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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
February 16
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Today's Pathway:
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Yesterday we saw that at the point of salvation our "old man" was crucified so that we would no longer have to be the servants of sin. In verse 7 Paul gives a simple reason for this:
"he that is dead is freed from sin".
This may sound obvious, but once a man dies he doesn't sin anymore. The man lying in the coffin at the funeral home does not commit evil activities or think wicked thoughts. He's dead, and his sinning dies with him. Since the believer has been crucified with Christ, he is now dead to sin as well. As we mentioned previously, and as will be seen later in Romans 6, this does not mean that we no longer have a sin nature. It means that our sin nature has been rendered inactive and is no longer our master which must be obeyed.
In verse 8 Paul says that the believer is dead with Christ, but also states that the believer will live with Christ. Obviously this means that those who have received Christ as Savior will spend eternity with Him. But it also means that the believer will live this present life on earth with the Lord. This will become clearer in the next couple of verses. In verse 9, Paul says that since Jesus has risen from the dead, He will never die again. There is no other atonement that Jesus will make. Hebrews 10:10 says,
"By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"
Hebrews 10:12 adds,
"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God".
The Catholic church teaches that when they celebrate the mass they are re-crucifying Jesus in an "unbloody" manner for the forgiveness of the sins of those who partake of the mass. Paul says that there has been one sacrifice, and there will be no other. In addition, death no longer has dominion over Jesus because, according to Revelation 1:18 Jesus is
"he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore."
Romans 6:10 says that Christ died unto sin once. He died to the penalty of sin because the penalty for the sin of Adam and his race was death. But then secondly, He died to the power of sin. When He arose, He rose victorious over anything that sin could ever do to the Christian. The second half of verse 10 states that since Jesus rose from the dead He now lives unto God. Bruce Hurt wrote this:
"This is an amazing thought. Jesus, Who Himself is God, daily lives His life to God the Father. His whole life is given over to His Father."
So, tying verse 8 to verse 10, we see that, since Jesus lives unto God (vs. 10) , and we live with Him (vs 8), then in this present world we should be motivated to live our lives unto God just as Jesus does.
So Paul concludes this entire argument with verse 11. In light of everything that has been said in the previous ten verses, the believer ought to "reckon" something. To "reckon" means "to think, to calculate, to conclude". The Christian needs to believe what Paul has just said, and start to think of himself as being dead to sin, but alive unto God. Once he begins to think correctly, he can begin to live correctly, which is the area Paul will address in the remainder of the chapter.
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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