Devotions

justification, mortification, adoption

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 8:1-17

8:1 Consequently, there is no condemnation now given to the ones who are in Christ Jesus.² Because the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has exempted you from the law of sin and death.³ Because God achieved what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and in relation to sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,⁴ so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.⁵ Because those who live according to the flesh have their point of view shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their point of view shaped by the things of the Spirit.⁶ Because the point of view of the flesh is death, but the point of view of the Spirit is life and peace,⁷ because the point of view of the flesh is hostile to God, because it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so.⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.⁹ You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God really lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit from Christ, this person does not belong to him.¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness.¹¹ In addition, if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.¹² So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh¹³ (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.¹⁴ Because all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.¹⁵ Because you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father.”¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are God’s children.¹⁷ And if children, then heirs (heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ)–if we really suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

justification, mortification, adoption

Paul set up this chapter by asking that all important question: “who will rescue me from this body of death?[1] In chapter 8, he lays out the mechanics of the rescue that is now presently going on in the life of every true Christian. This section focuses on three realities that shape our lives as a result of our being rescued by God.

The first reality is justification. God has acted decisively by declaring believers righteous on the basis of Christ’s atoning death. Christ entered the world in real human flesh—flesh that looked like the flesh of sinners, though it was entirely without sin. He came for the express purpose of dealing with sin once and for all. In His death, the penalty of sin was fully addressed. Because of this, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Justification is not a feeling or a gradual process; it is a divine verdict that changes a person’s standing before God forever.
The second reality is mortification. Because Christ has broken sin’s penalty, believers are now empowered to confront sin’s power. What was once impossible—putting to death the deeds of the body—is now possible through the Spirit. The old patterns that once enslaved no longer hold absolute authority. Mortification is not self‑improvement or moral grit; it is the Spirit‑enabled killing of sin’s influence. The cross makes this possible, and the Spirit makes it actual. This is the ongoing battle described in Romans 7, but now fought with divine power rather than human effort.
The third reality is adoption. The Spirit who empowers mortification is the same Spirit who testifies that believers are children of God. Adoption is not a metaphor; it is a new legal and relational status. Believers are brought into the family of God, given the right to call Him Father, and made heirs with Christ. This new identity is the reason mortification is possible. Slaves cannot overcome sin, but children—indwelt by the Spirit of the Son—can. Adoption secures both the present experience of God’s care and the future inheritance of a transformed, eternal life.
Together, these three realities form the framework of God’s rescue: declared righteous, empowered to fight sin, and welcomed as children destined for glory.is the indwelling Holy Spirit in our lives, who has made us adopted children of our heavenly Father. Our new standing with the Father gives us the inheritance we will share with Christ – a totally new life.

LORD, thank you for the amazing rescue that is now going on inside of us. Help us to put to death the last vestiges of the sinful body, so that we might live in the full reality of that rescue.

[1] 7:24.

Posted in adoption, Holy Spirit, justification, sanctification | Tagged Romans 8 | Leave a comment

Who will rescue me?

Posted on December 28, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 7:14-25

¹⁴ For we know that the law is spiritual–but I am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin.¹⁵ Because I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want–instead, I do what I hate.¹⁶ But if I do what I don’t want, I still agree that the law is good.¹⁷ But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me.¹⁸ Because I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. Because I want to do the right thing, but I cannot do it.¹⁹ Because I do not do the right thing I want, but I do the very wrong thing I do not want!²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.²¹ So, I discover the law that when I want to do the right thing, wrong is present with me.²² Because I enjoy the law of God in my inner being.²³ But I see a different law in my body parts waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my body parts.²⁴ Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Who will rescue me?

Paul’s words in this chapter are not a distant confession from a man who once struggled but eventually rose above the battle. They describe an ongoing reality that many believers still recognize in themselves. Some may genuinely say they once lived in the turmoil of Romans 7 but now consistently walk in the freedom of Romans 8. That is a beautiful testimony. But many others, like the writer of these reflections, still feel the tension Paul describes—the inner war between a mind that delights in God’s law and a body that refuses to cooperate.

