Good morning. If anyone doesn't know me, my name is Eric. I'm the youth guy here at Watermark.
I love working here. I love being a part of this church family, and I'm very excited to get to
share with you guys from God's Word today. If you noticed, we're in Romans 6 today, which means
we're jumping in into the middle of a letter that we've been going through for a couple months,
and I thought, based on the context, it could be helpful to do a little recap of where we've been
so far so that we can see how this fits into the whole. So Romans is written by this guy named Paul
to the church that was at Rome, and he starts out the letter by telling a story of two different types
of people, and really he says each one of us is one or the other of these two types of people.
There's one type of person who goes out there. He says, forget about God. I don't need him. I don't
believe that he's even real. I'm going to do what I want. I'm going to live how I want, and I'm going
to find my salvation through being a liberated person. That's one type of person. The other type
of person says, I believe that there is a God, and here is the list of rules that God has given us to
follow, and I'm going to follow those rules so perfectly that God cannot help but accept me
because I am such a good person. So we've got this person who tries to find liberation from God,
and this person who tries to obediently earn God's favor, and Paul paints pictures of these two people,
and he says, regardless of which one you are, because every one of us is one or the other,
or some combo of the two. He says, everyone has fallen short. He says, God has a standard,
and no matter how hard we try, we can't reach that standard, and we all have a problem.
Every single one of us. No matter how hard we try, no matter how obedient we are, we've fallen short
of God's standard, and because of that, he says, we're under God's wrath, not a good place to be.
But he says, there's a solution to this problem that God has given us himself. He came to the earth
as a man, as Jesus. He came and lived this perfect life that none of us could live. He died a death
that we deserve, but that he didn't, and he traded places with us. He took his perfection, and he offers
it to us. He offers us what Paul calls the righteousness of God. Paul says, because we were
messed up, we had broken our relationship with God, and in a legal sense, we were guilty before God,
and deserving of a punishment. And he says, through Jesus, we're able to have a new right relationship
with God, and a new right legal status before God. A word that he sort of combines those ideas
in one word, righteousness. And he says, this righteousness isn't something we earn by trying
harder, and being better, and doing more. It's a gift that's offered to us by Jesus because of what
he's done. And this letter is written to Christians, so he's operating off the assumption that once you
get that, you're moving forward. Now, if you've trusted in this, you're living life as a Christian.
But what does it mean to live life as a Christian? And so he starts to get into examples from the past
of people who lived lives trusting in God. He talks about Abraham, and how Abraham had this faith, and
how it was Abraham's faith that saved him, this trust in God that saved him, not the obedience that he had.
And he starts explaining how amazing it is to live life as a Christian. And he gets to the end of Romans
chapter 5, and he has this sentence that he says. He says about God's grace. He says, where our sin
increased, God's grace abounded all the more. The more sin that we had, the more God forgives us.
And he's saying, it's so amazing, God, so incredible, that it's not about us. It's not about what we've done.
It's about what Jesus has done. And what Jesus has done is so powerful, so amazing, that it's not
just like, oh, you're good, we'll forgive a little bit. You're not so good, we'll forgive a little bit,
and you can earn the rest. No, he says, the more sin we have, the more God forgives us, the more
amazing that forgiveness is. And when we get to the passage where we are today, he says, now I know
some of you are thinking something based on what I just said. And I need to correct a potential
misunderstanding before we move forward. And that potential misunderstanding is, people look at this,
and they say, hmm, the more I sin, the more God forgives. The more I sin, the more God gets to
show off his grace. So I should just sin as much as possible so that God can forgive me and show off
how amazing he is for forgiving me. And Paul is going to, in today's passage, address this wrong idea
and show us that the fact that we've been forgiven, if that's true of us, means that we should be living
radically transformed lives today. So let's jump into Romans chapter 6. The first thing I want us to see
is that the fact that we've been forgiven by God is not a license for us to sin just so we can get
forgiven. He starts out in Romans chapter 6. He says, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin
that grace may abound? Basically, the more we sin, the more God forgives. So let's just keep sinning.
Let's rack up this list of things that God can forgive. And then God gets to show how amazing he is
by forgiving it all. And it's this perfect, convenient solution because God gets to show off how amazing
he is. I get to live the life that I want. Everyone wins, right? Paul says, no, not at all.
