Saturday 4th April
Read Romans 6:8-10
“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” (NIVUK)
This is not a scrunch-up-your-eyes and hope for the best ‘belief’. This is a legal reality. When we placed our faith in Jesus we died. Really died. But, like Him, we rose again as a new creation. Imagine if you lived the new life that is legally yours? The question Paul asks the Roman believers, and us, is why are we not reflecting that truth in our lives each and every day?
Consider the final phrase. “The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” (v10). John Stott outlines the magic of Paul’s epigram about the death and resurrection of Jesus. “…he implies that they belong together and must never be separated, he also indicates that there are radical differences between them. There is a difference of time (the past event of death, the present experience of life), of nature (he died to sin bearing its penalty, but lives to God, seeking His glory), and of quality (the death ‘once for all’, the resurrection life continuous). These differences are of importance for our understanding not only of the work of Christ but also of our Christian discipleship, which, by our union with Christ, begins with a once-for-all death to sin and continues with an unending life of service to God.”