What brings comfort is not personal triumph but the honesty of Paul himself. One of the most faithful servants of Christ admitted that his heart, mind, eyes, mouth, and desires often betrayed him. He felt the misery of wanting holiness while wrestling with weakness. His transparency dismantles the illusion that mature faith eliminates struggle. Instead, it shows that struggle is part of the journey of those who long for righteousness.

Yet Paul did not leave the matter in despair. He asked the most important question a struggling believer can ask: “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” He did not ask what technique, what discipline, or what law could save him. He asked who. The answer was not found in the very law he longed to obey. The law could diagnose his condition but could not deliver him from it. His rescue came from Christ—the One in whom he placed his faith.

Paul understood that victory over sin’s power does not begin with moral effort but with relationship. Without union with Christ, there is no freedom. Without trust in Christ, there is no strength to walk in the Spirit. Romans 8 cannot be lived without the foundation of Romans 7’s cry for deliverance. The Spirit-filled life is not achieved by escaping weakness but by clinging to the Savior who meets us in it.

Paul’s struggle does not diminish his faith; it magnifies Christ’s grace. It reminds believers that the path to holiness is not a straight line of personal success but a continual return to the One who rescues, sustains, and empowers.

LORD, rescue us. We will not trust in our own attempts to do good things in your name. We depend upon you to deliver us from our own unholy desires.

Posted in faith, Jesus Christ, law, righteousness | Tagged Romans 7 | Leave a comment

the purpose of the commandment

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 7:7-13

⁷ So, what should we say to this? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through its exposure in the law. Because I surely would not have known what it means to greedily seek after something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”[1]⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.⁹ And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive¹⁰ and I died. So I discovered that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death!¹¹ Because sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died.¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

the purpose of the commandment

Paul explains that each commandment in the law had a real and necessary purpose, but that purpose was never to create righteousness or establish a saving relationship with God. The law functioned like a mirror: it revealed the truth about the human condition. It exposed sin, clarified guilt, and showed the desperate need for divine rescue. In that sense, the law was profoundly effective. It awakened awareness of sin, but it could not remove sin or empower obedience.

Many people, however, attempted to use the written code as a ladder to climb toward righteousness. Paul knew this mindset intimately because he had lived it. His zeal for the law was unmatched, yet the more passionately he pursued legal obedience, the more deeply he found himself entangled in sin. The holy commandment, instead of producing holiness, stirred up rebellion within him. The problem was not the law; the problem was the sin already lodged in the human heart. When sin encounters the purity of God’s commands, it twists them, corrupts them, and uses them as fuel for further disobedience. Paul’s own experience taught him that the internal corruption of sin outweighs the external goodness of the law.

With this in mind, Paul turns to the believers in Rome and warns them not to repeat his mistake. Some of them were tempted to treat the law as a pathway to righteousness, imagining that if they could just obey well enough, they would secure God’s approval. Paul insists that this approach is doomed from the start. The law can diagnose the disease, but it cannot cure it. It can reveal sin, but it cannot conquer it.

The only effective means of righteousness is faith in Christ. Through Christ, the power of sin is broken, and a new life becomes possible—one shaped not by striving to meet the demands of the written code but by trusting the One who fulfilled the law perfectly. Righteousness is not earned; it is received. It flows from union with Christ, not from human effort. Paul’s message is both freeing and humbling: the law shows the need for salvation, but Christ provides the salvation the law could never give.

LORD, keep our minds on our relationship with Christ, not on trying to fix ourselves.

[1] Exodus 20:17; Deuteronomy 5:21.

Posted in faith, law, redemption, righteousness | Tagged Romans 7 | Leave a comment

released – not on probation

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 7:1-6

¹ Or do you not know, brothers (because I am speaking to ones who know the law), that the law is lord over a man as long as he lives?² For example, a married woman is obligated by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.³ So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she will be denounced as an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and when she is joined to another man, she is not an adulteress.⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.⁵ Because when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the parts of our body to bear fruit for death.⁶ But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

released – not on probation

Paul’s analogy about a widow released from her marriage captures the shift that takes place when believers move from life under the written code to life united with Christ. A woman whose husband has died is no longer bound to him. The obligations, expectations, and legal ties that once defined her relationship are finished. She is free—free to remain single or free to enter a new marriage. Paul uses this picture to show that believers are no longer bound to the law in the way they once were. Its authority over them has ended because they have died with Christ.

