Tag: dead to sin
Count yourself alive to God!
Scripture reading for May 31st: 1st Kings 1, 1st Chronicles 26-28, Romans 6
Romans 6:11-14 “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.”
The Old Testament Law stirred up the passions of the flesh and man’s sin nature rebelled and disobeyed. Jesus Christ fully obeyed the Law and took the penalty of death on our behalf for our law-breaking. Now that we have trusted Christ and come under the new covenant of grace through His shed blood, we count ourselves alive to God and dead to sin and its passions. A dead person cannot be influenced to sin because their passions are also dead. Since we are dead to sin and now are alive eternally in Christ, we also must daily present our bodies to God for Him to use as instruments for righteousness. Sin no longer has dominion over us for we live by God’s grace daily in thanksgiving.
1st Kings 1:5 “Now Adonijah the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, “I will be king.” And he prepared for himself chariots and horsemen, and fifty men to run before him.”
Prayer: Father God, thank You for the gift of grace and righteousness through Your Son, Jesus Christ. He took my sin and its penalty and I died with Him. I was buried with Him and rose again to the newness of life eternal as He rose from the dead. I present my body to God to be used for His glory and to share His grace to build each person who repents into a habitation of God through His Spirit.
1st Chronicles 28:9-10 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”
Dead to sin, alive to God!
Scripture reading for February 16th: Romans 6
Key Scriptures: Romans 6:11-14 “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Paul was explaining the reality behind the sacrament of water baptism. In water baptism, the one being baptized is plunged under the water identifying with Jesus’ death and burial. The old carnal man has died with Jesus on the cross and was buried with Jesus. But as Jesus Christ did not stay in the grave, but was resurrected on the third day, so the baptismal candidate comes up out of the water a new man, out of death’s reach and freed from the grip of sin. Grace abounds through repentance and submission to Jesus Christ. But we still have a responsibility to choose daily to offer our bodies and its members to Christ as redeemed from death and alive in Him. Sin now has no dominion over us as a slave-master. We are dead to sin and no longer under law either. Grace is our new master through faith in Jesus!
Faith confession and prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You that you have told me to declare my old man as dead and buried. I was baptized in obedience and trust in my resurrection to a new life and eternal life with You. Help me each day to count my members dead to sin and alive to You for worship and service.
Jeremiah 31:33-34 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sins I will remember no more.”
Godly counting!
Scripture reading for July 20th: Romans 6:1-23
One of the questions that Paul knew would be asked concerned continuing in sin after salvation. The human mind is always looking for ways to justify rebellion and sin. These Romans were reasoning that since God’s grace was available without cost, why not allow God to show more of His grace by sinning? Paul put a quick end to that kind of thinking! “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.” (Romans 6:2-4) People who have died no longer sin! We died with Christ and were raised with Him to a new life. This is acted out through our baptism.
Christ’s death delivered Him from the possibility of sin, once for all time. His resurrection was in the newness of eternal life, lived totally for God. These facts should motivate each believer in Jesus to do some counting for themselves. (Romans 6:11) They should count themselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Sin should be done away with. One of the ways to do this is to quit offering parts of your body to sin. Remember to offer all your body and its parts to God to use for righteous purposes. We can do this because of God’s grace. We are no longer under the law. We have been freed from condemnation through Jesus’ death!
So back to the question: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey–whether you are slaves to sin, which lead to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Romans 6:15-16) We choose who we will obey and sell out. If we obey sin, we reap the wages of death. If we obey Christ, we obtain through grace the free gift of eternal life! (Romans 6:23) It’s a pretty simple choice that should not take a genius to make! Why not do some godly counting today!