He says, when Jesus forgives us, yes, he forgives us from our guilt for our sin, but he says something
bigger, something deeper is taking place there. He says, throughout our lives, we're born and we live
as slaves to sin. It traps us. It holds us under its power. We might think we're free, but really we're not.
We have to follow it. And he says, when Jesus comes in, when Jesus forgives us,
it transforms everything. It's not just that we're forgiven for the guilt of our sins, but we're
freed from its power over us. There's a transformation that takes place. And he says, this transformation
is so great that if we view this forgiveness we get from Jesus as a license to sin as much as we
want and stack up that list of things for God to forgive, it either means that we haven't really
understood this transformation that took place in us, or we're lying to ourselves about the fact
that the transformation has taken place. I'll say that again. He says, if we see our forgiveness as a
license to sin, as an excuse to just stack up a list of things that we can do wrong so that God can
forgive us even more, either we don't understand the change that has happened inside of us,
or we're lying to ourselves saying that we've been changed.
He says, we have a new nature. We've been changed.
There's a commentator. He said, sin forgiven is hated. Sin unforgiven is cherished. And that's exactly
what Paul is showing us here. That if we've been forgiven for our sin, we see how it's trapped us
before. We see the price that Jesus had to pay to forgive us. We see the hurt and the heartache and
the brokenness that comes into our world because of our sin. And we hate it.
When we've been forgiven for that, we can't hold on to it anymore. We can't long for it and cherish it.
If we still long for sin to be our primary mode of operation after we've been forgiven,
he's saying it's a good reason to question whether you've actually been forgiven. Because there's a
change in our nature. The thing that used to give us power, the thing that used to sustain us,
it can't sustain us anymore. I think a good picture is a baby. You have a mom, she's pregnant.
The baby's hooked up to the umbilical cord. The baby's getting all the nutrients from the mom.
And then the mom gives birth. And there's a change in that baby's nature.
It goes from unborn baby to born baby. And in that change in nature, there's a way,
a change in the way that it gets its nutrients. Now, instead of being hooked up to the umbilical cord,
it breathes on its own. And it eats and drinks on its own. Yeah, it still needs the mother to sustain
it, giving it milk and stuff. But it can't get that sustenance from the umbilical cord anymore
because it's been a change in its nature. And if this baby, after being born, tries to hold on to
getting all of its nutrients through the umbilical cord, it's going to die.
Because the umbilical cord can't sustain a real live baby. He's saying the same way,
in our old life, we were slaves to sin. We were hooked up to sin. We got all of our power
from sin in our lives. Whether that's pride, thinking of ourselves very highly. Whether that's
ambition and just becoming the best that we can be. Whether that's greed, stockpiling as much as
we can. He says these are the things we hooked up to to get our power. But when we become Christians,
if we become Christians, that changes our nature. That changes the source of where we get our power.
And if we try and hook up to the old source that we got our power from, that sustained us
after we become Christians, we're going to starve ourselves to death spiritually.
So he says we have to live this radically different life because of this change in our nature that's
happened. It's not just that we shouldn't think this way. Not just that we shouldn't use our
forgiveness as an excuse to sin. But he says because of the change in our nature, if we've authentically
been changed, our new nature is such that we can't use our forgiveness as an excuse to continue in sin.
Because we've been changed. Because the things that we think can sustain us from our old life
can't sustain us in our new nature, in our new life anymore.
The second thing I want us to see today is that a transformation, this transformation that's happened,
means that we're now alive to Christ and dead to sin. That's the change that's happened in our lives
if we are Christians. That we're alive to Christ and we're dead to sin. And Paul is giving us
an action plan for living as Christians. So if we want to understand this action plan for living as
Christians, we have to understand this fact. We're alive to Christ, we're dead to sin.
And what this word alive to Christ, dead to sin, it's not just that when we become Christians,
everything inside of us from before magically disappears and the slate is totally different.
We don't have any experiences from life to grow on anymore. It's more of a picture of a regime change.
We're living life under a different regime. I think a good picture of this is found in the NBA.
Okay. Anyone follow the NBA? A couple people? Anyone heard of LeBron James? A handful more people? Yeah?
So in 2003, there was this high school kid named LeBron James. He was an amazing basketball player.
Everyone looked at him and they said, this kid has potential to be the next Michael Jordan.
And the draft was coming and hype and hysteria was everywhere about this kid, LeBron James.
And the first pick in the draft, the Cleveland Cavaliers draft LeBron James to be on their team.
And he comes and he tears it up. He spent seven seasons playing with the Cavs.
