I thought I would give you a verse that has meant a lot to me. It has to do as to the why we should let the Word of God into our life.
Colossians 3:16 (NIV)
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
The word dwell means to take up residence. The Word of God should feel at home in your life. The Word of God or as it says here the Word of Christ should take up residence in a rich way. The Word of Christ should not be cheapened in your life by placing it in the basement of your life. The Word should be given top billing. The result is that we are equipped to help serve other people. It also helps in our worship of our Savior. Here is how it stated in the Message,
Colossians 3:16 (MSG)
16 Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God!
Now on to the book of Romans.
Romans 6:5-14 (NIV)
5 If we have been united with him 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.
8 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.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
We will camp out here for a bit. In verse six the body of sin is what we are apart from Christ. It is us in our Adamic state. Paul goes back and forth as to what Christ has done and what we are in Him. Paul is teaching us that in Christ we have experienced death, burial, and resurrection. We will see this clearly in Romans chapter 8. In verse 11 of chapter 6 Paul exhorts us to count ourselves as dead to sin and alive to God. We are to reckon it as so in our lives. In other words we are to have faith in Christ and appropriate this truth everyday of our lives. We are to have the audacity to believe that Christ has set us free from sin and act as if it were so. This is where Chapter 8 comes into play again because Paul talks about the Spirit life. We cannot appropriate this truth of dead to sin and alive to God in our own strength.
Let these powerful verses sink in through the weekend and we will pick back up next week.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Romans 6:4-10 (NIV)
I hope you have a great day in the Lord. May God be attentive to your prayers.
Romans 6:4-10 (NIV)
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him 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.
8 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.
Do you have the victory? I was trained in a school of thought that by God's help and especially by His Spirit's aid a follower of Christ can live above the circumstances of life. This is why Irwin Lutzer writes, " The Spirit’s control will replace sin’s control. His power is greater than the power of all your sin." Hence a question that use to be asked of us is "Do you have the victory." Of course the more you study this question you realize how loaded this question is for the believer. Yet it is a good question to put to ourselves. Here is another way of putting the question, "Am I living free of sin and a life fully committed to God?" Once you understand to some degree the Spirit filled life you have to come to Romans 6:4-10. Paul is saying we can be free of sin. This is not to say we don't sin, but we will be discerning enough to know when we have crossed the line and we will confess that sin. That part of us that wants our way, our wants, desires and die and let the God life live in and through us. We are no longer slaves to sin. Amen.
True triumphs are God’s triumphs over us. His defeats of us are our real victories.
Henry Alford (1810–1871)
Romans 6:4-10 (NIV)
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him 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.
8 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.
Do you have the victory? I was trained in a school of thought that by God's help and especially by His Spirit's aid a follower of Christ can live above the circumstances of life. This is why Irwin Lutzer writes, " The Spirit’s control will replace sin’s control. His power is greater than the power of all your sin." Hence a question that use to be asked of us is "Do you have the victory." Of course the more you study this question you realize how loaded this question is for the believer. Yet it is a good question to put to ourselves. Here is another way of putting the question, "Am I living free of sin and a life fully committed to God?" Once you understand to some degree the Spirit filled life you have to come to Romans 6:4-10. Paul is saying we can be free of sin. This is not to say we don't sin, but we will be discerning enough to know when we have crossed the line and we will confess that sin. That part of us that wants our way, our wants, desires and die and let the God life live in and through us. We are no longer slaves to sin. Amen.
True triumphs are God’s triumphs over us. His defeats of us are our real victories.
Henry Alford (1810–1871)
Monday, April 19, 2010
Romans 6:1-4
Romans 6:1-4 (NIV)
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
What we are doing is going over the core of the book of Romans. If we are to have victory over sin and live a life fully devoted to Spirit living, then we must understand the truths that are in Romans 5,6, and 8. We have a nagging problem and it is this propensity to go wayward from God. We want to go it alone or find our own way. The Lord is our Shepherd and we must let Him shepherd us. A profound truth is that if you come to know Christ as your savior and Lord then you have died to sin. This means sin no longer has advantage over you. You no longer have to listen to what it says. The language that sin speaks is a foreign language and a follower of Christ no longer knows that language. We are dead to sin. A follower of Christ has been raised to a new life. God wants us to live that new life in Him. The new life is full of possibilities and of transformation. Their is no secret to this new way of living, but there are truths that we must apply to our lives. Here is one of them.
Romans 6:11-14 (NIV)
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
We must yield ourselves to the Lord. We must let God have absolute control over our lives in every area at all times. This really comes down to one word and that is obedience to God. Either we our obeying the Lord or we are not obeying the Lord. Are you fully surrender to Lord in every area of your life? Please mediate on this with me for weekend. It is a question I try to ask myself all the time.
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
What we are doing is going over the core of the book of Romans. If we are to have victory over sin and live a life fully devoted to Spirit living, then we must understand the truths that are in Romans 5,6, and 8. We have a nagging problem and it is this propensity to go wayward from God. We want to go it alone or find our own way. The Lord is our Shepherd and we must let Him shepherd us. A profound truth is that if you come to know Christ as your savior and Lord then you have died to sin. This means sin no longer has advantage over you. You no longer have to listen to what it says. The language that sin speaks is a foreign language and a follower of Christ no longer knows that language. We are dead to sin. A follower of Christ has been raised to a new life. God wants us to live that new life in Him. The new life is full of possibilities and of transformation. Their is no secret to this new way of living, but there are truths that we must apply to our lives. Here is one of them.
Romans 6:11-14 (NIV)
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
We must yield ourselves to the Lord. We must let God have absolute control over our lives in every area at all times. This really comes down to one word and that is obedience to God. Either we our obeying the Lord or we are not obeying the Lord. Are you fully surrender to Lord in every area of your life? Please mediate on this with me for weekend. It is a question I try to ask myself all the time.
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