October 15, 2011 … Dead WITH Christ

Passage of the Day: Romans 6: 6 - 7 [see verses in bold/underlined] … 5 If we have been united with Him [Christ] like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in his resurrection. 6 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 — 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

My Journal for Today: All good teachers know that redundancy is an effective teacher; and the Apostle Paul knew this as he drilled home an important point of Christian doctrine in today’s passage that he had made earlier in Romans, chapters 5 and 6. That point is the core doctrine that all believers in Christ’s victory over sin through His resurrection share in the victory He won over sin. And I will repeat this wondrous point as well. Christ shattered sin with His death on the cross and His resurrection; and those of us who truly believe this and have repented of our sin in faith, believing completely in Christ’s atonement at the moment of our conversion as Christians, now share in that victory (see Rom. 4: 25 and 1st Cor. 15: 54 – 57).

John MacArthur reminds his readers on this date in Strength for Today of the forceful pronouncement of this doctrine, which can also be found in the Book of Hebrews (e.g., see Hebrews 10: 10 – 14). And the Apostle Peter also hit hard with this point as well in 1st Peter 2: 24. And dear brothers or sisters in Christ, anytime God, the Holy Spirit, drives home a truth in this way, many times through multiple authors, we, who believe, ought to pay attention. However, sadly it pains me to see this truth ignored or overlooked by many whom I’m called to serve in ministry, where I deal with those mired in repetitive, habitual sin.

So many of these dear souls can’t seem to let go of their sin patterns, and they wallow in feelings identified by the Apostle Paul in Romans 7: 14 – 24, where he used himself to illustrate the humanity of sinfulness. But I believe that Paul did this, identifying his past struggles with sin, to help any believer to identify with such weakness; because he was laying a platform or foundation for the greatest victory treatise over sin in all of the New Testament … which is found in Romans 8.

I challenge you who read here to read and meditate on Romans 7: 14 – 24; and then read and internalize all of Romans 8. And when any Christian can believe and live in Romans 8, as opposed to Romans 7, he or she will be living the victory Christ has won for us by His death, resurrection, ascension, and re-glorification. Oh, my dear one, how I pray that we all can live in that victory.

My Prayer Today: With You, Lord, I live in victory! Amen