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Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.
New International Version (NIV)
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My Christian friends in my last two years of high school were mostly Lutherans. Lutherans were big up in Montana -- bigger than Baptists by far. They are also big on grace. Like their founder, they focused their theology on salvation by grace through faith. Luther took that from Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians. I was in full agreement with them on justification by faith. In hindsight, though, their doctrine of sanctification was a bit more robust than mine.
With Billy Graham as our guide, we Baptists often talk about salvation as a way to get to heaven when we die. Billy preached so powerfully on justification. Salvation certainly includes the promise of heaven, but it also offers so much more. For example if our doctrine of salvation is only about the grace which guarantees we go to heaven, what is our incentive to live a godly life? Is salvation just like a Monopoly “get out of jail free” card? If you know you have a ticket out, who cares if you end up in jail? If grace secures our salvation, do we really have to obey God?
In Rome, some apparently believed that if they sinned God gave more grace. In fact, they loved to sin and God loved to forgive. So why not sin more so that God could give more grace? Paul told the believers in Rome that salvation was more like burial and resurrection. To become a Christian is to die to sin and self and to live a brand new life. Even our practice of baptism by immersion shows this. The baptismal candidate is buried in the waters with Jesus and raised to live a brand new life.
In the movie Tender Mercies, a young boy and an older man are baptized on the same day. The preacher said they would become new. So the boy asked the older man played by Robert Duvall, “Are we new?” “Not yet,” Duvall answered, revealing his confidence that God would finish what he had started. What God began in our baptism will surely take place. Let us live what we believe.
Sanctification means daily dying to our own sinful impulses. Good news: our God knows how to raise us to a new life. The new life we found in Christ makes us new. Because grace has abounded, we don’t have to sin. Jesus frees us from the penalty of sin now, the power of sin for our whole lives and finally from the presence of sin in heaven. As one preacher put it, “We don’t want to grieve the Lord. He has been too good to us!”
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Pray with me:
Father, thank you for the abundance of your grace, lavished on us through Jesus. Give us such profound gratitude for grace that we don’t want to continue in sin. Don’t just clean the cobwebs from our hearts. By all means, kill the spider. Remind us that you are making all things new, including us. Give us the confidence that your grace is transforming us into the likeness of Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.
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Join us in memorizing the Word. Scripture for this week:
Matthew 5:47-48
And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
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| Our 2020 Every Day with Jesus readings will follow the Foundations New Testament reading plan. Copies of the reading plan are available at Tallowood Baptist Church, or download your copy at REPLICATE.ORG
We would love for you to join us as we read the New Testament through this year, five chapters a week. In addition I will continue my long-standing practice of reading one Psalm a day through the year. Use Robby Gallaty’s H. E. A. R. plan to study each chapter (also found at REPLICATE.ORG). Highlight verses which speak to you, explain what they mean in your own words in a journal, apply them to your own life, then respond by doing what God tells you to do.
Joyfully,
Duane
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