When Paul, in the previous passage, stated that, "where sin increased, grace increased all the more" (Ro 5:20), he didn't mean that Christians should sin so as to bring about a greater grace of God. In fact, Paul gives that idea an emphatic "By no means!" When we come to Christ and have our sins forgiven through his shed blood, we die to sin and cannot live in it any longer. We are spiritually united with Christ. This means that we are united with him in his death, and we are united with him in his resurrection. We are made new because of him. We cannot be bound to sin any longer. We live new lives in him.

Dying to sin is neither automatic nor easy. There are daily struggles, even for Christians of strong faith. We do, all of us, have a sinful nature. That is still present in us. That is why Paul says "count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (Ro 6:11). Even if we struggle with our sinful nature, God sees us as dead to sin but alive to him. Thus, we do not offer ourselves to our sinful nature, but to him who saves us and loves us.


Application: Father, thank you for Jesus Christ, who died in order to redeem me and to give me new life. Because of him, I offer myself to you as one brought from death to life.
One Word: I am united with Christ