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Pastor's Blog May 6, 2021
"View of God in Romans IX"
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Did you know God has given you the gift of knowing you have been crucified with Jesus, as well as that Jesus' never-ending life will give you eternal life? Perhaps you feel comfortable affirming the second part of that question, while the first part seems a bit debatable. But according to Romans 6, God has enabled you to know both of these truths through Jesus.
After highlighting our baptism as the way in which we were initiated into the death and resurrection of Jesus (verse 5), Paul then explains in verse 6 what this looks like in our lives: "Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin" (NASB). Whether or not you know it or feel it, your old self and old life have been crucified with Jesus! And the reason for this crucifixion is so you can experience the power of Jesus' resurrection and no longer be a slave to sin!
But the blessings of what God has enabled us to know and experience don't end here. After further explaining that we will also live with Jesus if we have died with him (verse 8), Paul goes on to clarify in verses 9 and 10 what the finality of Jesus' resurrection means for us: "Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God" (NASB).
It's because Jesus truly died and was truly raised from the dead that we can know that the life he now lives will never end, and that he lives his life exclusively to and for God! And because Jesus was truly raised from the dead and lives his unending life to and for God, we can know we will one day live forever with Jesus AND get to have present lives that are sold out for God rather than sin! Paul is clear on how God has caused us to know these truths and experience them in our lives: through our Lord Jesus.
God bless,
Pastor Nathaniel Gamble