Some of the Roman Jewish Christians struggled with this idea. They viewed their new faith almost like a probationary period. They imagined that Christianity would finally give them the strength to conquer their inner battles and achieve the obedience the law demanded. In their minds, faith was a tool to help them succeed at law‑keeping, and once they mastered it, they would earn God’s approval. Their goal was still tied to the written code, as though Christ had come merely to help them perform better.

Paul dismantles that thinking. He insists that sin cannot be defeated by trying harder to obey the law. The law exposes sin; it does not cure it. The only path to freedom is death—death to the law’s jurisdiction and death to the old self that tried to earn righteousness. Through union with Christ, believers have already undergone that death. They are not on probation. They are not waiting to see if they can finally measure up. They have been released from the old covenant relationship entirely.

Paul then shifts the focus to a new relationship. Believers are not simply freed from the law; they are joined to Christ. The picture is not of a widow remaining alone but of a remarriage. The goal is no longer to return to the written code and attempt to satisfy its demands. The goal is to live in a way that honors the new spouse. This new union produces fruit—not through human effort but through the life of Christ at work within.

Paul’s message is clear: the Christian life is not about proving oneself worthy under the law. It is about belonging to Christ, living in the freedom He provides, and bearing the fruit that comes from that union.

LORD, help us to get our minds around our faith in the only Redeemer, and live to please him.

Posted in faith, law, redemption | Tagged Romans 7 | Leave a comment

Are you great enough to seek someone greater?

Posted on December 25, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Matthew 2:7-12

⁷ Then Herod called the great men in a secretive way and found out exactly from them what time the star had appeared. ⁸ And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “after you go, search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, report to me, that I too may come and worship him.” ⁹ After listening to the king, they proceeded. And see, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. ¹⁰ After they saw the star, they rejoiced with extremely great joy. ¹¹ And after going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. ¹² And after being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

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Are you great enough to seek someone greater?

The magi were great men who did not mind pursuing Christ, because they were OK with someone else being greater than themselves. Herod pursued Christ, not to worship him, but to eliminate him. So, some today join a church, and then seek their own selfish desires from its members. A church can be a good place to start if you are actually looking for a relationship with Christ, but it can also sidetrack that pursuit if you want it to. A relationship with God through his son is the most valuable thing you can ever have. Seek him.

Most precious Christ, help us to find you this Christmas, and not to get sidetracked in the pursuit.

Posted in Christmas, church, genuineness, kingdom of God, relationship with God | Tagged Matthew 2 | Leave a comment

Don’t miss Jesus this Christmas!

Posted on December 24, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Matthew 1:12-16

¹² And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel father of Zerubbabel, ¹³ and Zerubbabel father of Abiud, and Abiud father of Eliakim, and Eliakim father of Azor, ¹⁴ and Azor father of Zadok, and Zadok father of Achim, and Achim father of Eliud, ¹⁵ and Eliud father of Eleazar, and Eleazar father of Matthan, and Matthan father of Jacob, ¹⁶ and Jacob father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

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Don’t miss Jesus this Christmas!

The long centuries of waiting that shaped Israel’s story finally reached their fulfillment, yet most of the people did not recognize it. The Messiah arrived quietly, without spectacle or political force. He was born in an unnoticed village, raised in a region many considered insignificant, and lived most of His life outside the spotlight. The Anointed One entered the world gently, and even those who studied the Scriptures most diligently did not expect Him to come in such humility. The very moment they longed for passed before their eyes, and they did not see it.

