We are sure of this because Christ was raised from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God.
(Rom. 6: 9-10 NLT)
Scripture: Romans 6: 1-15
With Christ’s death, He broke the power that sin had over His believers. He lives to never die again. He lives, instead, to glorify God. This devotion looks at a limited list of from what His death and triumph over sin has saved us.
Cliff Notes
- We are saved from the consequences of death.
- We are saved from the love of sin.
- Because we have lost the love of sin, we are saved from the practice of sin.
- When we give our hearts and minds to God, we are saved from the power of sin.
We are called to life with God. “For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives” (Rom. 6: 4 NLT). Thus, we are saved from a life of sin. We don’t focus on ourselves. Rather we live for God.
So, it begs the question, from what are we saved? I am sure this is just a limited list, but it hits the high points.
Death
We are saved from the consequences of death. We talked in the last devotion that one of the punishments of Adam and Eve’s original sin was death. We mainly talked about physical death.
To read What Would Have Happened If Adam and Eve Hadn’t Sinned?, click the button below.
We touched on the fact that spiritual death occurred. That — being removed from God’s presence — is, really, the most important punishment for sin.
Why is it the most important aspect? Everything else hinges on our relationship with God. If we don’t have a relationship with God, it doesn’t matter if we are doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts. If we aren’t working on our relationship with God, we haven’t changed our focus from the world to Him. If we don’t want a relationship with God, things will ultimately end badly for us.
Christ’s death has allowed our relationship with God to be restored. He not only triumphed over physical death, but He triumphed over spiritual death.
Love of Sin
We are saved from the love of sin. We fix our relationship with God by admitting we are sinners (A), believing that Jesus is our Redeemer (B), and confessing God as our Sovereign Lord (C). We know that “anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new” (II Cor. 5: 17 CEV).
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
We are new creations, but we are still stuck in our human bodies. We still have the ability to sin.
As believers, though, we are not going to love sinning as much anymore. Oh, yes. Satan is still going to make it as enticing as he can.
But sin will have lost its appeal to us. We are going to feel guilty when we sin. We are going to know and acknowledge to ourselves that we shouldn’t have done what we did or that we should have done something else.
Instead of loving sin, we love God. Since He is love, that bubbles out from us.
Practice of Sin
Because we have lost the love of sin, we are saved from the practice of sin. Let’s think about it a second.
Before the ABCs, we didn’t really know right from wrong the way God looks at it. We may have thought it was okay to do something just because everyone did it.
Christ’s death has broken us from a daily life of sin. “Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life” (Rom. 6: 13 NLT).
Still, Satan tries to tempt us to continue sinning. Once we sin, it is easier to keep sinning. We must resist.
Have you thought of it from the perspective that we have been raised to life? I really haven’t. It is difficult for me to think that I have been dead because I look at it from the worldview. My heart hasn’t stopped beating; my lungs haven’t stopped pumping.
But I was dead spiritually. Now, I am raised to a spiritual life.
We have to stop looking at things only from our understanding. We have to have a Godview, not a worldview.
We are to give ourselves to God instead of continuing to live lives in sin. “… They gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us, just as God wanted them to do.” (II Cor. 8: 5 CEV). Once we have turned our lives over to Him, He has specific expectations out of us.
Power of Sin
When we give our hearts and minds to God, we are saved from the power of sin. “Jesus replied: I tell you for certain that anyone who sins is a slave of sin!” (Jn. 8: 34 CEV). Hear that loud and clear: we are no longer slaves to sin.
The power of sin is no match for the power of our loving God. “For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin” (Rom. 6: 7 NLT). We do not have to fear that God will somehow be defeated. He is all-powerful.
We’ve been cut off from sin. “Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace” (Rom. 6: 14 NLT). We now have a new life.
Making the Connections
I think we sometimes just say that death has been defeated and the power of sin has been broken. We say that, but we may not believe that deep down.
It is hard to believe that when we focus on the fact that we as believers still sin. We’ve just got to accept that God can do the things that we have labeled impossible. God reigns.
Even though sin can be appealing when we look at it through a worldview lens, ultimately, it isn’t. We’ve got to look at it from God’s view.
Sometimes, though, we forget that Satan has already been defeated. We let him whisper in our ears that he is not down and out. He is.
So, we have to stand up and say that. We have to boldly say that Satan has been defeated, and that we will not deny God.
This is easier when we learn to stay away from temptations. “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret” (Eph. 5: 11-12 NIV). Just remember that we are a work in progress.
Loving God. We, through Adam and Eve’s disobedience, have let sin in the world. You have broken the power of sin and death. Thank You, Lord, for loving us enough to restore our relationship with You. Help us daily to defeat Satan and his temptations. Amen.
What do you think?
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