OUR FATHER TO WHOM WE BEAR FRUIT BY DYING TO THE FLESH AND BECOMING ALIVE IN CHRIST

Romans chapter 7 says this;

1 Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? 2 For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. 6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

In this passage, the Apostle Paul explains that just as a woman whose husband had died was free to marry again because she was no longer obligated to the law of her first marriage,  so are we, having died to the law through the death of the Lord Jesus, no longer obligated to fulfill the letter of the law but rather to live in the newness of the Spirit.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHOSE GIFT IS ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD

In the book of Romans chapter 6 verses 15 - 23, the Apostle Paul, having previously discussed the fact that a believer in faith is not under the law but under grace,  rhetorically asks if a believer was now free to sin because they were not under the law but under grace. 

Paul emphatically refutes that notion by explaining that we will become the slaves of whomever we present ourselves to obey. If we chose to obey the coersion of sin, we become a slave of sin and conversely, if we are obedient to the mandates of righteousness, we become slaves of righteousness.

When we were slaves to sin, our God who loved us was able to place a command in our hearts that we were able to obey and that obedience to the doctrine of salvation set us free from the dominion of sin and we, having obeyed the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation (Romans chapter 1 verse 16), took the first step in a life of obedience.

To continue in the life that is set free from sin and death, we must continually present ourselves to righteousness that leads us to holiness.

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. 18 And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.

 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen

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 OUR FATHER TO WHOM WE PRESENT OURSELVES AS ONES RAISED FROM DEATH

Romans chapter 6 verses 12 - 14 says this;

12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. 13 And do not present your members as [nstruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

Amen.

OUR FATHER TO WHOM CHRIST LIVES AND WE AS WELL IF WE ARE CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST

Romans chapter 5 verses 4 - 11 discusses the reality of sharing in the life of Christ if we have shared in the death of Christ. The Apostle Paul phasises that an effect of dying with Christ is that in death, the flesh is dead and we are able to live apart from the influence of sin on our lives. The flesh cannot forcefully excert  itˋs desires as it is dead and thus we are able to live in the victory over sin that Christ accomplied through His ressurection from death that he suffered on the cross. In this victory, we can live in God as Christ lives in God.

4 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

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OUR FATHER WHO RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD BY HIS GLORY

Romans chapter 6 verses 1 - 4 says this;

 1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Amen

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OUR FATHER WHOSE GRACE ABOUNDS

The book of Romans chapter 5 verses 18 - 21 says this;

18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. 19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen 

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