"What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?" Romans 7:24.

Many a discouraged man, with the mire of defeat sucking him downward, has uttered this cry.  What is the trouble?

Our spiritual crisis at conversion brings us face to face with our sins.  Being very conscious of our wrong deeds, we eagerly receive the good news that "Christ died for our sins."

How wonderful it is to realize that the blood of Jesus is seen by the Father and our deeds are forgiven, Exodus 12:13!  Thus, we are happily launched upon our spiritual journey.

Then, crash!  Sooner or later we find ourselves unable to stop sinning.  Slowly but surely the truth is stabbed home.  There is a root problem which needs dealing with.  The big trouble is not our SINS but our SIN.  It is what we are, not what we do that is the basic issue.

To be forgiven is one thing, but to be delivered is quite another.  Now, I am sure that God's wish is that each one who hears this word will turn his own discouragement into a cause for deep and prolonged reflection on this message.  GOD OFFERS YOU DELIVERANCE IN JESUS CHRIST.

Meditate for a time upon the text:  "we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died."  2 Corinthians 5:14.  Notice the two halves of this great truth.  "One (Jesus) died for all (us sinners)."  That is simple and clear, but see the last part!  "All died."  Did you know that if you are a Christian, you have in a very real sense already died?  As truly as Jesus died for you, as your Representative, so you died in Him?  Your death happened by proxy; that is by representation.

The point is that God accepts Jesus in your place.  Our text is saying that if this arrangement holds true, then you have, in effect, died.  God counts it so.

This arrangement of having a representative stand in the behalf of others is common.  For example, an ambassador might sign a document for his countrymen.  Thus, paralleling 2 Corinthians 5:14, "that one signed (or died) for all, and therefore all signed (or died)."

Again, if a father loses his estate, the children lose it in him.  So, our father Adam sinned and we all lost paradise.  We all sinned and fell in him, Romans 5:12.

Jesus then came to be the "last Adam", I Corinthians 15:45.  As such He ended the old sinful order of mankind by standing as our Substitute and facing execution on our behalf.  We, as sinners, died in Him.

Furthermore, as Jesus arose from the dead, He stood as the "second man," I Corinthians 15:47.  This means He began a second of New Creation.

When we believe in Christ, God simply counts us in Christ. We are included in the new order of things.  Our relation to the old, sinful and condemned order is cancelled.  Study carefully 2 Corinthians 5:17 in this light.

Now, what a revelation to discover that God has been counting it this way all along!  Yet some of His very own children seem to wallow in despair over repeated failure.

"I seem to be very much alive to the Old and so very dead to the New," they groan.  We taste bitter failure, yet all the while God is talking of sweet release.

The answer to this seeming contradiction is not awfully complicated, but it demands a lot of earnest prayer and study of God's Word.  Read over again the Scriptures already mentioned.  Then:

1. Believe the FACT that God has included you in Christ's death.  He counts the old you dead.  Study Romans 6:6, Colossians 3:3, I Corinthians 1:30.
2. Now, you, yourself must take God's point of view in this for your daily life.  "Reckon," count it so, Romans 6:11.  Day by day I must lay hold of this truth afresh and yield to God on this basis.  See verse 13.
3. The final delivering truth which keeps all this from ever becoming mechanical is found in Romans, chapter 8. It concerns the Holy Spirit.  That "something new" for which we are longing is really, after all, some One.  To be filled with the Spirit is to be quickened in general 8:11 and to be enabled specifically to put down the troubling sinful deeds, 13.  (See also Colossians 3:5.)

Nor, is there any anxious struggling demanded in order to know this infilling of the Spirit of God.  I Corinthians 12:13 puts it plainly enough, "For by one Spirit are we ALL baptized into one body."  The complete giving of the Spirit baptism is already there for every Christian.

Will you believe this?  Get before your mind the view of Jesus presented in Acts 2:32, 33.  As surely as Jesus is at the Father's right hand, so surely has the Holy Spirit been given to us on earth.

We are baptized, all of us, once and for all.  But we must daily claim and re-claim the blessing of the Spirit's infilling.  To use a figure, God has given us thirsting men a new reservoir of water -- enough to last forever -- but we must regularly go to the one outlet to drink.  The overall gift of the reservoir may be likened to our baptism.  The day by day drinking is our experience of the Spirit's filling.

The one outlets, or place where we may be filled by the Spirit of God, is the Lord Jesus Christ.  Meditate on John 7:37-39.  As surely as Jesus is in glory, the Holy Spirit is ours for the asking, in all His fullness.

Friend, don't just fight your sin, lay hold of these truths and "the truth shall make you free!"  John 8:32.  There's a new day just ahead.