Episode 70: Romans 6

Today's meditation is based on Romans 6 from The Passion Translation

I do not persist in sin so that God’s kindness and grace will increase. What a terrible thought that would be! I have died to sin once and for all, as a dead man passes away from this life. So how could I live under sin’s rule a moment longer? I was immersed into union with Jesus, the Anointed One, so I was also immersed into union with his death.

Sharing in his death by my baptism means that I was co-buried with him, so that when the Father’s glory raised Christ from the dead, I was also raised with him. I have been co-resurrected with him so that I could be empowered to walk in the freshness of new life. For since I am permanently grafted into him to experience a death like his, then I am permanently grafted into him to experience a resurrection like his and the new life that it imparts.

It couldn't be any clearer that my former identity is now and forever deprived of its power. For I was co-crucified with him to dismantle the stronghold of sin within me, so that I would not continue to live one moment longer submitted to sin’s power.

Obviously, a dead person is incapable of sinning. And if I was co-crucified with the Anointed One, I know that I will also share in the fullness of his life. And I know that since the Anointed One has been raised from the dead to die no more, his resurrection life has vanquished death and its power over him is finished. For by his sacrifice he died to sin’s power once and for all, but he now lives continuously for the Father’s pleasure. So let it be the same way with me! Since I am now joined with him, I continually view myself as dead and unresponsive to sin’s appeal while living daily for God’s pleasure in union with Jesus, the Anointed One.

Sin is a dethroned monarch; so I no longer give it an opportunity to rule over my life, controlling how I live and compelling me to obey its desires and cravings. I refuse to answer its call to surrender my body as a tool for wickedness. Instead, I passionately answer God’s call to keep yielding my body to him as one who has now experienced resurrection life! I live now for his pleasure, ready to be used for his noble purpose. Sin will not conquer me, for God already has! I am not governed by law but governed by the reign of the grace of God.

This doesn't mean I can sin to my heart's content since there’s no law to condemn me anymore. What a terrible thought! I realize that grace frees me to choose my own master. I choose carefully, and have surrendered myself to become a servant — bound to the one I choose to obey. I reject sin, knowing that it's reward is death. Instead I choose to love and obey God, and he will lead me into perfect righteousness.

Thanks be to God, for in the past I was a servant of sin, but now my obedience is heart deep, and my life is being molded by truth through the teaching I am devoted to. I celebrate my freedom from my former master, sin. I’ve left its bondage, and now God’s perfect righteousness holds power over me as his loving servant. When I was bound as a servant to sin, I lived my life free from any obligation to righteousness.

Just as I once surrendered my body and soul to impurity and lawlessness, which only brought more lawlessness into my life, so now I have surrendered myself as a servant of righteousness, which brings me deeper into true holiness. 

There was no benefit from doing those things that I'm now ashamed of. It left me with nothing but a legacy of shame and death. But now, as God’s loving servant, I live in joyous freedom from the power of sin. I consider the benefits that I now enjoy. I am brought deeper into the experience of true holiness that ends with eternal life! For sin’s meager wages is death, but God’s lavish gift is eternal  life, found in my union with Lord Jesus, the Anointed One.

Until next time, be blessed and be a blessing.

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Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/brock-hewitt-stories-in-sound/serenity-prayer
License code: E6GCYFWBRO10DAXQ

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