For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (Romans 5:17)
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:11)
April 21st, 2020 – Morning Devotion With Pastor Dan
The first three Evangelists spoke of redemption as a pardon of sin, or Justification. John spoke of it as a Life which Christ is to live in us, or Regeneration. In Paul we find both truths in their beautiful connection and harmony.
So in Romans he first speaks of Justification, (Romans 3:21) to (Romans 5:11). Then he goes on from room from (Romans 5:12) to (Romans 8:39) to speak of the Life that there is in union with Christ. In (Romans 4) he tells us that we find both of these things in Abraham. First, (verses 3-5), “Abraham believed God, Him that justifies the ungodly; his faith is reckoned for righteousness.” Then (verse 17), “Abraham believed God, who quickens the dead.” Just as God first of all counted to Abraham his faith as righteousness, and then lead him on to believe in Him as the God Who can give life to the dead, even so with the believer.
Justification terms of the commencement full and complete, as the eye of faith is fixed upon Christ. What time is only the beginning. Gradually the believer begins to understand that he has at the same time born-again, that he has Christ in him, and that he’s calling now is to abide in Christ, and let Christ abide and live and work him.
Most Christians strive by holding fast their faith in justification to stir and strengthen themselves for a life of gratitude and obedience. But they fail sadly because they do not know, do not in full faith yield themselves to Christ, to maintain His life in them. They have learned from Abraham the first lesson, to believe in God Who justifies the ungodly. But they have not gone on to the second great lesson, to believe in God Who quickens the dead, in daily renews that life through Christ, Who lives in them, and in Who’s life alone there is strength and fullness of blessing. The Christian life must be “from faith to faith”. The grace of pardon is but the beginning; growing and grace leads on to the fuller insight and experience of what it is to be in Christ, to live in Him, and to grow up in Him in all things as the Head.