He's setting levels of statistics that are unheard of.
And after seven years with the team, he gets frustrated because the team hasn't been surrounding him with other good players.
And his contract ends. And he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2010.
He goes out on the free agent market and he decides to sign with a team called the Miami Heat.
Because he has friends who play on the Heat who are really good basketball players.
And he says, if I go play with the Heat, I can play with my friends.
And I think we have a much better chance of winning the championship than I ever had in Cleveland.
So he changes regimes.
He goes from being alive to the Cavs, dead to the Heat, to being dead to the Cavs, alive to the Heat.
Now here's the thing.
The Cavs, that fall, let's play out this hypothetical scenario in our minds.
The Cavs coach calls up LeBron and says, hey, why aren't you at training camp right now?
Training camp started. You're supposed to be here.
Now LeBron has a couple options of what he can do right now.
He can say, you're right. I should be at training camp right now.
I need to come and listen to you.
And he could pack up his bags, fly over to Cavs training camp,
and spend time with the Cavs practicing, working out, training with the team.
But we all know that would be stupid of him to do.
Because his identity has been changed. He's under a new regime.
If he goes and he listens to the Cavs coach, he's listening to someone who actually has no more real control over him.
If he goes and listens to the Cavs coach, he reinforces this idea that what's no longer true of him is still true of him.
And if he listens to the Cavs coach, he's missing out on an opportunity to live life in his new identity by going to the Heat training camp.
He has the option still to listen to his old coach.
He has the option to live life as if he's still under the old regime.
But he doesn't have to. He's free from their power.
He has a new identity found under the fact that he's living under a new regime.
And it's a similar story with us.
When we become Christians, we go from being alive to sin, dead to God, to dead to sin, alive to God.
We switch regimes.
It doesn't mean that we all of a sudden stop being tempted,
all of a sudden never have any temptation to do anything wrong ever again,
and live these amazing, empowered lives.
It doesn't mean that our past and everything we've done no longer affects us,
but it means that we're living life under a new regime.
Sin can still call us up, to use the analogy.
Ask us to come along with it.
But it actually has no real control over us anymore.
We don't have to listen.
And just like it would be stupid for LeBron to go to the Cavs training camp
after becoming a member of the Heat,
because it reinforces a false identity,
when sin calls us up and says,
hey, why don't you change the numbers in the accounting
so that you can take a little extra home this weekend?
When sin says, why don't you disobey your parents
and play video games instead of cleaning your bedroom?
We have the option to listen to it,
but it would be stupid of us to,
because it reinforces this idea
that our identity is different than what it truly is.
And it robs us of this opportunity
to live life under our new, true identity.
It's actually in here, when it says,
a new life, in verse 4,
that phrase, a new life,
a better translation of it is,
I think what you have in your bulletins,
newness of life,
or a new life which actually is life.
The option that we have here isn't,
we're going from being alive to being alive differently.
What's this change that's happening is,
before we were living a parody of life.
We were living something that claimed to be life
and claimed to give life,
but it wasn't.
It was all a lie.
It was a facade,
put up to make everything look pretty.
But if we've become Christians,
we've been set free from that facade.
We've been set free from that parody
and called to live a life that is truly life.
So like I said,
what does this look like in our real lives?
Yeah, we'll still be tempted.
Sin doesn't want to give up that easily.
It's had control for far too long.
But when we're tempted,
we don't have to give in.
We don't have to listen.
We have the power to fight temptation when it comes.
And even more,
this new life means that when we fail,
when we do listen to our old master,
we actually have the power to carry on.
Here's what I mean.
Before,
when we're alive to sin,
everything that we do
is based on our own power.
How good can I be?
How much can I do to get to God?
Or,
how liberated can I be?
How much can I do to just be free?
Either way,
it's all dependent on us
and what we do.
And when we fail,
we are crushed.
If we're trying to be
that good person
who earns God's favor
and we mess up,
what does that lead to?
Oh no,
I'm so sorry.
I don't know if God can ever forgive me.
I can never be okay again.
We're crushed.
But when we have this new life,
when we have this transfer
from being under sin's regime
to being under God's regime,
there's this recognition
that we can never do it ourselves
and that's the point.
The point is,
we're messed up.
We need Jesus.
And because of that,
when we're under this new regime,
when we fail,
it still holds true.
We're messed up.
We need Jesus.
That's what gives us the strength
to carry on when we mess up.
