#GOFAMINTDailyDevotion Sun. 10/7/2016
10/7/2016 LESSON 6
JESTIFICATION IS BY FAITH
Quarter’s Theme: BASIC CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES
Unit 2 – The Believers’ Justification And Admonition To Sinners (Lessons 5-9)
Suggested Hymns: G.H.B. 308, 309
Devotional Reading: COL. 3:1-17
Topic For Adults
DEAD OR SLEEP TO SIN
Topic For Youths
YOU CANNOT FOOL GOD
Topic For Intermediates
PUT ON GODLY VIRTUES
Scripture Lesson
ROMANS 6:1-23
(RESPONSIBILITY MONTHS)
MEMORY VERSE
Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:11) NKJV
DAILY DEVOTIONAL READING
Sun. 10/7/2016
Yield Yourself To God
Rom. 6:15-23
There are two forces that are pulling every man on earth – the force of the devil and the force of God. This pulling is done in the heart of the person and he or she has the ability to choose whose force or side he or she will take. Some yielded to the pulling force of the devil and have become the slaves of sin and of the devil. Some have yielded themselves to the pulling force of God and have become slaves of God and of righteousness. Whose pulling force are you yielding yourself to? Who is controlling your life, your time, your thoughts, your actions or reactions – God or the devil? Beloved, I beseech you by the mercies of God, yield yourself, your totality unto God. Do not give place to the devil in your life.
Point of Emphasis: Yield not to the devil, for yielding to him is sin.
Prayer Point: Lord, I consecrate my life and my all unto You in Jesus’ name.
BACKGROUND
That one is saved and justified by God is not the end of one’s Christian race. If
care is not taken, such salvation and justification can be lost. However, to
sustain this important Christian experience, believers must take certain steps further in their walk with God. One of these steps is the focus of this week’s lesson. They must not go back into their old sin, neither must they commit new sins, rather they must be righteous unto God in all their ways.
NOTE ON THE TEXTS
PART 1: BE DEAD TO SIN (ROM. 6:1-7)
Apostle Paul raised a vital question that all believers in Christ must answer. After being saved and justified, shall we continue in sin that God’s grace may abound? He answered, God forbids. What is your own answer? This question might be in the heart of a Gentile convert who imagined that by simply believing in Christ, God showed him His mercy by blotting out his sin, and now thought that he had been in favour with God his transgressions could do him no hurt. But Paul said this should not be mentioned again in the lives of believers.
Paul raised a vital argument to support his submission that “how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it?” (v. 2). To die to a thing or person, is to have nothing to do with it or him to be totally separated from them. A man that is dead is not influenced and not affected by the affairs of this life. When it is said, therefore, that the Christian is dead to sin, the sense is that sin has lost its influence over him, the Christian is not subject to sin. The apostle does not attempt to prove here that Christians are thus dead, nor to state in what way they become so. He means that all Christians are dead to sin by not living in sin. They do not allow sin to have dominion over them. He means that those who have become sensible of the evil of sin, and have renounced it by salvation, must not continue to practise sin.
Apostle Paul also buttressed his point by appealing to the Christians that demonstrated their renounciation of sin when they underwent water baptism and pledged that to be alive unto God (vv. 4-7). Just as Jesus died and rose from the dead which believers have typified through baptism, it is expected of them to walk and live in holiness and newness of life and not according to the “old man” old nature, adamic and sinful nature, which had been crucified with Christ at salvation and justification. Are you really dead to sin? Is sin still reigning in your mortal body? Do away with the body and nature of sin in you today.
PART 2: ALIVE TO GOD THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS (ROM. 6:8-14)
Another thing that believers should know is that when they are dead to sin, they must be alive unto God. They must be alive unto all that Christ requires of them: holiness, righteousness, commitment to His work and word, etc. They must be alive unto their responsibilities in the things of the kingdom. They must also know that as Christ, having being raised from dead, dies no more, they too will live forever with Christ in eternity (vv. 8-9)
To be alive unto God must be patterned after Jesus, who dies to sin once and after that lives His life unto God (v. 10). Believers must reckon themselves also to be dead indeed to sin and alive unto God through Christ Jesus (v.11). The problem with many believers is that they confess with their mouths that they are dead to sin, when in actual fact they are not “indeed” dead to sin. To live unto God is to be bound to live to prompt His glory.
To be alive to God, constant effort must be made, through the help of the Holy Spirit, not to allow sin to reign again in one’s life (v. 12). Sin will not be removed from the world when you are saved. As a matter of fact it will multiply itself against you through various temptations, but you must resist it to the last action of your blood. You must not allow it to gain another footing in your life not to talk of reigning again. You must not yield any part (members) of your body as instrument of unrighteousness. You must not devote your eyes, hands, ears, tongue, mouth, legs, etc, to sinful passion and corrupt desires. Rather you should give them up as instrument of righteousness to do what is right before God and before men at all times. This means, you must consecrate your life unto the use of God on daily basis and make a strong determination never to allow sin to have dominion over your life (v. 14).
PART 3: WHOSE SLAVE ARE YOU? (ROM. 6:15-23)
All men in the world can be regarded as slaves. But there are two categories of slaves, each defined by certain characteristics and peculiarities. For instance, there are slaves of sin. Such people are perpetually under the bondage of sin. They are at the back and call of sin. They do not have any power to resist sin when it comes to them, rather they obey its dictate. However, if these people do not have a solution to their problem, if they do not believe in Jesus who has purchased redemption from the slave market of sin through His blood, their end will be catastrophic, because death, both physical and spiritual awaits them, for the wages of sin is death (vv. 16,23).
The second category are slaves unto God and slaves of righteousness. These ones are good slaves for they have known God. These are being referred to as “slaves” because they have decided to deny themselves of some sights and worldly pleasures in order to please God and live for Him. The end result of their lives is now holiness, righteousness, grace, joy, and at the final end, they will have eternal life with God. Which category of slaves do you belong to?
CONCLUSION
The Bible says you must work out your salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12). It is not enough for you to be saved and justified, you must build on them to sustain your salvation in God through holy and righteous living. Shun the life of sin, be dead to sin and its entanglements and be alive unto God through righteous deeds
QUESTIONS
- What does it mean to die?
- How can the believers be dead to sin?
- What should believers be alive to?
- Mention some “members” of our bodies and how can we use them as instruments of righteousness.
- Mention the two categories of slaves we have and their characteristics.