Unashamed Reading Plan – W5D1
Check out all the previous Unashamed readings here.
Unashamed Reading Plan | Week 5 | Day 1
Prayer
As you come to spend time with Jesus, calm your mind and body until you feel fully present. Ask Him to teach you more about Himself today.
Bible Reading: Romans 6:1-10
Read these verses three times slowly.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Reflection & Questions
In Romans chapters 1-5 Paul has been hammering home so much that salvation is by faith that he anticipates that it raises a big question. That’s the question of “If I’m saved by faith, then why don’t we just keep on sinning? I can just sin and ask for forgiveness later!” Paul’s critics would certainly see this as a BIG problem in ‘salvation by faith’ and would feel that it is a ‘gotcha’ moment.
Romans 6 is all about answering this question. While it seems to be a ‘gotcha’ moment, Paul is horrified at the suggestion that Christians keep cozying up with sin. In fact, he says “how can we live in it any longer?” The fact is, that asking the question is a total misunderstanding of what it means to be a Christian and the devastating effect of sin. Sin has been such a harsh taskmaster that we have been slaves to. Jesus went all the way to the cross to save us from it. He has freed us from the condemnation of sin. And most of all, we have been “united with Christ”. We have a whole new life and relationship with Christ. To carry on in sin is a complete disrespect to that relationship. Yes, we do still sin, stumble and fall, the beauty is that we have complete forgiveness in Christ. But the true believer won’t take that forgiveness as a license to sin but as a freedom to honor Christ with our lives.
- How would you answer the person who says, “I can just keep on sinning because Jesus will just forgive me!”
- What encouragement do you take from the fact that you are united with Christ and that nothing can separate you from Him?
Prayer
Pray in response to today’s reading.
Worship Song
You might use this song today to worship Jesus today:
Bible Reading: Romans 6:1-10
Read these verses three times slowly.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
Reflection & Questions
In the first 5 chapters of Romans Paul taught us all about salvation and how we can’t earn it, we simply must have faith and believe that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sin. So does that mean that we can just keep sinning because it’s so easy to just ask for forgiveness?
In Romans 6 we are going to learn the answer to that question. He says it pretty clearly: “By no means!” He thinks it’s terrible to even think about being comfortable with sin. In fact, he says, “how can we live in it any longer?” You might be wondering, “Why not?”
If we want to continue to sin on purpose, then we really don’t have a good understanding of what it means to be a Christian and we also don’t get just how bad sin can be in our lives. It can do terrible things! For example, if you keep telling little lies, pretty soon no one is going to trust you and your relationships won’t be very strong anymore, or people might just stop being friends with you.
When we continue to sin on purpose, those sins can rule our lives. One lie leads to another lie and pretty soon we are working hard to keep our lies straight when it would have been easier to tell the truth! Jesus didn’t want us to be slaves to sin so He went all the way to dying on the cross to save us from it. Not only did that destroy sin’s control over us, but it created a relationship with Him. If we keep on sinning, that’s pretty disrespectful to Jesus.
It’s tough to keep from sinning. It’s impossible, actually. We will stumble and fall but the great thing for us is that we have complete forgiveness in Christ. If you truly believe He gave you that gift, you won’t want to hurt Him by sinning on purpose, but you will want to live to honor Him with your life!
- If someone gave you an amazing present, how would you show your appreciation?
Pray
Ask God to help you live a life that shows you are so grateful to Him for rescuing you from sin. Ask Him to show you ways that you can honor Him in how you live.
Check out more Bible Reading Plans here.
Questions?
Ed Applegate
