ERCC DEVOTIONAL (TEKAN) DAILY SPIRITUAL DIET; MONDAY 16TH OCTOBER, 2023.

TEXT: ROMANS 6: 1 - 14.

SPIRITUAL FOCUS: THERE IS NO REASON TO LIVE IN SIN.

In today's study Paul begins with the question, What shall we say? Do we continue to sin because God's grace is already abundant? ( verse 1), he answers no. 

We who have already been justified, have died for our sins so we have no right to do them again. Just as the dead cannot live, so we ought to live, so that sin does not rule over us again. We should should know that from the day we repented, we were dead to sin, living new lives for righteousness in Christ. 

Sadly, today there are those who say that because they have been saved by grace through faith, they will do what they want, that is, sin, that God the Almighty will forgive them and will never abandon them. 

This idea is a big mistake. Although we can be sure that if we confess our sins, God will forgive us and not give us the right to sin because we are already dead to sin. Therefore, let us not boast in doing evil, but keep on doing good. 

Could this be the reason why the Apostle Paul began his discussion today with the question "should we keep on sinning because the grace of God has increased"? Brothers and sisters today, by God's power, we must resist any temptation to sin. 

Sadly, some followers of Christ today play with sin, saying that this is life. God forbid. 

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Sin will aspartate us from the Lord God 

PRAYER: Lord God, I beseech You, grant me the power to live in the grace of Christ Jesus, Amen.

                        ROMANS 6: 1 - 14 (NIV).

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?

2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—

7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.