“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.” (Romans
6:4)
When
the apostle Paul was saved, he surely had a new life. He even
had a new name. Christ hasn’t given each of us a new name, but
He has given us a newness of life. But we might have some troubles
that Paul had at first. In Romans 7:19, we find Paul saying
that the good that he wanted to do, he would find himself not
doing it, but then the evil that he didn’t want to do he would
find himself doing it. It was probably surprising to find this.
Maybe he thought that he would just do everything perfect now
that he was saved. Have you felt that way? After you were saved,
did it surprise you to see that you still were weak and sinful?
This is true in each of our lives, but we can live better for
the Lord, if we understand why this is true. Before we are saved,
we just have our old self or nature to deal with, but after
we are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live in our hearts, and
then we have a new nature. But remember, as long as we are living
in the same bodies, we still have that old self to deal with.
So there will seem to be a battle, our old nature wanting us
to go right on living for our self and the devil, while our
new nature will want us to serve our Lord. Once Paul said,
“Oh,
wretched man that I am. Who can deliver me from this body of
death?”
Then he said,
“I
thank God, through the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Yes, our deliverance
comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This brings
us now to our verse in Romans 6:4. We are to realize that we
have been dead with Christ, when we accept His death as for
our sins. Then we are instructed that as He was raised up from
the dead, we should let our lives be raised from the deadness
of sin, or from the old nature, and let the new nature take
control and walk as a new person in the Lord Jesus.