This morning, I’m reflecting on Christ and Him Crucified. That was my study, but it’s something I go to every day. Being a creature born into flesh (that is, given over to following whatever desire pops in to my head at the current moment), I have to consider the lengths at which Jesus went to rescue me from myself and ask “is this worth it?” Consider for a moment that Jesus has always been, that He created the world, and that He is, in fact, God. He humbled Himself to the Father’s will, taking on flesh, being born of a virgin, and becoming fully human for us. He lived according to all of the Righteous requirements HE set when He created the world, something I am incapable of doing. And then, He died for my rebellion against Him so that I might be reconciled to the Father, should I believe. He rose again on the third day, conquering death to give me life.
When considering all of these things, how now ought I to live? Can I continue gratifying my flesh, living by my desires? Can I continue on in sin so that I can receive the grace He gave at the cross in larger quantities? Absolutely not! I ought to surrender, daily, to Him through the Holy Spirit that He gave to come and live in me. I ought to seek to live a life pleasing to Him so that He may be glorified and His sacrifice may be made known through me when I give the reason for the hope that I have. Loved ones, Jesus died for sin. Let us seek, then to no longer live in it, but, instead, live according to Christ by His word and the Holy Spirit.
Romans 6
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[a] 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.
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.
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.
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