God Thinking LXIX - The Dichotomy 6

"There are many places that God takes you:

Many realms

Many seasons

Many wonderful places of blessing

Places of fulfillment

Places filled with wisdom

Places of beauty

But this is not one of those places.

This place is like no other.

  

Now I want to read a passage of scripture that is graphic and disclosing.  When I say that you need to die to self, it’s not fair to assume that you will see what that really means in the same way, but as you read these scriptures God will open up this profound truth and make it clear and simple.

There is no teaching concerning salvation and the experience of the believer more revealing as to what the expected outcome of the salvation experience is supposed to be than what I am going to read.

Go with me to Romans 6:1-7

 1.  What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

 2.  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

You need to carefully hear and consider what Paul is saying by the Holy Spirit to you, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

What does it mean to be dead to sin?

Well the best explanation comes up in the scriptures in the very next verse.

 3.  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

“Were baptized into His death?”  Baptized means immersed - you were immersed into His death - but the clear meaning hasn’t been fully revealed yet.  

What do you do with something dead? 

You bury it.

Hear the truth of the matter:

 4.  Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death:

Before I go on, I want you to get a clear understanding of what God does to you when you are born again.  When you use the phrase, “Die to self”, this is not a silly colloquialism.  When you were buried with Him by baptism into death:

You relinquished your own way for His way

You stop having to cave in at every whim 

You give up everything temporal

You are stopped from having a self-only direction

Don’t get nervous, to die to self, to be buried with Him by baptism into His death, even though it is a must, it is for the purpose of making you into the image and likeness of God.  God has to take you there to take you further."

Excerpt from God Thinking LXIX - The Dichotomy by Keith C. Powell                                                    Copyright 2014