Saturday, May 5, 2012

Bible Truth #376 - Romans 6:1-4

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.

We have been buried with him? Yes! Written in past tense. It has already been done. Paul was writing this of EVERY believer, including those who would be saved 100 years from the time he penned those words, or 2,000 years. It makes no difference how far into the future.

Well how can a man who is saved today be buried with Christ when Christ was buried in April of 32 AD? When Christ was raised from the dead, how can this saved man walk in newness of life when he hadn’t even yet been born? The answer is that man can do it because he was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Because he was chosen in Christ, when Christ was crucified and buried, also accomplished before the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8), he was in Christ, as ALL God's Elect are.

Even as those who believe in a lost man’s ability to choose Christ say that God looked down through history, He looked down through the corridors of time and saw who would choose Christ and God then put those people in Christ, are they not admitting that God looked down through the corridors of time and saw who WOULDN’T choose Christ and DIDN’T put them in Christ? If a man wasn’t in Christ, then Jesus didn’t die to redeem him!

Do you believe the Bible, regardless what it says and that it has no error in it? Or do you believe the Bible ONLY when it’s plausible and logical? That it a very important issue. You may reply, “Why that’s silly for you to ask a question like that. You know good and well I believe the Bible regardless.” Well the only way you can find out if you really do believe the complete Word of God is by examining your reaction to that which goes against the the flesh, and goes against human emotion, and defies logical explanation. Will you say, “That makes no sense. Why would God tell a man to repent and believe if he couldn’t do it?” Or will you say, “I don’t understand it, but God’s Word says it and I accept it on faith and believe it.” That will tell you, and other believers, just how much faith God has given you (Romans 12:3).

The bottom line is that God chose a bride for His Son and put them in Christ before the foundation of the world. When Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world, we were in Him. That is why Paul can say that we HAVE BEEN baptized into His death and as Christ was raised from the dead, we also were raised and can walk in newness of life.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.