This Week’s Passage and Memory Verse (in red): 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? 4We 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.
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.
So I’m at the beach this week – being really lazy. Reading, sleeping, watching movies, napping, eating, napping some more. So you get a treat instead of my ponderings – which take a lot of thinking. I’m gonna give you some quotes from a book I’ve been reading – The Gospel for Real Life – by Jerry Bridges, which correlate to this passage. Enjoy.
“Our situation was so desperate that only the death of His own Son on a cruel and shameful cross was sufficient to resolve the problem. Many people erroneously think that God can just forgive our sins because He is a loving God. Nothing could be further from the truth.The cross speaks to us not only about our sin but about God’s holiness.” p.28
“The cross is an expression of God’s wrath toward sin as well as His love to us. It expresses His holiness in His determination to punish sin, even at the cost of His Son. And it expresses His love in sending His SOn to bear the punishment we so justly deserved.” p.29
“But we may ask, why is God so angry because of our sin? it is because our sin, regardless of how small or insignificant to us, is essentially an assault on the infinite majesty and sovereign authorithy of God.” p. 50
“Indwelling sin is like a disease that we can’t begin to deal with until we acknowledge its presence. But in the case of sin,we must also count on the fact that, though it still resides in us, it no longer has dominion over us.” p.161
I’m just sayin’!
Next Week’s Passage: Colossians 3:15-17
Next Week’s Memory Verse: Colossians 3:17