F O O T H O L D
READING
81 OBJECTION OVERRULED
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PRAY Help me to understand
the deep truths in this passage of
scripture, righteous Lord.
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READ Romans 6:1-14.
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THINK How would you answer a
new Christian who says that it doesn't
matter how he or she
behaves?
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FOCUS A PLAUSIBLE SUGGESTION
(1). 'All right', says someone, 'since God
loves to forgive our sins,
and Jesus has made it all possible,
why not go on indulging in
sin? - it will in the end bring even
more glory to God.'
A POWERFUL CONTRADICTION (2-4).
But what does Paul mean 'we have
died . . . '? In what sense
does a Christian 'die' to sin? We
find the answer to our
question in the symbol which Paul uses -
that of baptism. John the
Baptist took men and women into the
River Jordan and covered
them with water. This was an action-
picture of being buried.
John was saying that if a person really
turned to God he finished
with one way of life (pleasing himself)
and began another (pleasing
God). All this took on new meaning at
the cross; Jesus died there,
in OUR place, for OUR sin; so if we
truly repent and believe in
him, God includes us in his death,
and deals with us as if we
had died for our sins; so we are
forgiven forever. 'Now',
says Paul, 'since sin caused Jesus to
suffer the cross, how can
anyone who owes everything to him go on
trifling with it?'
A NEW KIND OF LIFE (5-11).
The cross of Jesus must not be
separated from the empty
tomb. The crucifixion and resurrection
are the two parts of one
great act of deliverance. For we not
only need to be freed from
the burden of past failure; we need a
new kind of life to help us
overcome sin in the future. This is
what the risen Jesus gives
us, by his Spirit.
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PRAY Ask God for the
experience day-by-day of the victory and freedom
of living not 'under law but
under God's grace' (14).
