Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Romans 6:1-7.

 

“¹ What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?

 

² May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

³  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

⁴  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

⁵  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

⁶  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;

 

⁷  for he who has died is freed from sin.”  Romans 6:1-7.

 

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Here is an analogy.  A prisoner has been chained in prison for years.  Finally, he is unchained and escorted out of the prison.  Yes, he can come back to visit, but why would he ever want to come back to visit? 

 

Certainly, the analogy is not perfect.  But, I hope it helps us first consider the Scripture for today in briefest summary.  We are freed from sin.  Yes, we can still sin, but why would we ever want to continue in sin?

 

 

Article 24:  Of man’s Sanctification and Good Works.

                                                 

“We believe that this true faith being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God, and the operation of the Holy Ghost, doth regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to live a new life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin.  …”  

Here is what The Heidelberg Catechism states in part:

Question 43.  What further benefit do we receive from the sacrifice and death of Christ on the cross?

Answer.  That by virtue thereof, our old man is crucified, dead and buried with him; that so the corrupt inclinations of the flesh may no more reign in us;  but that we may offer ourselves unto him a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

Here is what The Canons of Dordt state in part:

Article 11.  But when God accomplishes his good pleasure in the elect, or works in them true conversion, he not only causes the gospel to be externally preached to them, and powerfully illumines their minds by his Holy Spirit, that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God;  but by the efficacy of the same regenerating Spirit, pervades the inmost recesses of the man;  he opens the closed, and softens the hardened heart, and circumcises that which was uncircumcised, infuses new qualities into the will, which though heretofore dead, he quickens; from being evil, disobedient and refractory, he renders it good, obedient, and pliable; actuates and strengthens it, that like a good tree, it may bring forth the fruits of good actions.

Here is what The Westminister Larger Catechism states in part:

Question 75:  What is sanctification?

Answer:  Sanctification is a work of God’s grace, whereby they whom God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen to be holy, are in time, through the powerful operation of his Spirit applying the death and resurrection of Christ unto them, renewed in their whole man after the image of God;  having the seeds of repentance unto life, and all other saving graces, put into their hearts, and those graces so stirred up, increased, and strengthened, as that they more and more die unto sin, and rise unto newness of life.

Question 76:  What is repentance unto life?

Answer:  Repentance unto life is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and Word of God, whereby, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, and upon the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, he so grieves for and hates his sins, as that he turns from them all to God, purposing and endeavoring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience.