"The Great What If"

"God is gone up with a shout, the LORD with the sound of a trumpet." (Psalms 47:5) We can kick ourselves forever over the things we should have done, or especially over the things we did, but that will solve nothing. If God is King, and if we are truly His and part of His kingdom, then don't you think He knows where you have been and what you have been doing? He knew your travels before you have ever traveled them. That is the beauty of the victory that has been won in Christ, He has delivered all things unto Himself, and He has brought all things under His feet (Ephesians 1:18-23). If we could only spend more time praising Him for His victory, and less time kicking ourselves over our defeats, then maybe we might actually get some things done. This little verse might seem out of place, yet it speaks of Jesus and His being risen up to heaven; it can only speak of Jesus, because He came down from heaven to die upon the cross, and ascended up to heaven when He was done. As I was studying Romans 6 yesterday, I was captivated by something that has to do with the "fullness" of God's grace. God's grace is not just that He has made us justified in Christ, He has done far more than just that, He has also made us victorious in Christ; we have been made dead to sin, which means that we are alive unto to God through Jesus Christ (Romans 6:11). In other words, we don't need to crucify the old man, because the old man has already been crucified in Christ; when He died upon the cross our old nature died with Him. Which is kind of interesting, considering how Adam's disobedience made us all sinners, and when we sinned, we sinned in Adam; in other words, we were alive unto sin because of Adams sin, and because we were of Adam. Therefore, if we have reckoned that old man to have been crucified with Christ, then the new man that has been raised up in Christ is no longer in Adam, but is now in Christ and has been set free from sin. Maybe it's just me, but doesn't that seem like it is part of God's grace? He has not taken away our choice, but He has given us the victory in Christ Jesus; but just as with our free gift of salvation, there is a choice: do we live out that victory or not?
"Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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 domination over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:11-14)