The Daily Fountain Daily Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 21 June 2020 – TOPIC: DEAD BUT ALIVE

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DATE: SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2020
(Trinity 2)
TOPIC: DEAD BUT ALIVE
READ: ROMANS 6:3-11 (NKJV)

3. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised 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 united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be [in the likeness] of [His] resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Him,] that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.
7. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
8. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
9. knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.
10. For [the death] that He died, He died to sin once for all; but [the life] that He lives, He lives to God.
11. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

THE MESSAGE:

Jim attended the burial service of a colleague and narrated his experience thus: As the service went on, the young man remained silent and unmovable in the coffin. He was a lover of music but he could not join us as we sang; he loved making people laugh but he could not even make people happy when everyone was sad. Immediately, the following words rang in mymind: “Death is an end to every human appetite and attitude!”

In our text, Paul summarised being a Christian as being dead but alive. By conversion, we are baptised into Jesus Christ, thus into His death. This implies that we died with Him. We reached the end of human appetites and attitudes. This is why verse 7 of our text emphasises; “for he that is dead is freed from sin.” It is therefore a contradiction for a Christian to continue sinning. It means the person never died but probably went into coma (You may take some time to differentiate the actions of a dead person from someone in coma). After Jesus’ death, He resurrected into a new manifestation with us. So we are alive unto a new life–life of holiness, hence, the need for you to check if truly human appetites and attitudes no longer exist in you. Christianity is deadness to human appetites and attitudes and being alive to Jesus’ lifestyle.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, please bring me to the end of human appetites and attitudes, Amen!