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• LESSON 11 (March 12) •
The God Who Raises Us to Walk in Newness of Life
We spent significant time in our last lesson in The Letter to the Hebrews learning about the God of peace who has established an eternal covenant (Heb 13:20-21) Remember especially what we
learned in Hebrews 9:11-14:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
The points being made are profound and of eternal significance:
1. An eternal covenant has been made available to mankind by the God of peace.
2. The blood of God own Son was shed in order to make reconciliation with God possible.
3. By means of this blood, an eternal redemption has been secured for those
who are sanctified.
4. Just as the blood of animals sanctified for the purification of the flesh under the old covenant, the blood of Christ sanctifies under this new and better covenant, purifying our consciences from dead works in order that we might serve the God of peace.
The next logical question in our efforts to understand what this God of promises and covenants has accomplished and what he desires of us is" How?' How do we come in contact with the blood of Jesus Christ? Romans 6:1-11 is extremely helpful in answer that question.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer been enslaved to
sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin,
once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider your selves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
* To whom is Paul writing and what have they come to enjoy in relation to God - the same God whose glory they had fallen short of (Rom 3:23) in the past?