are you following?

Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? (Romans 6:16)

Our new master is Christ and we can either choose to obey Christ or we can choose to obey our old master (our sinful desires). Notice the verb tense in the following verse:

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, (Romans 6:17)

Paul declared that we were slaves to sin, past tense; but, sin is no longer our true master. We are to be obedient from the heart to the teaching of Jesus. When we realize that we’ve been freed from sin, our new, true position is a slave to righteousness:

and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:18)

Oswald Chambers indicated that the proof of our surrender to God was demonstrated through our obedience, “Obey the Spirit of God and the word of God, and it will be as clear as a sunbeam what you have to do; it is an attitude of will towards God, an absolute abandon, a glad sacrifice of the soul in unconditional surrender.” Jesus pointed out the necessity of engaging our will:

If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God, or I am speaking from Myself. (John 7:17)

We must realize that spiritual understanding is not empowered through our intellect, but from our obedience. As we respond in obedience to the light we’ve been given, then God gives us more light. God provides the indwelling Holy Spirit to His children – our responsibility is to respond in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t force our obedience. He prefaces His invitation to follow Him with the word if. We must realize that the cost of obedience is small compared to the cost of disobedience.