So,
on a practical level,
say we're in the office this week.
Someone comes to you,
they say,
let's change some numbers here,
make millions more for the company,
you take a little extra commission home.
It's a real temptation.
You have the option to go along with it.
But you don't have to
because you've been set free
from the power of sin in your life.
Or if you're a kid,
your parents tell you,
go do your homework.
There's lots of options
for what you can do at this point.
You can throw a fit
and say,
no, I'm not going to do it.
You can go play video games.
You can go watch a movie.
You can go online
and search up Tumblr accounts
and look at Tumblr user pizza
and post stuff from their account
to yours and tag it.
But you don't have to.
You're free from that power
that's telling you
sin and disobedience
is what gives you strength in life.
And it's this new life.
It's this true life.
It's a life
that's not a parody anymore.
It's authentic life
that we have in Jesus.
And it calls us
to live radically different.
The third thing
I want us to see today
is in verse 11.
Paul says,
So you also
must consider yourselves
dead to sin
and alive to God
in Christ Jesus.
And the reason
we must consider ourselves
dead to sin
and alive to God
in Christ Jesus
is because
if we are Christians,
this is something
that is already
a reality for us.
I know that might sound confusing.
I'll explain what I mean.
There's this
New Testament scholar
named N.T. Wright
and he has a quote
on this verse.
He says,
this verse could sound
as though it's an opinion
that might yet be false.
So consider yourselves
dead to sin
and alive to God.
Might be true,
might be false,
but if you reinforce it
with positive thinking,
think it through hard enough,
you can convince yourself
that this is the fact
and this is the truth
and you can live in that truth.
Go positive thinking.
It looks like
that could be the case,
but what N.T. Wright says is
Paul intends it emphatically,
this fact that we're
dead to sin
and alive to God
in Jesus.
He intends it emphatically
as something that's
necessarily true
of all those in Christ.
Paul's not telling us
to consider this
because it might be true,
it might be false.
We need to convince ourselves
that it is true.
He says consider it
because it's already true.
Why do we need to consider it
if it's already true?
N.T. Wright continues,
it needs considering
because it's not
an obvious truth.
But once the sum
has been reckoned up,
it will appear to be
clearly the case.
The fact is,
if we are Christians,
we are dead to sin.
We are alive to God
in Christ Jesus.
But that's not something
that's staring us
in the face every day.
What's staring us
in the face every day?
Temptation.
A broken world.
The knowledge that we
ourselves are broken people.
the fact that we're
under a new regime,
the fact that we've
had this change
is not something
that is blatantly obvious
to us staring us
in the face.
But that doesn't mean
it's not true.
And so we need
to constantly remind ourselves
of the truth
of this fact
because if we don't
constantly remind ourselves,
we're going to forget it.
There's a pastor
in the States
named Bill Johnson.
He says,
we can't afford
to have thoughts
in our heads
about ourselves
that are in conflict
with what God
thinks about us.
God has given us
this glorious,
amazing,
powerful truth
in our lives.
We are dead to sin.
We're free
from its regime.
We are alive to God
in Jesus Christ.
It's not a matter
of opinion.
It's a fact.
But we still have
the option
to forget about it
and live as if it's not true.
But this is a powerful,
life-changing truth.
And if we decide
to believe something
about ourselves
and our identity now
that's different
than what God
actually says
is true about us,
we're going to rob
ourselves
of immense joy.
We're going to rob
ourselves
of life
that is truly life.
we're going to rob
ourselves
of freedom.
Our Christian lives
will be marked
by tragedy,
by a failure
to live up
to who God
wants us to be.
And that's why
Paul tells us
consider this
to be true.
You know,
if you look through
the entire book
of Romans,
this right here,
he spent five
and a half chapters
explaining to us
who we were before,
what God has done
for us.
And right here
in verse 11
of chapter 6
is the first time
in the entire book
of Romans
that Paul actually
gives us a command.
He's not saying,
think about this
as a way of earning
God's forgiveness,
as a way of earning
God's acceptance.
He's saying,
look at what God
has already done
for you.
Look how he saved us
when we were so messed up.
Look how he forgave us
when we had turned away
from him
for so long.
Look at what
he went through
to purchase
our salvation.
And only after
you've seen that,
only after you've
understood that,
can we properly
respond.
And the first step
to responding
is taking what's
true of us
and believing
that it's true of us
in our lives.
and what happens
in our lives
when we begin
to properly consider
what's true
of us already?
