November 2, 2026 - Romans 6-8

“Dead to Sin, Alive to God” reads the heading over chapter 6 in my Bible.  We have been buried with Christ by baptism, but also raised from the dead that we might walk in newness of life (6:4).  New life!  That’s what we have.  Not perfect lives, at least not yet.  But new life.  We wrestle against sin, oh my, how we wrestle against sin!  But that’s the thing, isn’t it?  We actually wrestle against sin.  It no longer enslaves us.  In Christ, we fight against sin and win daily victories, though we also stumble.  But that future glory!  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (8:18).  God has foreknown us, he has predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, he has called us, he has justified us, and he will one day glorify us.  That’s new life!

Jesus, I my cross have taken,

All to leave and follow thee;

Destitute, despis’d, forsaken,

Thou from hence my all shalt be.

Perish, ev’ry fond ambition,

All I've sought, and hop’d, and known;

Yet how rich is my condition;

God and Heav'n are still my own!   --Henry Francis Lyte (1825)