NorthStar Community Daily Devotional

July 24 - Life saving resurrection

Scripture focus: So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we've left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn't you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace--a new life in a new land! That's what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we're going in our new grace-sovereign country. Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life--no longer at sin's every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ's sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did. That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time--remember, you've been raised from the dead!--into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under that old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God. Romans 6:1-14 (The Message)

Wow -- this is good news -- sin can't tell us how to live once we've entered this new country of grace. Does that mean that we can just forget about all the betrayal and suffering that we have experienced in a life lived independently of God? Are we saying that once we're accepted into the kingdom of God we will no longer experience trials and tribulations on planet earth?

Life saving resurrection is not suggesting that there is no more need to acknowledge and ask for healing from our suffering. A new way of life brings with it the promise and potential for healing from our past hurts. We can fail to experience this rebirth, even though we are in fact reborn, if we don't learn how to trust God with ourselves -- the good, the bad and even the ugly.

More on things we need to acknowledge and ask for help with in tomorrow's devotional.

Recommended reading: 1 Samuel 13-15

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