Your Daily Devotional for July 23, 2007

 

July 23,  2007

 

 

Victory over Sin

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: 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. For he that is dead is freed from sin."

 

Romans 6:1-7

 

When I was a student in Bible college, an elderly pastor gave me several volumes from his library. One of these books was a commentary on Romans written in 1883 by a Swiss theologian named Frederick Godet. He states in his comments on verse fourteen, "As you die to sin, and yield to God, sin will not rule over you; sin can be overcome under grace—grace is not less powerful to subdue sin than the law."

 

With so much sin in today's world, it can oftentimes become overwhelming to resist all the temptation. The devil is very subtle in his approach to us, and sometimes we can be blinded to his attacks. As Christians, God desires that we would resist these temptations with His help and through His grace. In order to resist the devil, we must realize two things.

 

First, we can have victory over temptation when we realize that we are dead to sin. When we are born again, we are dead to the devil and alive unto Christ. Second Corinthians 5:14-15 says, "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again." The devil no longer has power over our lives! When we accept the Lord as our Saviour, we are made dead unto all sin.

 

Because we are dead to sin, we know we can have victory over Satan's temptations. The first two verses of Romans 6 say, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" When we are tempted, all we must do is go to our Lord for strength and grace to help us.

 

Second, we can have victory over sin as we realize that God desires to help us. Have you ever felt overwhelmed by all the sin and temptation you face? The devil has placed so many things in our world to make us fall, but God has promised to help us resist him! He provides His power and His grace to help us resist the devil.

 

At times, we may not look to God for help and we may try to resist the devil on our own. Our human nature does not naturally desire to do right. We cannot resist temptation on our own! We must have God's help when we are tempted. He provides His help for us, and we must look to Him for help.

 

Do you struggle with giving in to temptation? We are all human and fall, but we can have victory over sin when we realize we are dead to the power of sin and God has provided His help for us. Seek God's help right now to resist temptation as you live for Him today.

 

 

 

Daily Bible Reading

Psalm 33-34 • Acts 24

---

================================================
THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE PLEASE DO NOT REPLY
================================================
Manage your online subscriptions at
http://www.dailyintheword.org/email/user-login.aspx

To Unsubscribe from this list please follow this link
http://www.dailyintheword.org/email/user-unsubscribe.aspx?s=4159&l=1