Dead Is Dead

I have joined Christ in death. My baptism--even my infant baptism--united me to Christ. I share in His death to sin. Having joined Christ in death, I also joined Him in the grave. AND I joined him in the resurrection. I also have been raised to new life. I have new life in Christ Jesus where sin has no power, because it is dead.

Joanna Weaver gives a rather funny illustration of this truth in her devotional At the Feet of Jesus:

...you can't tempt a dead person--or make one afraid. Go ahead and try. Prop him up in a corner and parade beautiful women past him, and he won't even steal a glance (pg 297).

Dead is dead. Our society of violence, promoted through the various media, blurs the reality of death. We get away from the fact that death is final. There is no coming back, no return to normal.

And so it is with sin. It is dead. Jesus put it to death. And that is final. Being baptized to new life in Christ Jesus, sin no longer has rule over our lives.

Yet we live as if we are helpless. We allow sin to victimize us. We continue on in our self-centered passions, not because sin has power over us. We continue in sin because we want to. And we turn to the grace of God to pull us out of the situations we find ourselves in because of the consequence of sin. Yet that same grace of God is there before we choose to sin. We could choose to trust in God for escape before we sin.

By the grace of God we are dead to sin and it's powerful hold. Oh, that we would grab onto that grace before we choose the path of sin.

Lord Jesus, your precious death freed me from the grip of sin. I know I have joined you in that death. I know I have experienced the dank, dark solitude of the grave. I know I have new life that pulls me from trauma and damage when I rely on your grace in times of temptation. Oh, thank you for that grace...amazing grace. Please keep me from abusing it, from taking it for granted. Amen

 

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