THE NEW LIFE (PART ONE)

Romans 6:1-11

When I first got to Australia to start my first year in university, I remember meeting a local boy with a penchant for ‘the nightlife’ or, in another turn of phrase, ‘clubbing’. I knew he was Christian because he often spoke about church and bringing me to church – but each Thursday night he would stumble through the doors of our college residence very drunk and usually very much ‘involved’ with a person of the opposite sex. One day I asked him how he felt about ‘hitting up the town’ every Thursday night – to which he replied, “I know its wrong, but I go to church every Sunday to ask God for forgiveness. So then it’s okay to do it again.”

*Raises eyebrows*

No, it’s not okay.

This is not to say that we can’t possibly sin anymore because even as Christians, we are bound to sin at some point in the future. However, to take the view that it does not matter if I sin is, by this passage, an incorrect conception about justification and the nature of God’s forgiveness. Christ didn’t die on the cross so we could sin some more – He died so that we could be reconciled to God in light of our sin and face no condemnation from our sin (Romans 8:1-2).

Action:
Today, consider the words of Charles Wesley in the hymn ‘And Can it Be that I should Gain’ – think about how grateful Charles would have been when he penned the following words. Ask God to teach you to be mindful of the times when you take God’s grace for granted.

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
He left His Father’s throne above
So free, so infinite His grace—
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me!
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray—
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Still the small inward voice I hear,
That whispers all my sins forgiven;
Still the atoning blood is near,
That quenched the wrath of hostile Heaven.
I feel the life His wounds impart;
I feel the Savior in my heart.
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.