Romans 6:1-14
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
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.
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
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Let’s be honest—uncertainty is hard for us. We like to be in control of things. Fear, at the root of it, is the admission that we’re not in control. I have a fear of heights, but it’s not really a fear of heights. It’s a fear that whatever height I’m perched upon might somehow give way when I am upon it, leading to a fall to my death. If you could guarantee that I wouldn’t fall from whatever perilous height we were talking about, I wouldn’t be afraid of it.
When we’re not in control, our minds have a tendency to trend to the worst. School ended this week, and whenever I think of the end of the school year I am forced to remember the end of 5th and 6th grades. It was a bad two year run for me. The last day of 5th grade was supposed to be a celebration of leaving elementary school. This was before they had graduations for absolutely everything—our day care even has graduation—so we were just going to spend the day playing. Instead, we spent the day huddled in the school basement as a tornado passed by far too close.
Then, in 6th grade, I spent the entire night before the last day of school terrified because I hadn’t bothered to do a book report on Anne Frank. I don’t remember the exact details, but it was a hectic last week of school and I hadn’t bothered to do this report, and this led to me in bed in the middle of the night terrified that I was going to fail 6th grade, stay in middle school forever and never make anything of my life. We can safely say I carried this just a bit too far. In both instances I was not in control, and I was scared.
We don’t have a lot of control in this life. Often, things just happen. I went to the dentist the other week and ended up having a biopsy done on something that was growing in my mouth. I went from worrying about flossing to worrying about dying pretty quickly. As it is, the biopsy was negative, so Rachel can stop looking for better options, but it doesn’t take much for us to realize how little control we have.
The storms in Moore, Oklahoma are just another reminder to us of how little control we have. They are terrifying, and every parent’s worst nightmare is being away from your kid and not being able to shield them from harm. Just the pictures from Oklahoma are terrifying. This is a mile wide tornado with winds of 200 mph that was on the ground for 22 miles. It will make you feel pretty out of control pretty quickly.
In times like this, we look to the heavens and we wonder. We know that God is in control, and so we wonder how and why all this happens. We wonder what the big picture is, what the answers to our questions are. We long for certainty and confidence with which to face our fears.
What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
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.
Therefore, do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
*******************************
Let’s be honest—uncertainty is hard for us. We like to be in control of things. Fear, at the root of it, is the admission that we’re not in control. I have a fear of heights, but it’s not really a fear of heights. It’s a fear that whatever height I’m perched upon might somehow give way when I am upon it, leading to a fall to my death. If you could guarantee that I wouldn’t fall from whatever perilous height we were talking about, I wouldn’t be afraid of it.
When we’re not in control, our minds have a tendency to trend to the worst. School ended this week, and whenever I think of the end of the school year I am forced to remember the end of 5th and 6th grades. It was a bad two year run for me. The last day of 5th grade was supposed to be a celebration of leaving elementary school. This was before they had graduations for absolutely everything—our day care even has graduation—so we were just going to spend the day playing. Instead, we spent the day huddled in the school basement as a tornado passed by far too close.
Then, in 6th grade, I spent the entire night before the last day of school terrified because I hadn’t bothered to do a book report on Anne Frank. I don’t remember the exact details, but it was a hectic last week of school and I hadn’t bothered to do this report, and this led to me in bed in the middle of the night terrified that I was going to fail 6th grade, stay in middle school forever and never make anything of my life. We can safely say I carried this just a bit too far. In both instances I was not in control, and I was scared.
We don’t have a lot of control in this life. Often, things just happen. I went to the dentist the other week and ended up having a biopsy done on something that was growing in my mouth. I went from worrying about flossing to worrying about dying pretty quickly. As it is, the biopsy was negative, so Rachel can stop looking for better options, but it doesn’t take much for us to realize how little control we have.
The storms in Moore, Oklahoma are just another reminder to us of how little control we have. They are terrifying, and every parent’s worst nightmare is being away from your kid and not being able to shield them from harm. Just the pictures from Oklahoma are terrifying. This is a mile wide tornado with winds of 200 mph that was on the ground for 22 miles. It will make you feel pretty out of control pretty quickly.
In times like this, we look to the heavens and we wonder. We know that God is in control, and so we wonder how and why all this happens. We wonder what the big picture is, what the answers to our questions are. We long for certainty and confidence with which to face our fears.