Romans 6:1-11

Romans 6:1-11

These scriptures are key for what I will share this week. When our 

kids were younger we memorized them but neither the parents

nor the children had a clue what they meant!

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace

may abound? 

2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer

therein?

3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus 

Christ were baptized into His death?

4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism in death:

that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of

the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of

his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

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.

7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.

8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also

live with him:

9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;

death hath no more dominion over him.

10 For in Him all died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth

he liveth unto God.

11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves dead indeed unto sin, but

alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Path of Progress

As I read the words of The Normal Christian Life, they become, again,

water to my thirsty soul. I receive the words as a Well of Water springing

up and my desire is to share this Well with you, my dear reader. I will

go slow. There is no hurry. If they minister to you, share them with others.

“Our old history ends with the cross, our new history begins with the

resurrection. ‘If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old

things are passed away; behold they become new.’ (2 Corinthians 5:17).

The cross terminates the first creation, and out of death is brought a 

new creation in Christ, the second Man.”

 Romans 6,7 and 8 lay out the conditions for living a normal Christian 

life. They are fourfold and Nee states that all four are necessary:

“a Knowing

 b Reckoning

 c Presenting ourselves to God

 d Walking in the Spirit.”

Tomorrow we begin this journey together!

Crucified, Buried and Risen Again!

Here is the problem. We were born sinners. How then 

can we cut off our sinful heredity? When Jesus was crucified 

on the cross, He was crucified as the last Adam. All that 

was in the first Adam was gathered up and done away with

 in Him. Our union with Him as the second Adam begins

 in resurrection and ends in Eternity. He arose as the Head 

of a new race of men. It is in His resurrection that He stands 

forth as the second Man, and there we were included.

“For if we have been planted together

in the likeness of his death,

we shall be also

in the likeness of His resurrection.” 

Romans 6:5

The cross is thus the mighty act of God which translates 

us from Adam to Christ; from the kingdom of darkness 

into the kingdom of His dear Son.

Now when I get up in the morning, by whose life do I live the Christian life?

The Cross--Good Friday

Ah, why is it called "GOOD Friday?" Read on.

The blood takes care of my sins, but the cross must deal with the sinner.

A sinner is said to be a sinner because he is born a sinner, not because

he has committed sins. We sin because we are sinners.”Through one man’s

disobedience the many were made (or constituted) sinners. Rom. 5:19.

I am an American even if I live outside of America my whole life. I am an 

American because I am born an American. I am a sinner because I was

born in Adam. The blood procures our pardon for what we have done,

the cross procures our deliverance from what we are.

Look at it this way: We try to please the Lord but we find something within that

does not want to please Him. We try to be loving but something inside is un-

loving. The more we try to change the outside the more we realize how deep

seated is the trouble. Then it begins to dawn: “It is not only that I DO wrong,

I AM wrong.”

More on this tomorrow....

The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

Overcoming the Accuser

Today is Maundy Thursday as we continue to think on what Jesus did for us on the Cross.

(And, yes, dear readers, I just discovered that I posted the same 
thing twice putting me a  day behind schedule! Perhaps I will post two today...)

Satan’s most strategic activity in this day is the accuser of the brethren.

See Rev. 12:10. The Blood of Jesus operates against Satan by putting

God on the side of man against our enemy.

“God is in the light, and as we walk in the light with Him everything is

exposed and open to that light, so that God can see it all--and yet,

the Blood is able to cleanse from every sin.” What a cleansing!

(IJohn 1:7 Darby)

Satan accuses us before God. God points to the Blood of His dear

Son and says, “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s

elect? It is God that justifies; who is he that shall condemn? It is

Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead,

who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”

(Romans 8:34)

Our faith in the precious Blood and our refusal to be moved from

that position can silence the charges and put our enemy to flight.

See The Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

The Believer's Access to God

The second value is that the blood cleanses our conscience. 

What does this mean? It means that my guilty conscience came between 

me and God whenever I sought to approach Him. It constantly reminded 

me of the barrier that stood between myself and Him. As soon as I find 

my conscience uneasy, my faith leaks away, and immediately I know 

I cannot face God. In order to keep trucking I must know that God keeps 

short accounts; that I am made right by the Blood every moment of everyday. 

It means that I come to God on the basis of the finished work of the 

Lord Jesus. A clear conscience is never based upon my own attainment; 

it can only be based on the work of the Lord Jesus in the shedding of His 

Blood on the cross.

All of us may feel weak, but looking at our weakness will never make 

us strong. But we can say to God, “Lord, I do not know the value of 

the Blood of Jesus, but I know the Blood has satisfied You and so the

Blood is enough for me and it is my only plea.”

See the Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

Easter Thoughts

The Power of the Blood

I have been reading Watchman Nee’s book, The Normal Christian Life,

and getting a new perspective on the meaning of the Blood and of the

Cross. This is a good week to revisit these things. Here are some tidbits:

We need to understand the work of the Blood for us, in three ways:

1 Our sins were dealt with by the Blood of Christ.

2 Our guilt was dealt with and our guilty conscience set at rest by 

showing us the value of that Blood.

3 The attack of the enemy was met and his accusations answered by

the power of the Blood.

We need forgiveness for the sins we have committed, lest we come

under judgement; and they are forgiven, not because God overlooks

what we have done but because He sees the Blood. The Blood is 

therefore not primarily for us but for God. This carries over in the old

testament in these two places: The first is in the story of the Israelites 

placing the Blood over the lintel of their homes so that they would not die 

at the passing of the Angel of Death; the second story tells how the High Priest 

would enter the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement and 

sprinkle the Blood on the Mercy Seat before the Lord.

Sometimes the sense of sin and guilt is so great, so terrible as to cripple us

by causing us to lose sight of the effectiveness of the Blood. We cannot

approach the Blood of Christ subjectively and measure how we feel on a 

particular day. We have to believe that the Blood is precious to God 

because He says so. A holy and righteous God has the right to say that

the Blood is acceptable to His eyes and has fully satisfied Him--so it

must satisfy me also.