Life in Christ

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
(Romans 6:1-14 ESV)

This passage has been really striking me lately. It is the reason for us being able to live lives free from the power of sin. As a personal testimony, I see the power of this death and baptism in my own life. I am dead to sin!

And because of this death and resurrection of Jesus, I will also be raised like Him!

This is such a simple hope, yet so powerful. This is the hope and future grace given to believers who will follow Christ, as they proclaim in their baptism! This is what led the apostles and martyrs throughout the centuries to die! Because they will be raised! This what we need to put our faith and hope in if we are to withstand tribulations and future trials that will test our faith. What happens when we are hated for Jesus's name and suffer at the hands of our enemies? Will we deny Christ? Renounce Him?

Not if we are already proclaimed dead in baptism. Not if our hope is the life that will come. I think this is the strongest evidence of if you are truly a Christian: where your hope is in. If all your concerns are for this life, and for living it up, perhaps you've stopped following Christ.

Where is Christ? Sitting on the throne on the right hand of the Father, in Heaven. What are we waiting for? For Him to come down again, to judge and deliver the saints and restore the kingdom to Israel and bring restoration of the heavens and the earth.

So If we follow Him, why are we not living lives marked by waiting? Let us once again proclaim our death in Christ, and our hopes of being raised with Him. If you haven't gotten baptized into His death and resurrection, do so. But that is a topic for another time.