Day Seventeen: Dead to Sin
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. –Romans 6:11
Considering the high-calling of marriage can make you feel a bit overwhelmed. The way you love your spouse is a picture of the gospel on display for the whole universe. Your marriage either tells the truth about God or a lie. No pressure, eh? That’s a tremendously high calling. I’m deeply in love with my wife, and she makes sacrifice not feel like much of a sacrifice. But I’m also a sinner, and there are days when I absolutely do not feel like serving my wife the way Scripture calls me to. When we compare our own inadequacies and sinful tendencies to the high-calling of marriage its tempting to just throw in the towel. But Paul’s argument in Romans 6 is wildly encouraging. If you are in Christ you have died to sin and you are alive in Christ. This means that you and I have, in Christ, the power that we need to progressively have a marriage which looks more and more like Christ. Let’s rejoice in that truth today, and be encouraged.
Father, I thank you have transferred all of those in Christ from the “dead-in-sin” family into the “alive-to-God” family. There are days, Lord, when I feel as if I don’t have what it takes to be the spouse you call me to be. And it’s true. But in Christ we do have the power to be godly and to love our spouses the way you call us to do. Help us feast on the great truths of Romans 6 today. Help us live as those who are truly alive and to not let sin reign in our mortal bodies any longer. You have defeated our greatest enemy. Let us rejoice in your victory and take confidence in your power. Amen.