This pattern raises a sobering question about the human tendency to overlook the very answer that has been sought. Many carry burdens, fears, and unresolved struggles, waiting for something that will finally bring clarity or healing. The message here is that the answer has already come. Christ is the fulfillment of every longing for redemption, meaning, and restoration. To ignore Him is to miss the greatest gift God offers. Yet His coming does not overwhelm or coerce. He does not seize anyone by force. His presence is like a quiet figure walking along the roadside, as He did when He called His first disciples. If He is not acknowledged, He continues on, and the opportunity passes.

The call, then, is urgent. It invites a posture of humility and surrender. Falling to one’s knees is not about theatrics but about recognizing the truth: Christ alone offers the destiny worth embracing. He does not compel trust; He invites it. The tragedy Scripture warns about is not that God refuses people, but that many refuse Him. Countless individuals will one day stand before Christ and remember the moments when grace was extended, when the invitation was clear, and when they chose to turn away. The haunting memory of saying “Jesus who?” will echo as a reminder of a rejected opportunity.

This reflection is not meant to stir despair but to awaken clarity. The Messiah has come. The invitation stands. The gentle approach of Christ is an expression of His character, but it also means that His presence can be missed if the heart remains closed. The call is to recognize Him now, to seek Him while the invitation remains open, and to embrace the destiny He alone can give.

God of quiet gentleness, do not permit us to look in the other direction when you are passing by. Thunder, get our attention, before our generation ignores you to their peril.

Posted in Christmas, destruction in hell, discipleship, gentleness, Jesus Christ | Tagged Matthew 1 | Leave a comment

the salary of sin or the salary of God?

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:15-23

¹⁵ What should we conclude then? Should we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!¹⁶ Do you not know that if you make yourselves available as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that systematic teaching you were entrusted to,¹⁸ and after being set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.¹⁹ (I am using normal language because it is what you understand.) Because in the same way that you once made your body parts available as slaves to impurity and anarchy leading to more anarchy, so now make your body parts available as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.²⁰ Because when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness.²¹ So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? Because the end result of those things is death.²² But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end result is eternal life.²³ Because the salary of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

the salary of sin or the salary of God?

Paul continues pressing the question of whether a life of habitual sin can ever be compatible with a life shaped by grace. The argument has already moved through the symbolism of baptism, where believers publicly identified with Christ’s death to sin and His resurrection to new life. That act was not merely ceremonial; it declared a new identity. Just as every part of the body was submerged in the waters of baptism, every part of life is now meant to be surrendered to God for righteous living. Grace does not excuse sin; it empowers transformation.

Paul now shifts the imagery. Instead of focusing on death and resurrection, he speaks in terms of servanthood. Modern readers often associate slavery exclusively with the horrors of race‑based chattel slavery, which can obscure Paul’s point. In the world Paul addressed, the concept included voluntary indentured servanthood—an arrangement in which a person willingly bound themselves to a master in exchange for provision, protection, and stability. The emphasis is on allegiance: the one obeyed is the one functionally served.

Paul’s logic is simple and sharp. Human beings are not autonomous. Everyone serves something. Obedience reveals the true master. If a life is shaped by ongoing, deliberate sin, then sin is the master. And sin, as Paul reminds his readers, pays out a predictable wage. Humanity inherited mortality from Adam, and the evidence of that wage is visible in every graveyard. Death is the salary sin always pays.

But Paul sets another path beside it. Through faith in Christ, a different kind of servanthood becomes possible—one marked by surrender to righteousness rather than rebellion. This new allegiance brings a different kind of compensation. In the present, it produces sanctification: a gradual, Spirit‑empowered reshaping of character. In the future, it culminates in the gift of eternal life. Unlike the wage of sin, this outcome is not earned; it is given freely by the grace of God.

Because of this, Paul insists that a life of continual sin is incompatible with genuine faith. Habitual disobedience contradicts the very commitment believers claim to have made. If Christ has been embraced as Lord, then righteousness must become the direction of life. Grace does not leave people where it found them. It creates a new allegiance, a new identity, and a new way of living that reflects the One who gives life rather than the master who leads only to death.

