TRANSFORMED

TRANSFORMED

Thursday, May 16, 2019

What should we say then? Should we continue to sin so that God's kindness will increase? That's unthinkable! As far as sin is concerned, we have died. So how can we still live under sin's influence? Don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? When we were baptized into his death, we were placed into the tomb with him. As Christ was brought back from death to life by the glorious power of the Father, so we, too, should live a new kind of life. If we've become united with him in a death like his, certainly we will also be united with him when we come back to life as he did. We know that the person we used to be was crucified with him to put an end to sin in our bodies. Because of this we are no longer slaves to sin. The person who has died has been freed from sin. If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, who was brought back to life, will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once and for all to sin's power. But now he lives, and he lives for God. So consider yourselves dead to sin's power but living for God in the power Christ Jesus gives you. Therefore, never let sin rule your physical body so that you obey its desires. Never offer any part of your body to sin's power. No part of your body should ever be used to do any ungodly thing. Instead, offer yourselves to God as people who have come back from death and are now alive. Offer all the parts of your body to God. Use them to do everything that God approves of. Certainly, sin shouldn't have power over you because you're not controlled by laws, but by God's favor. Then what is the implication? Should we sin because we are not controlled by laws but by God's favor? That's unthinkable! Don't you know that if you offer to be someone's slave, you must obey that master? Either your master is sin, or your master is obedience. Letting sin be your master leads to death. Letting obedience be your master leads to God's approval. You were slaves to sin. … (GOD’S WORD version, Romans chapter 6)

“Once we are saved we are transformed – but not perfectly. Not yet. That takes place when we go [by death or rapture] to be with Jesus. Prior to the complete perfect transformation we are given a new nature, yet we still retain our old nature. We can sin, but we are no longer in bondage to or controlled by sin. As [2Corintians 5:17] new creatures in Christ, our lives are enabled to please God by His grace and the empowerment of His Holy Spirit that lives within us. (1Corinthians 3:16) Nevertheless, our new life in Christ involves the struggle between our old nature and our new nature.”  [Paragraph 5 of Missing the Mark – Missing the Solution, T.A. McMahon, THE BEREAN CALL]

  Any questions?

EBB4