February 17 – A Life of Belief (Romans 6:1-14)

“If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.” (Romans 6:8)

IN WORD:
It is strange to our ears: “We died with Christ.” It doesn’t seem much like we died. Most days, we seem all too alive — we have responsibilities that clamor for our attention, people who get on our very sensitive nerves, battles to fight, and habits to lose. If this is life, we’re not sure we want it to be like this. And if we’ve died with Christ and been raised with Him, we’re more than a little confused. This doesn’t seem much like resurrection.
One of our problems is a matter of timing. We live between the Cross and the final Resurrection. While the death and resurrection of Jesus are actual legal facts for us, they are both growing experiences. In a sense we died, but in another sense, we are dying. Jesus told His disciples so; their cross would be a daily fact of their walk. And in a sense we’ve been raised, but in another sense, we will be raised. We’re just learning what it means to live in Christ and for Him to live in us. This new life comes on the heels of a very persistent old one, and sometimes the boundaries between the two are not all that clear to us. They’re very real; they just aren’t that clear.

IN DEED:
Many Christians are disenchanted with the Christian life. It isn’t the experience of spiritual power and holy discipleship they felt it would be. the joy of following Jesus seems to be lacking.
Don’t despair. That life is available. It can be experienced in glimpses and even long seasons for now. And it will be experienced ultimately and finally, forever and ever.
Meanwhile, though our status with God is complete and incorruptible, in practice we linger somewhere between corruption and holiness, between the old and new, between death and life, and between Spirit and flesh. God is calling us ever forward, while sin & Satan grab the heels of their lost possession. Keep fleeing from them, right into the arms of God. Paul’s prescription is belief. Don’t lose heart. We must know whose we are and where we belong. We must believe in the life we’ve been given.

“Christ has turned all our sunsets into dawns.”
-Clement of Alexandria-