Let's jump back
to verse 4.
He says,
we were buried
therefore with him
by baptism into death
in order that
just as Christ
was raised from the dead
by the glory
of the Father,
we too might walk
in newness of life.
He says we get to walk
in newness of life.
Now,
I do a lot of walking.
I don't know
about the rest of you.
I've done a lot
of walking in my life.
I've done a couple
hundred K hikes.
It is long.
It is exhausting.
And when I think
about a metaphor
for my Christian life,
walking in newness
of life is not
my ideal phrase.
For a lot of reasons.
Number one,
walking is slow.
I want fast progress
in my Christian life
and walking is slow.
You spend hours
and hours and hours
and you look back
and you're like,
that's the same mountain
I could see five hours ago.
It's frustratingly slow.
Also,
it's hard.
Yeah,
it can be easy
when you start out
but then you get hills
and you're carrying
heavy bags
and you think,
why can't I just be
sitting in a car
with the air conditioning on,
cranking out my favorite tunes,
relaxing.
No,
I'm walking.
I'm still walking.
I want a break
from walking
because it's hard.
It can be painful.
You can get sore muscles,
you can get blisters
and when you have
a destination to get to,
you can't just stop.
You have to get
to your destination.
You have to walk
through the pain.
Why would I want
to do that?
It's monotonous.
You get out
on hiking trails
and it's quiet
and there is
nothing happening
and even if you're
hiking with friends,
you can talk
for a couple hours
but after a while,
the conversation
sort of dies
and you're just walking
and it is so monotonous.
I don't want
my Christian life
to be marked
by monotony.
I want excitement
and it's just,
walking is inefficient
especially in Hong Kong.
You walk
and you're like,
oh,
I'm crossing a road here
and then you walk
for three more hours
and you're like,
I'm crossing another road.
That would have been
a five minute cab ride.
so inefficient.
When I think about
a metaphor
that I want to mark
my Christian life,
I think
riding a yacht
in newness of life.
Get to my destination,
lounge out in the sun,
jump in the water,
it does all the work,
I just am along
for the ride,
having fun
with my friends
as it's happening
or riding a Ferrari
in newness of life.
How fun would that be?
Right?
As long as I'm
in the driver's seat.
But that's not
the picture
that God gives us.
He says,
we're walking
in newness of life.
And there was one commentary
I looked at this week.
They said this phrase
that we too might walk
in newness of life.
Paul thought
that it was a good metaphor
for the steady,
unspectacular
progress
that should characterize
the Christian life.
As I thought about that,
it terrified me
how true
that is
of my Christian life.
Steady,
unspectacular progress.
If I'm being honest,
I want God
to work
in spectacular ways
in my life.
I want God
to do big,
amazing things
and have these
huge changes overnight
that all of a sudden
one day I was,
oh, miserable,
what's life all about
and the next day,
like, yeah,
and never look back.
That's what I want
in my Christian life.
That's not
how God
typically works.
It's unspectacular.
Most of the time,
I don't even see
the changes
that's happening.
But it's steady.
It's there.
If I look back
to yesterday,
I probably can't see
much difference
from today.
but if I look back
two years ago,
even two months ago,
I can see
that I've made progress.
I've gone somewhere.
I think this is something
that's characteristic
of each of us.
I mean,
even as much
as I want it
in my life,
I want it in the lives
of the teenagers
that I work with.
Right?
I want kids
to sit in church
and pay attention
and not talk
to their friends.
I want the kids
to be passionate
about reading
their Bibles.
I want the kids
to sit in church
and not be playing
on their phones.
I want the kids
to be excited
about telling
their friends
about Jesus.
And even if the kids
today aren't that
excited about it,
tomorrow I want them
to wake up
and have that excitement.
But really,
God works the same way
in their lives
as he does in mine.
Steady,
unspectacular progress.
from day to day,
I don't see much progress
in a lot of them.
But as I look back
over the years,
I can see God working
in a lot of their lives.
And I think
that's the case
for a lot of us,
that God doesn't just
give us these shortcuts,
but he's working
in our lives
because we're alive
in him.
We're dead to sin.
And so,
I want to leave us
with some questions
as we finish up today.
Some reflection thoughts
on this passage.
First up,
and this is foundational
to all the other questions
that I have,
am I still relying
on myself for salvation
rather than on Jesus?
Because the Bible says
this new life in Christ
is a gift that we get
from God.
