Alive in Christ

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Scripture: Romans 6:8-11 (ESV)

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Devotion:

            In today’s scripture we find Paul writing about dying with Christ that we may live in him. At first this is hard to grasp with our minds. But we must wrestle with this saying until we get the idea that we cannot truly live for Christ unless we have first died to our old self.

            This is what Christ talked to Nicodemus about in John chapter 3. One cannot be born again unless one dies to one’s self first. Each of us has a sin nature that must be put to death in order to really follow after Jesus. We can look at Jesus’ death and resurrection as a picture of what must happen to us as believers. In order to be truly alive in Christ we must have died to sin.

            We must follow Jesus in our lives. Jesus became sin for us on the cross and so died to sin on the cross and is no longer bound by death. Jesus is alive to God forever because he defeated death. We as Christians must live according to this new reality. The Lord will give us the strength to act in this way through the power of the Holy Spirit.

            Death our final enemy is a defeated foe. Just as Jesus died and now lives forever, so we too can live forever in Christ. The power to do this is freely available in the Holy Spirit. All we need do is count it as our own. For us to die is gain and to live is Christ. We need only have faith in Jesus, and we can live forever with him.

Prayer:

            God help us to understand the mystery of life in Christ that we may live in him. Help us die to sin and self each day. Teach us to live as those who are alive in Christ becoming an example to our watching world of your power. Lord we pray that you will bring peace to our longing hearts. May we no longer be anxious or afraid knowing that not even death will be able to gain victory in our lives. Help us to realize that we are secure in you. Amen.

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