Posts Tagged ‘glory of the father’


Under Gods Command

 Dead to sin, Alive in Christ

Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer.  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 through 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.

  (5-7) If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be unite with him in his resurrection.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

 The power and penalty of sin died with Christ on the cross.  Our “old self,” our sinful nature, died once and for all, so we are freed from its power.  The “body of sin” is not the human body, but our rebellious sin-loving nature inherited from Adam.  Though our body willingly cooperates with our sinful nature, we must not regard the body as evil.  It is the sin in us that is evil.  And it is this power of sin at work in our body that is defeated.  Paul has already stated that through faith in Christ we stand acquitted, “not guilty” before God.

Lets Bring it Home:  Here Paul emphasizes that we need no longer live under sin’s power.  God does not take us out of the world or make us robots-we will still feel like sinning, and sometimes we will sin.  The difference is that before we were saved we were slaves to our sinful nature, but now we can choose to live for Christ (Galatians 2:20)

 


Under Gods Command

Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer.  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 through 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. 

In the church of Paul’s day, immersion was the usual form of baptism-that is, new Christians were completely “buried” in water.  They understood this form of baptism to symbolize the death and burial of the old way of life.  Coming up out of the water-symbolized resurrection to new life with Christ.

Lets Bring it Home:  If we think of our old, sinful life as dead and buried, we have a powerful motive to resist sin.  We can consciously choose to treat the desires and temptations of the old nature as if they were dead.  Then we can continue to enjoy our wonderful new life with Jesus.