Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Romans 6:5-11 – For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.  We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.  For whoever has died is freed from sin.  But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.  The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.  (NRSV)

The Apostle Paul had a fairly dramatic conversion experience.  He was an up-and-coming persecutor of the church, known for his zeal in imprisoning Christians.  But on the way to Damascus to continue his mission, he was struck blind and accosted by a vision of Christ Jesus.  His turn-around was almost immediate, which created some challenges in trying to get the Christian community to trust him.  This is important background to know when reading statements like “our old self was crucified.”

It was important for Paul to have a clean and clear break from what he had been before.  But what if your life hasn’t taken that path?  What if you were brought up in the church, and you don’t have a life of evil to turn from?  How do we apply the idea of dying to sin and living in Christ to our own lives, which may seem bland compared to Paul’s?

The truth is that the life of faith is not that exciting much of the time.  Rather than dramatic confrontations between good and evil, our lives are continually filled with tiny, seemingly trivial decisions which nudge us in one direction or another.  The forces of evil do work on us, from our culture, our economic system and our own hearts, but they mostly act very subtly.  More than a one-time, all-or-nothing moment, our conversation is usually an endless series of repeated choices to follow the way of Christ.  It’s not a single 180 degree turn, but a constant re-turning to God.  Our words, our actions, our choices, they can all turn us toward or away from God.

Traditional spiritual disciplines – participation in worship and Bible study, regular prayer practices, stewardship of time & treasure – can help us to recognize what we are enslaved to. We are rarely as free as we imagine ourselves.  When we make faithful choices in the little things, we are better prepared to be faithful when the stakes are higher, as they may occasionally become.  But even if our situation is not as clear as Paul’s, the truth of our Savior is the same: in Christ, death has lost its power.  In him, we are alive to God.  Let us continue to choose that life!