IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

United with Christ

Date: Apr. 23, 2023

Passage

Romans 6:1-14

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Daily Bread

Key Verse: Romans 6:5

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

When Paul, in the previous passage, stated that, “where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Ro 5:20), he didn’t mean that Christians should sin so as to bring about a greater grace of God. In fact, Paul gives that idea an emphatic “By no means!” When we come to Christ and have our sins forgiven through his shed blood, we die to sin and cannot live in it any longer. We are spiritually united with Christ. This means that we are united with him in his death, and we are united with him in his resurrection. We are made new because of him. We cannot be bound to sin any longer. We live new lives in him.

Dying to sin is neither automatic nor easy. There are daily struggles, even for Christians of strong faith. We do, all of us, have a sinful nature. That is still present in us. That is why Paul says “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Ro 6:11). Even if we struggle with our sinful nature, God sees us as dead to sin but alive to him. Thus, we do not offer ourselves to our sinful nature, but to him who saves us and loves us.

Prayer: Prayer: Father, thank you for Jesus Christ, who died in order to redeem me and to give me new life. Because of him, I offer myself to you as one brought from death to life.

One Word: One Word: I am united with Christ

Daily Bread

Remember Who God is

Psalm 77:1-20

Key Verse: 77:11

I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

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