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Pathways Through Paul, Vol 2
Daily Devotional
January 16
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Today's Pathway:
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We concluded yesterday by looking at Paul's statement:
"through the law am dead to the law".
Paul then writes that because he is dead to the Law he is now able to "live unto God". Paul discussed this back in Romans 7:1-6 when he wrote,
"Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter."
He illustrated his point with the Biblical principles of marriage. When a couple gets married, they are not to get divorced. If they get divorced, and one of them remarries, then that person is committing adultery (Matthew 19:9). However, if one of the spouses dies, then the remaining spouse is free to remarry. In the same way the Jew was "married" to the Law, but the Law could not save him. Once he found salvation through Jesus Christ the Law became "dead" to him, which enabled him to now be fully "married" to the Lord. Because of this new relationship to Christ he was no longer concerned about the Law, but instead was able to focus all of his attention on his relationship with God and his love and service for Him.
In verse 20 Paul writes that he is "crucified with Christ". The first aspect of this is what we have just seen above: the believer is dead to the Law. The second aspect of this is that because the Christian is crucified with Christ he is also dead to sin. Romans 6:3-7 reads,
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 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. For he that is dead is freed from sin."
Remember that this is not teaching baptismal regeneration, but is teaching that baptism symbolizes the believer's acceptance of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and also his death to his old way of life and his "resurrection" to walk in "newness of life". Paul wrote that because we were crucified with Christ we no longer have to sin, because we are dead to sin, just as we are dead to the Law. The law has no control over the believer, and neither does sin. We are free to serve the Lord through the grace that He has bestowed upon us.
We will continue looking at this tomorrow.
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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