Bad News and Good News    

The bad news is... we sin. But the good news is... by the blood of Jesus Christ and the wonderful grace of God, we can be continually cleansed and justified before our Father if indeed we keep walking in the light (1 John 1:7).
It really is good news, the best news ever! Jesus’ suffering and sacrificial death paid the price for our sins, and Jesus’ resurrection proved that God can give new life to us as well. Paul wrote about this glorious new life in Romans 6:4-6:
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.”
God wants to take that old person that is plagued by sin and worldliness and put it to death by burying it in the waters of baptism. Then, just as He did with Jesus, He wants to triumphantly raise us from the dead to walk in a whole new way of life!
But some of those folks in Rome had heard the message and had been baptized, but they kept on sinning willfully. They had heard about this new life, but, tragically, they were not living it! Instead of living that great new life of walking daily with the Lord, they continued to fill their lives with sin just as they had before they came to Christ.
Paul’s response to them in Romans 6:2 was this: “May it never be (God forbid)! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?” In other words, what they did made no sense, and they were missing out on the wonderful new resurrected life God had planned for them.
Is it possible that what Paul had to say to those folks back then might also apply to some/many of us today? Is it possible that some of us need to repent and make a change?
If so, there is more good news. Not only did God wash you clean by the blood of the Lamb, He also put His Holy Spirit within you to give you the help and strength you need to live the Christian life He intends for you to live. Or as Peter said, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).

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