Monday, July 24, 2017, 7:23 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Unless You Are Born Again.” Speak,
Lord, your words to my heart. I read Romans
6 (ESV).
Newness of Life
(vv. 1-11)
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin
that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death,
in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old
self was crucified with him in
order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would
no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have
died with Christ, we believe that we
will also live with him. We
know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die
again; death no longer has
dominion over him. For the death
he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must
consider yourselves dead to sin
and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
I believe there is a huge
misunderstanding today of God’s grace. So many people are teaching grace as
though it is merely Jesus taking our place on the cross so we will be free from
the punishment of sin, and so we will have eternal life with God in heaven one
day when we die. But, his grace, as taught by many teachers today, does not
translate into a changed heart and life, of the Spirit of God. There is no new
birth of the Spirit, because there is no death of the “old man,” i.e. of the
old self.
The “grace” they often teach
is a free license to continue in willful sin against God without guilt and
without true remorse. In fact, many are teaching that God does not even require
repentance or obedience, and that God is pleased with us no matter what we do,
even while we are rebelling against him via willful and continued sin.
Yet, God’s grace to us is not
just to deliver us out of hell and to assure us of heaven when we die. His
grace to us is that Jesus died that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness. His grace is for the purpose that we, who have died with him to
sin, might walk (conduct our lives) with Christ in newness of life; with
changed lives, transformed in heart and mind of the Spirit of God. God’s
purpose in saving us from our sins was to put sin to death in our lives so that
we would no longer be enslaved (addicted) to sin. Jesus died to sin and he
lives to God, so we must also consider ourselves dead to sin but alive to God
in Christ Jesus.
Death to Life
(vv. 12-14)
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.
So, sin should no longer have
mastery over our lives. It should no longer have power or control over us or hold
us in bondage. A truly born again believer in Jesus Christ should not be still
living in addiction to sin, for Jesus set us free! He or she, by the Spirit,
should be putting sin to death, so that he or she might have eternal life with
God (See: Ro. 8:1-14). We should no longer be obeying our sinful passions or giving
our bodies over to the lusts of our sinful flesh. If we have been brought from
death to life, this should be evident in how we conduct our lives day in and
day out.
So, what does this look like?
Well, for one, we should no longer be feeling as though we just can’t help it
when we sin. We can help it! Jesus paid the price for our sins, and he
delivered us out of slavery to sin. If we choose to willfully sin against God,
we choose to disobey what we know is right and to do what is wrong despite
Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. And, we choose to not tap into the strength and
power of God within us to resist Satan, to flee temptation and to draw near to
God. Sometimes it is because we are not willing to go the distance with God in
ridding our lives of those things which lead us down the path of sin, too. So,
we end up playing with temptation and toying with sin, and of course, we will
eventually sin.
So, we need to cut out of our
lives those things which lead us to sin, and then we have to resist Satan and
flee temptation and we have to pursue righteousness. For example, if your sin
issue is pornography or sexually charged movies, and you keep going back to
these time and time again, then it is time to cut the cord. Get rid of your TV,
movies, cable, internet, etc. so that you don’t have the opportunity to sin in
these ways. Ask for accountability, especially from your spouse. Don’t have
private internet access. Do everything out in the open where anyone can see. So
many, many people are bound in sin addiction because they have so many avenues
to do so in the privacy of their own homes right from their own pockets or
purses without anyone seeing what they are doing.
Leads to Righteousness (vv. 15-23)
What then? Are we to sin because we are not
under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you
present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of
the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks
be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the
heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having
been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am
speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as
you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to
righteousness leading to sanctification.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in
regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the
things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have
been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you
get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have to stop giving our
lives over to what is sinful, and we have to give our lives over to what is
godly and righteous and holy. We have to stop following the crowd or blending
in with the world or immersing ourselves in our culture. The church and other
Christians have helped encourage us toward worldliness for many, many years,
but that is not acceptable to God. It is not the way he wants us to live. Our
lives are no longer our own to live how we want, for we were bought back for
God with the price of Jesus’ blood shed on a cross for our sins. He is now our
Lord (owner-master) and we are his bond-slaves, slaves to his righteousness.
So, we need to live in the power of God’s Spirit like we believe this is true,
instead of compromising with the world.
We need to realize here that
a mere prayer to receive Jesus Christ as Savior or a mere acknowledgment of
Christ’s existence or a mere acceptance of his forgiveness of our sins does not
guarantee us eternal life with God. If we remain slaves to sin, addicted to
sinful practices, and we continue to live sinful lifestyles, we are not bound
for heaven, but for hell. Slavery to sin leads to death, not life, but if we
walk in obedience to our Lord, it leads to righteousness, which leads to
sanctification (purity, cleanliness), which then results in eternal life with
God. If we walk (in lifestyle) according to our sinful flesh, we will die in
our sins, regardless of what we believe about salvation and eternal life with
God (See: Ro. 8:1-14; Lu. 9:23-25).
What benefit, then, do we
gain if we remain in slavery (addiction) to sin? Nothing! We may get some
temporary pleasure for our flesh, but at what cost? Sin not only hurts us, but
it hurts those closest to us, too, and it hurts those with whom we come in
contact, because when we walk in sin, it is what comes out in our thinking,
speaking, attitudes and behaviors. And, this does impact the people around us,
as well as it kills the good that was planted in our hearts when we heard the
gospel message of salvation from sin. And, it results not in the hope of heaven
when we die, but in hearing God say to us, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”
Unless You Are Born Again
An Original Work / November
3, 2013
Based off John 3:1-21
Nicodemus came to Jesus.
He acknowledged God was with
Him.
Jesus said, “You can’t see
heaven
Unless you are born again.”
“How can a man be born when
he’s old?
Can he enter into his
mother’s womb?”
Jesus answered, “Flesh is
flesh,
So of the Spirit, you must
be.”
Jesus said to Nicodemus,
“You’re a teacher, and yet
you don’t
Understand of what I tell
you,
Because you will not believe.
“For God so loved the world that
He gave
His one and His only Son for
your sin.
So, whoever believes in Him
Has eternal life in heav’n.
“Light has come into the
world,
But human beings love the
darkness,
Because their deeds are so
evil,
So in truth, they stand
condemned.
“Everyone who practices evil
Fears that the Light will
expose his sin.
Yet, whoever lives his life
by the Light
Does so through his God.”
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