In The Word
Read: Romans 6:1-14
Believers Are Dead to Sin, Alive to God
6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for the one who has died is freed from sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under the Law but under grace.
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Walking In The Word
Death equals life. To the natural ear, that statement sounds paradoxical. Death should equal the end of life. This is why so many people live for themselves and indulge in the pleasures of this world. For the natural mind, this life is all they have. But Paul was not writing to the natural mind, he was communicating spiritual things to spiritual people (1 Corinthians 2:13). He was not addressing the natural, but rather the supernatural.
Yet even in the realm of spiritual people, the temptation of the flesh exists, and it is this very thing that the apostle is challenging. Some believers were trying to live in both the natural world and the spiritual world. Paul declared that this should never be. If you are joined with Jesus Christ in life, you are also joined with Him in His death.
When we surrender our lives to the mastery of Jesus, we accept our death to natural desires. We commit to this death daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). If we die daily, we become alive in Christ. All shame, guilt, fear, and sin that restricted us is now powerless to hold us back.
It is this daily death to our flesh that makes us a mighty weapon of righteousness in the hand of God. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” In essence, we become dead men and women walking in the life of Christ Jesus. We are free to live the abundant life that God has for us. Dearly beloved, your daily death will equal your eternal life!