Beloved, I am glad to share with you today the above theme from Rom 6:1-2. Indeed, there is nothing of which man cares more than his freedom. But this is a complete illusion. For free will is only the slavery of the devil, said one author. However, man does not realize this until after his conversion. It is only by trying to fly that the captive bird experiments that its wings have been clipped. “Whoever practices sin is a slave to sin,” the Lord Jesus taught. But He added, “If the Son sets you free, you will truly be free” (John 8:31-36). Free… not to do our own will: it would be to put us back under the same slavery! Let it be enough for us: to have “in the past time” fulfilled the will of sinful man (and for what fruit? v. 21; 1 P 4:1-5); and then to have worked for Satan the impostor in a fool’s market, for a tragic wage: death, which Christ suffered in our place. No! If we are free, it is to serve God and obey Him from the heart (v. 17; 2 Co 10:3-6). Like this young slave, redeemed one day from a cruel master by a traveler who had taken pity on him; instead of going to live his life, he asked not to leave his benefactor; his whole desire was to serve him from now on.
Thus, the Holy Spirit leads the apostle to respond to some objections that the flesh or unbelief raises, in the presence of God’s grace, as it has just been depicted. These objections show us again the abyss of the human heart, but at the same time they provide the apostle with an opportunity to develop new and wonderful thoughts.
Here is the first objection: “What shall we say then? Would we abide in sin so that grace would abound?” What? Is this the consequence we must draw from God’s gospel? Should we accumulate sin upon sin, so that grace, by forgiving them, may unfold more richly? Indignant, we answer with the apostle: “Let no such happen!” What would we say of a son who, out of disrespect, transgressed his parents’ commandments and afflicted their hearts, thereby giving them ever more opportunities to forgive him? Yet the apostle’s question shows to what extent man’s heart can be hardened. Oh! who will be able to know the depths and tricks of this heart!
The apostle, in his answer to the question, does not show the manifest impiety of such a principle; rather, it presents the starting point of the journey of every man who claims to be Christ. He asks a second question: “We who died to sin, how will we still live in sin?” How could he still dwell in sin, which would have separated him forever from God and brought his Lord and Savior into death? Would such behavior not be aberrant and contrary to all moral feelings?
Moreover, the believers of Rome had already confessed, through their baptism, that they had been identified with the death of Christ. ‘Doyou not know — in other words: do you not know the symbolic meaning of baptism? — that all of us who have been baptized for Christ Jesus have been baptized for his death?” Baptism is not only the testimony of Christ’s death for us, but also of our death with Him. Our goal is to walk now in newness of life as a resurrected man with Christ, just as Christ did not remain in the tomb, but was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.
The result is quite naturally and logically a walk in novelty of life. The apostle does not say that we must walk in new life, in other words, he does not put us back under a commandment, but he only insists on our completely changed situation “so that … we too walked in the newness of life.” That there is in this march a growth, a practical progress, corresponding to the fidelity of each believer, it goes without saying. But this portion of the truth is not about this; other passages of the Word teach us abundantly about this.
“For the end of eternal life”; the purpose of this blessed way, the crown that awaits us, is glory itself. Soon our bodies too, the “earthly house,” will be made conform to the glorious body of Christ. Then we will eternally carry the image of the One who loved us and gave us eternal life(Rom 8:29).
“For the wages of sin are death; but God’s gift of grace is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord” (v. 23). It is with these words that the writer concludes the wonderful course of his thoughts, placing once again before our eyes the results of man’s work and those of God’s work. We had deserved death, sad pledges of our wretched work; grace has brought us eternal life, a free gift of God, and this in Jesus Christ, our Lord. We possess it today already “in the Son”; in Him was life, and life was the light of men, and he who has the Son, has life.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Warning against Presumptions
Nb 15:30 But if anyone, native or stranger, acts with his hand raised, he insults the Lord; he will be cut off from the midst of his people. Dt 6:16 You will not tempt jehovah, your God, as you tempted at Massa. Dt 18:20 But the prophet who has the audacity to say in my name a word that I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet will be punished with death. Is 45:9 Woe to those who dispute with their creator! Vase among earthen vases! Does clay say to the one who shapes it: What do you do? And your work: He has no hands? 1 Co 10:9 Let’s not tempt the Lord, as some of them tempted, who perished by the serpents. Jam 4:13 To you now, who say: Today or tomorrow we will go to such a city, we will spend a year there, we will tamper, and we will win! 2 P 2:10 especially those who go after the flesh in a desire for impurity and who despise authority. Bold and arrogant, they are not afraid to insult the glories,
- Wasted privileges
-by the Gerasenians Mk 5:17 Then they began to beg Jesus to leave their territory.
-by the Nazarenes Mk 6:4-5 But Jesus said to them: A prophet is despised only in his homeland, among his parents, and in his house. 5 He could not do any miracle there, except that he laid hands on a few sick people and healed them.
-by the inhabitants of northern Galilee Lk 10:14 Therefore, on the day of judgment, Tyre and Sidon will be treated less rigorously than you.
-by the inhabitants of Jerusalem Lk 19:42 If you too, at least on this day given to you, knew the things that belong to your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
-by Israel in different times Jn 15:22 If I had not come and not spoken to them, they would have had no sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Hem 3:17 And against whom was God irritated for forty years, if not against those who sinned, and whose corpses fell into the wilderness?
- Life delivered, death to sin
Rom 6:2, 7, 11 Far from it! We who died to sin, how would we still live in sin? 7 for he who has died is free from sin. 11 So yourselves look at yourselves as dead to sin, and as alive for God in Jesus Christ. Gal 2:20 I was crucified with Christ; and if I live, it is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me; if I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. Gal 5:24 Those who are Jesus Christ’s crucified the flesh with his passions and desires. Col 3:3 For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 2 Tim 2:11 This word is certain: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 1 P 2:24 he who himself bore our sins in his body on the wood, that we might live for righteousness to be dead to sin; he by the bruises from which you have been healed.
- Living for God
Lk 20:38 Now, God is not God of the dead, but of the living; for him all are alive. Rom 6:11 So you yourselves look upon yourselves as dead to sin, and as alive for God in Jesus Christ. Rom 14:8 For if we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So either we live or die, we are in the Lord. 2 Co 5:15 and that he died for all, so that those who live no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died and rose for them. Gal 2:19 for it was by the law that I died to the law, in order to live for God.
From all the above, we note that the Christian, who once lived in sin, found in Christ’s death much more than the forgiveness of his sins and transgressions: he died with Christ, and by this means was removed once and for all from his former condition. He “died of sin” and is no longer under his rule. Christ, on the cross, was made sin for him and by this means he finished forever with the old man who always showed himself to be evil: a new man, a new creation was revealed, an entirely new life was manifested and given to the believer. “We were therefore buried with him by baptism, for death, that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too walked in newness of life” The Christian was not put in relation to a Christ living on earth—such a relationship was not possible (John 12:24). Nor does he place his hope, like the Jew, in a Messiah reigning on earth; but he confesses his death, which took place at the same time as that of Christ. For through baptism we express, in figure, that we have been buried with him, and this death is the end of our desperate state as a man in the flesh. Without this new life, we would be absolutely incapable of having communion with God. But according to God’s counsel, eternal life means even more, knowing our perfect conformity with the Son of man glorified in heaven: this is where this life will soon be fully manifested. So this is what is placed before us: God’s gift of grace, namely eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our prayers support you all in your efforts to receive God’s gift of grace.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to the eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may be shining in my life right now.
Thank you Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby watering point to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to respond to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow about “the Freed Christian from the Law.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.