The Lord began to show me some things recently.
He directed me to Romans 6.
He knew that I had ‘gotten’ some of this before, but He also knew that I needed more clarity.
Let me try to communicate it here with you. I’m going to try writing it in a conversation style as sometimes it helps to take the overtly “doctrinal” edge off.
I would love any feedback or interaction.
(St. Paul’s words are in red, and my commentary will be in black.)
What shall we say then?
Are we to continue in the sin so that grace may increase? May it never be!
Sorry I’m late. Sounds like your in the middle of some pretty deep stuff here. I think I know what you are saying though. Just because God is gracious enough to cover our selfish actions, failures, mistakes and rebellions doesn’t mean that we should possess an attitude which presumes that we may still behave in those same old patterns.
As you say, “May it never be!”.
But honestly, Paul, while I agree with you, I must admit that I struggle with this quite a bit. I feel like I don’t really “get it”, ya know, like…I feel like I’m missing something…..
Would you mind….
How shall we who died to the sin still live in it?
What!?
What do you mean, Paul, that we have died to the sin?!
The message that I heard was that it was Jesus who died to pay the price for my sins and that all that I needed to do was to believe that, turn from those things that I knew to be wrong and then commit my life to Him…and then, it was also important to get baptized after that too…
(I wonder what “the sin” thing is all about anyway…)
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
No, I did not really know that before, Paul.
The minister who baptized me said something about dying to self and being raised in new life, but I really had no idea what he was talking about.
Like I said, I thought he just meant that now, since I had already ”been saved” that I needed to simply turn from all of the things that I knew to be wrong. What you are saying though is that, somehow, by being submerged into the water, that I should also recognize my own submergence into the very death of Christ Jesus (?)
Hm. That’s different.
We “have been baptized into His death”…
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into the death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
So, you mean that since we were united through baptism with Jesus into His death that we should also, like Jesus, walk in new life?
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,
Yes, that says it even better.
So what you are saying, Paul, is that there is much more to Christianity than the cross of Christ….much more than just believing that he died for our sins…
You are saying that there is a certain ”newness” of life that we are called to walk in now and even a resurrection which we may look forward to as well.
I think I get it but would you mind breaking it down for me. I’m a bit slow sometimes.
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that the body of the sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to the sin;
Okay, so there is something that we should have known that wasn’t really clear to many of us.
“…our old self was crucified with Him…”
Whatever it is that is our ‘old self’, it was crucified when Jesus was crucified, and this was done in order to do away with the body, the whole matter,of the sin so that we would no longer be slaves to the sin.
So the whole point of Jesus’ crucifixion was to do away with our old self therefore freeing us from the dominion of the sin.
So you are saying, essentially, that the death of Jesus works to set us free.
for he who has died is freed from the sin.
Yes!! Free from ‘the sin’!!
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
I see. If we were united with Him in His death, then we are also united with Him in His Life!!
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
Okay, so there is something else that I need to know;
Since Christ has risen from the dead, He will never die again. Death has no mastery over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
So, having died to sin once for all, he now lives His life to God…
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Whooooaaa. Wait a minute…..
So…, since Christ died (once for all) and now lives His life to God, we should likewise consider ourselves to have died with Christ, and alive unto God as well.
Those who have been baptized into His death are resurrected with His life.
So far then, by Christ…
WE ARE DEAD TO SIN AND ARE ALIVE UNTO GOD!!!
Now that the issue of new life is established…what’s next?
Therefore do not let the sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
Okay, let’s take this one slow.
Therefore…….
…since we are alive unto God, as we have just established, there is a matter of reign within our mortal bodies which needs to be both understood and established.
We begin with what should not have authority:
THE SIN.
The sin has a desire to be lord in our mortal bodies; “…it’s lusts..”
So those lusts, those sinful desires that we sometimes have…., it looks like you are saying that they are not our own.
I believe that you are saying that “the sin” has certain lusts within our mortal bodies. If those lusts are not truly ours but rather they belong to the sin which is in our mortal bodies, then we have no reason nor obligation to obey it’s lust.
We are free from that old master through the death of the body of Jesus’ flesh, a death which we also died in.
Not only are we no longer alive to the sin, but since Christ was raised from the dead and now lives unto the Father…..
…so do we!!!
and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness;
So then we are to see the members of our bodies as instruments which we “present”…., which we “offer up” to one form of reign or the other….
There is still a choice between living unto the sin which exists and has passions within these mortal bodies on earth, or living unto ‘our Father who is in Heaven’ and who has a Living Spirit within us with His own desires.
And we see here that we should not “offer up” our instruments to the reign of the sin. To do so would make the members of our bodies to be instruments of unrighteousness.
We know that we do not want that, and like you say, we must “not go on” doing that.
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead,
YES! Let’s get back to the whole living unto God part!! This is who we should present ourselves to!! After all, He has raised us from death to life!!!
The sin has never offered us anything near that good!!
“Here we are Lord, to be and do as you please.”
This should be our heart attitude to our New Loving Master.
…and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Yes! YES!!… Of course!!
We are now alive to God, and are therefore to be exercised in righteousness to God!!!!
This is all so wonderful! But how can we know that sin will not overtake us?
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
That’s right!!
The law has no more power over us, because we are already dead! Remember? We died with Christ!!!!
The law can only expose sinfulness and work to bring about death, but we have already died ….AND…IN CHRIST WE ARE HIGHLY FAVORED BY GOD!
WE ARE ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!!!
>>>but wait a second….
if we are absolutely free, then we can do whatever we want….right? I mean if it’s true that we are totally free, then we can imbibe, from time to time, in those behaviors that, well….are sinful, right?!
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?
May it never be!
Oh! Okay, I’m listening….
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as servants for obedience, you are servants of the one whom you obey,
Whoa. That’s deep, brother.
But more than just deep, that is true.
So then that desire that I just expressed to partake in bad behavior…., that was a temptation to serve the sin, wasn’t it?
And what you are saying is that we are always either a servant to one or the other….
…either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
Wow. This is all getting kinda heavy though, Paul….
But thanks be to God that though you were servants of the sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became servants of righteousness.
I’m glad you put it that way. We “were” slaves of the sin, but now we have become obedient from the heart…
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Yes. A contrast between the old and the new. I like how you say, “So now..” .
Wherever we may find ourselves at this moment, we may now present our members as slaves to righteousness; a righteousness which leads to sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
Amen! Our life was death….
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
…and Now our death, in Christ, has worked out for life!!!
So then it is as I am obedient to my new Master that I experience the joys of eternal life!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What? Wait a minute. You just made a clear distinction between wages and a free gift.
So on one hand the old master sin gave us what we earned, what we worked for by pursuing his desires, and the end of those things brought us death. On the other hand, the new Master, God, gives to us freely because He is Love and that is His nature. The result of this new relationship works out as eternal life.
One way is obedience from a sense of duty while the other is obedience from a heart which is being changed by God Himself.
Either way, we become conformed to the image of our master.
Death….or Life?
I know which one I want.
Amen, Paul. I’m really glad that you took the time to explain all of this.
(And yet I just know there is more….)
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