For the death that He
died,
He died to sin once
for all;
but the life that He
lives,
He lives to God.
Likewise you also,
reckon yourselves to
be dead
indeed to sin, but
alive in God
in Christ Jesus our
Lord.
Romans 6:10–11
Jesus
Christ died on the cross for sin and this death never repeated for His work on
the cross was final death to sin. The resurrection of Jesus Christ was more
than some resuscitation; it was a true resurrection inasmuch as this raising
from the dead brought life, a life that was to be lived to God. The incarnate
Jesus presented to God the Father this new life, completed the necessary
justice that God required and that God paid Himself through His Wisdom becoming
flesh, dying on the cross and His resurrection. Most interesting is this very
fact that is so ignored making a theology that Jesus was not God, for the
resurrection of Jesus was a resurrection the He Himself would accomplish: “Jesus
answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise
it up” (John 2:19). Meditate upon this fact that Jesus is God, and Jesus
lives as the incarnate Son of God presenting to the Father this payment. Jesus
is not some separate God presenting His life as some created being, as do the
Jehovah Witnesses teach, or, that Jesus is another mode in this role as Savior,
as do the Modalist, or as Apostolic churches teach. God the Father is not some
man, or some form of a man, as the Mormons teach, no: Jesus, God, the very
essence of the Godhead presented to the Godhead His life that now met the
justice of God and makes all those who are converted to God, alive. He is the
Second Person of, and is fully of the essence of the Godhead, and you, and I,
have life, life eternal, for we are alive in God through Jesus Christ. This
being true: “Therefore do no let sin reign in your mortal body, that you
should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of
unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans
6:12–13). Have you yet recognized that you are the temple of God, the
temple in which the Holy Spirit resides? This you are; and by this fact, and
your identification with Jesus Christ you are to keep this temple, your body undefiled.
As the temple of God, our bodies: a shrine to God, to the Holy Spirit. As the
shrine of God, for the Holy Spirit, a place that the indwelling Holy Spirit
makes intercession for us, even though we are yet to be sinless that occurs to
God’s children after the Second Coming of Jesus Christ; ought we not to deny
the lusts that war against us? We are not to allow sin to have dominion over
us: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but
under grace” (Romans 6:14). When sin is allowed to have dominion over us
all that is done is to blasphemy the Holy Spirit, and the work of Jesus Christ
who died to make you alive, alive now and legally in heaven now, awaiting the
eternal life that the resurrection of Jesus gave to you. No excuses are to be
accepted; we cannot make rules, doctrines, or beliefs outside of the word of
God and up to this point in our study of Romans it is very clear what God will
and will not accept. We cannot fall back on grace and do what ever we wish, or
will, or are willing to accept, even those ear tickling words that so many
preachers, and teachers write and speak, making our conversion something that
it is not: a mere feeding of pabulum, tastes good, acceptable, but not of God: “What
then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not”
(Romans 6:15)! It is our
responsibility to guard this temple of God. In our consciousness, we are to
live in the grace given to us freely and by the death of Jesus Christ on the
cross. Walk in the steps of Jesus Christ, no matter what, unless you do not
really believe that you will live eternally, that this eternal life is more of
a hope that reality. Are you living eternally, or are you living temporally?
Who are you living for; yourselves, or for God: “Do you not know that to
whom you present yourselves salves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you
obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to
righteousness” (Romans 6:16). I ask myself this same question: am I a slave
to sin, those sinful thoughts, desires, or am I a slave to God. The Greek word:
δούλοι, a plural word, that means that your are a bondservant, and as pointed
out before, a bondservant while a slave is a slave by choice, and is a slave
not wanting pay. You are slave because of your love for God, for Jesus Christ,
for the fact that the Holy Spirit resided in you making intercession for you
with groaning that you can never understand: you are willing to be this slave,
this bondservant, accepted by God, your worship, and service to Him: “But
God be thanked that though your were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set
free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:17–18).
As we
prepare to meet together with our brothers and sisters in Christ on the Sabbath,
our day of worship in which we all worship God corporately may we be constantly
reminded that we are to give this day to Him. Prepare now; prepare to be that
bondservant of God, and not of ourselves. God will bless you as He has
promised.
Now I know that the LORD
Saves His
anointed;
He will answer him from
His holy
heaven
With the saving strength of
His right
hand.
Psalm 20:6
Trust in the LORD
Richard L. Crumb
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