“5 For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, 7 since a person who has died is freed from sin.
In the last devotional, we discussed what it means to be a Christian. We are seeking answers to questions like: “I know I’m saved by faith in Jesus, but what do I do now?”, and “What does a faithful follower of the Lord look like?”. In today’s devotional, Paul will continue to answer these questions, and he will continue to do so in greater detail throughout the next several chapters.
If there is one thing that Paul has made clear to us throughout the previous chapters of Romans, it is that all people are ruled over by sin. No longer for those who are in Christ! Our sin-ruled bodies died with Christ; they were crucified with Him. We are no longer enslaved to sin. Our unrighteousness is removed. We died with Christ, AND we also live with Christ. He paid the penalty for our sin. Christ died the death we deserved to die for our sin. It was not for His own sin that Jesus died, but for ours. Therefore, death had no claim over Him. Jesus rose on the third day, proving His righteous sinlessness! In this way, Christians are made alive to God through Christ’s resurrection. We claim Christ crucified and raised as our righteousness. It is in this way that we put on righteousness. It is a righteousness not our own, it is Christ’s!
We were once slaves to sin, but now we’ve become obedient slaves of the one true God. As slaves in Christ, we are subject to a new master. We have been freed FROM sin TO Christ Jesus. In the same way that Christ will never need to die again, so those who are in Christ will never again be slaves to sin. In the same way that Christ was raised and death no longer has power over Him, so sin and death no longer have power over those who are in Christ. And lastly, in the same way that Christ is made alive to God in His resurrection, so those in Christ have been made alive to God through Christ Jesus and must honor and glorify the Father.
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” — Galatians 2:20
“But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.” — Ephesians 4:20-24
“Therefore, put to death what belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, God’s wrath is coming upon the disobedient, and you once walked in these things when you were living in them. But now, put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.” — Colossians 3:5-10