In yesterday's study we talked about how, once we come to Christ, we who were once dead in sins are now dead to sin. Or, as the Apostle Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:19-20)
The apostle begins today's passage by asking, "Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him in baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life." (Romans 6:3-4) In Christ we have a "do over". In Christ we get a fresh start. No, we can't go back and change the past, but we can be changed from the inside out so that our future is something far better than our past.
The baptism Paul speaks of is generally understood to be total immersion since he compares it to being buried. When we accept Christ we die to our old way of living. When we are baptized in His name we are, symbolically, being buried. Coming up out of the water is likened to Christ coming out of the tomb. These actions illustrate what has happened in our souls: we have died to our old life and we have been raised to new life. "For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we will certainly also be united with Him in a resurrection like His. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin---because anyone who has died has been set free from sin." (Romans 6:5-7)
Christ died and rose from the dead, never to die again. In the same way, when we come to Christ we rise from the deadness of our sins never to die (spiritually) again. "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over Him. The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God." (Romans 6:8-10) Christ died to sin---not His own sin, but ours. Now that He has been raised to life again He lives to the glory of God. Likewise we who belong to Him have died to sin and now live for His glory.
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to Him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace." (Romans 6:11-14) We are to give every part of our lives to Christ. By holding nothing back, we are far less prone to falling into sin. But when we do make a mistake, we have the comfort of being under grace and not under law. The law says the lawbreaker must die. But grace says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)
No comments:
Post a Comment