Wednesday, February 19, 2025

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Romans 6:6).

Today’s verse is most important, for we know that while the blood of Christ washes our sins away forever, we still have the sinful nature that commits those sins. The Bible often refers to this as “the flesh.” God forgives sins, but He never forgives our old sinful nature. It can never be made any better, and it deserves nothing but death.

However, in His work on the cross, the Lord Jesus has made it possible for us to allow the new nature to act, instead of the old sinful nature. In His death and resurrection, the Lord Jesus died unto sin, and God saw the end of what we all were as children of Adam. Now we belong to a new Head—the Lord Jesus.

Baptism is connected with this, for when we are baptized, we go under the water and then come up again. In this way we identify ourselves with the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and admit that our sinful nature deserves nothing but death.

This may seem a bit complicated at first, but if you read the 6th chapter of Romans, you will see how the Apostle Paul explains it. God looks upon our “old man”—what we were as children of Adam, as having died with Christ. Now, in resurrection, we have a new life in Christ.

However, some of you will say, “But I still have the old sinful nature!” What do I do now? Tomorrow we will see what to do.