God's grace and obedience to Him (part 6)

Romans 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? And this is how we die to sin, by baptism. Once we have understood that we are powerless without Him and that sin came into the world through Adam and all of us sin and the only person to save us is Jesus, it is logical for us to ask how to we live as Jesus lived and lives, and this is through a life of obedience to God, beginning with participating in his death, burial, and resurrection. Remember that we walk because we are obedient but not the other way around. Nothing we can do will bring us God's grace. It's a matter of the heart.

Roamns 6:4  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. We are buried with Him in baptism and we die to our former lives of sin (and I think of dying to sin as being like a seed that has to die for the sapling to sprout) and then we are raised like Christ rose on the 3^rd day by the power of God. This I think gets to the heart of what Paul means the “operation of God”. God acts on us to raise us as new creatures and our walk after that demonstrates the peace and reconciliation.

Romans 6:5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: I love the idea of being planted, because it reminds me that God and Jesus sow seeds which sprout and grow in Him. And those seeds must die. Much like being buried, such as in baptism and then we rise.

Romans 6:6  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. Our outer covering of sin is destroyed and we come to walk in a way that is not sinful.