July 1, 2016

Romans 6:11 NKJV - "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Commentary:

The Bible clearly teaches that God put the flesh, the sinful nature, to death on the cross.  Verse 6 speaks of our "old man" being crucified on the cross with Christ.  This speaks of our "enemy within" we spoke about yesterday from Galatians 5:24.  We said that we were born sinners by nature which very quickly led to our being sinners by choice.  But what we need to see here is that Christ not only dealt with all our sin by dying and shedding His blood to wash these sins away.  He also dealt with our sin nature too!  It wasn't enough for God to just forgive our sins and leave us to constantly keep on sinning.  He also dealt with the power within us, our flesh, that so often got us into trouble.

In Romans 6:6 we're told that Christ gave a "death blow" to our sinful nature, stripping it of its power to control us.  But something else also happened.  When Christ rose from the dead He showed that He had conquered sin's power and we enter into His resurrection and all that it entails and the moment of our salvation!  His power over sin is given to us!  And further, according to 2 Corinthians 5:17, we're given a new nature.  The nature of Christ!  His Holy Spirit works in us giving us the power to say "NO!" to sin!  We don't have to keep on sinning.  And that is a truth I hope to touch on tomorrow.  See 1 John 3 to get a preview!