It's not something
that we earn on our own.
And if we're still relying
on ourselves,
then the stuff
I've been talking about today,
the stuff about being
under a new regime,
it's not true of us yet.
And before we can live life
under this new regime,
we have to see
that we can't save ourselves.
We can't fix ourselves.
We need Jesus
to save us.
So the first thing
I want to ask us is,
are we still relying
on ourselves
for salvation,
or have we actually
trusted in Jesus
for that salvation
that we need?
Secondly,
if we are Christians,
are we using the fact
that we're saved
by faith,
not works,
and the fact
that God forgives us
for whatever we do wrong
as an excuse to sin?
Are we using
God's forgiveness
as an excuse
to continue in sin
in our lives?
And if so,
is it because
we don't properly
understand the change
that's taken place in us?
Or is it because
we're lying to ourselves
about the fact
that a change
has actually happened?
Third question,
what does it mean
in our lives
that we're dead to sin
and alive to Jesus?
Where are the areas
in our lives
that we see
the biggest impact
of this?
Is it at work
where we no longer
feel the pressure
to go along
with the boss
when he tells us
to do something wrong
because we're free
from needing
to prove ourselves
in that way?
Is it at school
where we no longer
feel the need
to go along
with peer pressure
because what other
people think of us
doesn't define us,
what God thinks of us
defines us?
Is it at home
where we're free
from finding our identity
and how successful
our kids are?
Where are the areas
of our lives
where we see
the biggest impact
of this regime change
in our lives?
What are the areas
in our lives
where sin
and temptation
keep calling us up
and asking us
to come back
under their power?
What are the areas
in our lives
each of us
has areas
that we're more
susceptible to
than others?
What are those areas
in our lives
where we keep
hearing that temptation,
where we keep
getting calls,
come back,
I miss you?
And when they come,
how are we fighting
against them?
And finally,
am I considering
myself
dead to sin
and alive to God
in Christ Jesus?
Is this command
that Paul gives
something that I'm
following and obeying
in my life?
If not,
why not?
And if so,
how do you see
that changing you?
Maybe you can't
see a difference
from yesterday
to today,
but if it's something
that's been going on
for any length of time,
how do you see
a transition
over that period
of time?
You know,
as we're here today,
the good news is
that each of us
here,
we're not saved
by what we do.
We're not saved
by our ability
to live as great Christians.
Our obedience to God
after we become Christians
doesn't save us
any more than
our obedience to God
could save us
before we were Christians.
Ultimately,
us becoming Christians,
us living as Christians,
it's all dependent
on Jesus.
It's all dependent
on God's grace,
all dependent
on God's forgiveness.
How good or bad
we are at living
out our Christian lives
doesn't change the fact
of whether we're saved
or not.
It doesn't change
the fact of whether
God loves us or not.
But what we see here
is there's this life,
there's this power,
there's this joy
that's available to us
because of the fact
that we're Christians.
And if we choose
to live
as if what's true
of us
isn't true,
and if we choose
to live as if
what's not true
of us is true,
we're robbing
ourselves of that joy.
We're robbing
ourselves of that power.
We're robbing
ourselves of the
opportunity to live
in the life
that is truly life.
So let's consider
ourselves dead to sin.
Not because it's
this lie that we need
to trick ourselves
into believing it's true,
but because if we're
Christians,
it's already true of us.
And let's consider
ourselves alive
to God
in Christ Jesus.
Because that is
the amazing promise
that God gives us,
that if we have
trusted in him,
that these things
are true of us already
and have the ability
to impact the way
that we live our lives
today.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you
for the gospel.
We thank you
for the fact
that there's nothing
that we can do
to earn your love,
but because of that,
there's nothing
that we have to do
to earn your love.
thank you for Jesus,
the perfect sacrifice
who came
and did for us
what we could not
do for ourselves.
For the fact
that he set us free,
that he gave us life
under a new regime,
a regime that is
powerful and life-giving
and joy-giving,
a regime that's
run by you.
God, I pray that
as we go throughout
our weeks this week,
that we would,
that we would consider
ourselves dead to sin
and alive to God
in Christ Jesus,
that we would take
these truths
and we would apply
them to our lives
and we would see
how you transform us
as we do that,
and that we wouldn't
trick ourselves
into just waiting
for spectacular things
from you,
but that we would see
signs of this steady,
unspectacular progress
as we walk with you.
Thank you for your love,
and in Jesus' name,
amen.