WEDNESDAY'S WISDOM: DEAD TO SIN, ALIVE TO *GOD*: SERVANTS TO RIGHTEOUSNESS...

ROMANS 6...
1/ What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?  
2/ May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 
3/ Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  4/ Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 
5/ For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 
6/ 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;  
7/ for he who has died is freed from sin. 
8/ Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 
9/ knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  
10/ For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11/ Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as (being) dead to sin and living for God in Christ Jesus.
12/ Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires.
13/ And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.
14/ For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace.
15/ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not!
16/ Do you not know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness
17/ But thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.
18/ Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

The apostle is very full in pressing the necessity of holiness. He does not explain away the free grace of the gospel, but he shows that connection between justification and holiness are inseparable. Let the thought be abhorred, of continuing in sin that grace may abound. True believers are dead to sin, therefore they ought not to follow it. No man can at the same time be both dead and alive. He is a fool who, desiring to be dead unto sin, thinks he may live in it.

Baptism teaches the necessity of dying to sin, and being as it were buried from all ungodly and unholy pursuits, and of rising to walk with God in newness of life. Unholy professors may have had the outward sign of a death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteousness, but they never passed from the family of Satan to that of God. The corrupt nature, called the old man, because derived from our first father Adam, is crucified with Christ, in every true believer, by the grace derived from the cross. It is weakened and in a dying state, though it yet struggles for life, and even for victory. But the whole body of sin, whatever is not according to the holy law of God, must be done away, so that the believer may no more be the slave of sin, but live to God, and find happiness in his service.

But life that is lived in dedication to God now is part and parcel of that future. Hence anyone who sincerely claims to be interested in that future will scarcely be able to say, "Let us sin so that grace may prosper" (cf Romans 6:1). 

Christians have been released from the grip of sin, but sin endeavors to reclaim its victims. The antidote is constant remembrance that divine grace has claimed them and identifies them as people who are alive only for God's interests.

In contrast to humanity, which was handed over to self-indulgence (Romans 1:24-32), believers are entrusted ("handed over") to God's pattern of teaching, that is, the new life God aims to develop in Christians through the productivity of the holy Spirit. Throughout this passage Paul uses the slave-master model in order to emphasize the fact that one cannot give allegiance to both God and sin.

The strongest motives against sin, and to enforce holiness, are here stated. Being made free from the reign of sin, alive unto God, and having the prospect of eternal life, it becomes believers to be greatly concerned to advance thereto.

But, as unholy lusts are not quite rooted out in this life, it must be the care of the Christian to resist their motions, earnestly striving, that, through Divine grace, they may not prevail in this mortal state. Let the thought that this state will soon be at an end, encourage the true Christian, as to the motions of lusts, which so often perplex and distress him. 

Let us present all our powers to God, as weapons or tools ready for the warfare, and work of righteousness, in his service. There is strength in the covenant of grace for us. Sin shall not have dominion. 

God's promises to us are more powerful and effectual for mortifying sin, than our promises to God.

Sin may struggle in a real believer, and create him a great deal of trouble, but it shall not have dominion; it may vex him, but it shall not rule over him. Shall any take occasion from this encouraging doctrine to allow themselves in the practice of any sin? Far be such abominable thoughts, so contrary to the perfections of God, and the design of his gospel, so opposed to being under grace.

What can be a stronger motive against sin than the love of Christ? Shall we sin against so much goodness, and such love?

AMEN!!!