An essential part of the Christian life must be to change. We cannot be who we once were, we must turn from that which we once sought, and we must put on Christ in everything that we do. This is the message given to us in Romans 6, Paul is telling us that our death with Christ must create a change, we must become new.
“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1). Of course, the answer is no. We are told that we must not continue, we are told that there is a need for change in our lives filled with sin. We have died with Christ in our baptism, and we are to be raised back into life with him as well. “…Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4).
This is an act that we on our own have no ability to follow. We are of broken flesh, falling to our carnal desires and deserving the worst of punishment for it. Change is an impossibility. Or it was until Christ. “For if we have been united in death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5). It is powerful to be united with Christ, a once failing nature can now be sanctified through him, and only him. Romans 6:7 tells us that one who has died has been set free from sin. It no longer has dominion over us, only Christ can reign over us.
Now that we are set free from sin, a new purpose is stamped onto our souls. “For the death he died he died to sin, once and for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 6:10-11). The old purposes we had for ourselves, including our desires to sin, have died with our old self and we are to instead live our new lives with the Lord.
What does this mean for you and your life? How are you alive in Christ? How has he changed you to put away your old, sinful self and to put on a new self that lives for the Lord? I hope that all of us who have been baptized into Christ can see how much he has allowed us to change for him, and that we may change even more as we grow in our faiths and become more like the one who created us.