Walking with Jesus: God’s Plan for Daily Victory

This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Abounding Victory Through Amazing Grace.

If you come to God as a prince, He will send you away as a beggar. But if you come to God as a beggar, He will send you away as a prince.

There is nothing that liberates you from a life of sin like God's grace. God's plan for you today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life is for you to be walking in victory. Not victory in some area, but victory in every area. You should know you have victory, and it should be evident to the world, too.

…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 (Romans 6:6-7, Emphasis Added).

Know What God’s Grace Accomplished

Your identity is with Christ. We have become one with the Lord Jesus Christ. When Christ died, we died with Him, and that cancels the power of sin. It also cancels self-pride.

If Jesus had simply died for your sin, that would still leave you. You are the problem. But the cross did not merely deal with your sin; it deals with you, the source of your sin.

This is simple, but it is deep. We are to know this: that our “old man” is crucified with Christ.

When a criminal dies, there is no longer a court case against him. What more is there to be done to punish him?

A slave has a master. His master tells him when to go to bed, when to get up, when to work, what to do, whom he may marry, and so forth. But when the slave dies, what power does his master have over him?

We bore the guilt of original sin. Satan was our slave-master. But the cross deals with both the penalty and the power of sin.

Why does the Bible put an emphasis upon the burial of Christ? Because it is a part of the Gospel.

Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life (Romans 6:3-4).

The Church is given two wonderful ordinances, instituted by God, called sacraments: the Lord's Supper and baptism. The Lord's Supper pictures Christ’s death for the believer. Baptism pictures our death with Him.

And the Bible says these truths are things we ought to know, to firmly believe. (See Romans 6:6.)

Trust God that He has Done What He Promised

In Romans 6:6, Paul told us that we are crucified and raised again, walking in victory with Jesus. We are told to know this fact.

Now what?

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:11, Emphasis Added).

Knowing deals with identification. Reckoning deals with appropriation. Identification is a matter of fact. The appropriation of it is a matter of faith. You heard it with your head; now get it into your heart.

The word “reckon” is a bookkeeping term. That is, you “figure.” These truths are not a matter of feelings, but a matter of fact. Reckoning is not closing your eyes and pretending. It is faith acting on what you know to be true.

When you are saved, you say, “I believe that Jesus Christ died for my sins.” You were not there when it happened. You did not see it literally with your own eyes. But you say, “It is the truth. He died for my sins—therefore I reckon, I stand on the fact, that my sin has been paid for.”

You may be thinking, “If my old self is dead, why does it seem like I can’t get rid of him? Why am I still having a struggle?”

To walk in victory, as you should, you have to know the fact and then you have to reckon on that fact.

In the original Greek of these verses, “crucified with Christ” is written in a tense that means it took place once and for all. It is never to be repeated. But “reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” is in the present tense—and that means it is something you are to do continually in your daily life. Day after day, reckon yourself dead to sin and alive unto God. Remember, over and again, that sin’s penalty does not stand against you.

If you do not believe it, you will never walk in victory.

Walk in Victory Day by Day

Here is where the rubber meets the road. This is how God's grace leads to you walking in victory. This is what a Christian life looks like.

We know, theologically, that Christians are crucified with Christ. We reckon it to be true for ourselves. Now what?

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:12-14).

You are no longer under bondage to sin.

When you trust God for salvation in Christ, Christ’s righteousness is imputed to you. But what you also need is practical righteousness—the kind that shows up in your actions in your daily life. The kind of righteousness you will demonstrate if you are walking with Jesus.

You have to know what the truth is, reckon it to be true for you, and then yield to it.

There is both a negative and a positive in the passage quoted above.

Dethrone Satan

“Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Romans 6:12). You can say to Satan, and to your sinful flesh, I do not have to obey you. No longer will these hands be your tools. Before you were saved, you could never have said that—you were legitimately enslaved to sin.

So there is the dethronement of Satan and sin. But who will rule you instead?

Submit and Walk with Jesus

“…Present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13b).

In this matter of walking in victory, it is not your ability that counts. It is not about your responsibility—it is about your response to His ability.

A Test of Spiritual Growth

You are to love Jesus. Love Him passionately! When you want to measure your spiritual health, it does not matter how often you have been in Sunday School, or how much money you give. The answer to one question is the barometer regarding your spiritual health:

Do you love Jesus?

God’s Plan for When Temptation Comes

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! (Romans 6:15).

When temptation comes, you must yield. The question is, to whom will you yield? To Satan? Or to Christ? That is the only question.

How are you going to keep your spiritual fire burning? How are you going to have this pure devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ and walk in grace?

As said above, you must love Christ passionately. But there is more:

Attune to the Holy Spirit

God loves his children—so He has not left them to navigate the Christian life alone.

Jesus is the mediator of God’s grace. The Holy Spirit is there to help you know Jesus. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus real to you. He is God’s presence with you. You walk with God Himself, day by day.

Jesus said, “He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). The Holy Spirit is the voice in you saying, Love Jesus. Follow Jesus. Be committed to the Christ of the Bible.

Absorb the Word of God

You should be seeking to master the Word of God.

That doesn’t mean “know it all.” None of us ever will know it all—we will never exhaust the depths of God. But when we say, “Master the Word of God,” we mean what Paul told Timothy:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

You ought to have a strategic grasp of the Word of God. Some people have no idea what’s in the Bible. Some who have been Christians for many years have never even read the Bible through.

Your bulwark against Satan is the Word of God, so be saturated in it.

Trust God for Deliverance from Temptation

Stop “fighting temptation.” Why fight a battle already lost when you can enjoy a victory already won? Yield to Jesus, instead. Trust God for fresh grace.

When temptation comes, say, “That old me is dead. I am no longer Satan’s slave. Christ lives in me.”

To know this truth is a matter of the head. To reckon it is a matter of the heart. To yield is a matter of the will.

List of Scriptures Referenced in This Article

Romans 6:3-15; John 16:14; 2 Timothy 2:15

More Bible Verses About the Christian Life

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him (John 14:23).