LORD, make us people committed to one master, consistently drawing upon your power for righteous living as a demonstration of our faith in Christ.

Posted in eternal life, mortality, sanctification, servanthood, sin | Tagged Romans 6 | Leave a comment

making body parts available

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:9-14

⁹ We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer dominates him.¹⁰ Because the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.¹¹ In the same way, you also must conclude yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.¹² This means not letting sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,¹³ and do not make your body parts available to sin as tools to be used for unrighteousness, but make yourselves available to God as those who are alive from the dead and your body parts to God as tools to be used for righteousness.¹⁴ Because sin will not dominate you, because you are not under law but under grace.

making body parts available

Christ’s death and resurrection stand as the decisive victory over sin’s authority. That triumph is not merely an event to admire from a distance; it becomes the pattern and power for the believer’s life. After baptism, life is meant to be understood through the lens of that victory. Baptism symbolizes union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and that union means sin’s dominion has been broken. The believer is no longer a captive who must obey sin’s demands but a freed person called to live in the strength of Christ’s risen life.

Because of this new reality, believers are urged to place every part of their being—mind, emotions, desires, speech, actions—at God’s disposal. Nothing is excluded. The body is not a neutral instrument; it becomes either a tool for righteousness or a tool for sin. Paul’s call is for believers to consciously and continually present themselves to God so that righteousness becomes the pattern of their lives. This includes the inner life as much as the outer: thoughts, motives, and affections are to be shaped by the grace that now reigns.

Just as Christ’s death was the only remedy for the penalty of sin, righteous living empowered by grace is the only remedy for sin’s ongoing power. The law could diagnose the problem but could not cure it. It could reveal sin but could not break its grip. Obedience to the law alone, without the transforming work of Christ, only intensified the struggle. What the law could not accomplish, union with Christ does. Identifying with Christ in faith—daily, hourly, moment by moment—opens the way for genuine transformation.

This identification is not passive. It involves a continual offering of the self to God, a deliberate turning away from the old patterns and a steady leaning into the new life Christ provides. Righteous living is not a human achievement but the fruit of surrender to God’s work within. Grace does not merely forgive; it empowers. It reshapes the will, redirects the heart, and strengthens the body to act in ways that reflect God’s character.

The call is clear: live as one who shares in Christ’s victory. Make every part of life available to God. Trust that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work, enabling a life that resists sin’s pull and displays the righteousness God delights to produce.

LORD, we surrender to you everything that we surrendered to the water when we were baptized. We make all our lives available to you.

Posted in grace, law, sanctification, sin | Tagged Romans 6 | Leave a comment

baptism and the way out

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:1-8

¹What should we conclude then? Should we keep sinning so that grace may increase?² Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?³ Or do you not know that those who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?⁴ The conclusion is that we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that in the same way as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.⁵ Because since we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united in a resurrection like his.⁶ We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the sinful body would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.⁷ (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)⁸ Now if we died along with Christ, we believe that we will also live along with him.

baptism and the way out

The legalistic mindset that shaped many Jews in Paul’s day treated the law as the pathway out of sin’s grip. Obedience, in their view, functioned like a ladder: climb high enough, and escape the domination of sin. Paul dismantled that assumption with force. The law, though holy and good, was never designed to liberate from sin’s power. When the law stands alone—without the transforming work of Christ—it does not reduce sin but exposes it. The clearer the knowledge of God’s will becomes, the more obvious human failure becomes. Instead of producing holiness, the law highlights guilt, and guilt fuels further rebellion. Sin, left unchecked, rules like a tyrant.

Because of this reality, some might imagine an opposite error: if the law increases sin, and grace covers sin, then perhaps the answer is to rely on atonement while continuing in deliberate disobedience. Paul anticipates that twisted logic and answers with unmistakable intensity: absolutely not. Grace is not a license for sin; it is the power that breaks sin’s rule.

To correct the misunderstanding, Paul directs believers back to the gospel they confessed when they entered the waters of baptism. Baptism was not a mere ritual but a symbolic participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. Being lowered beneath the water mirrored Christ being lowered into death, willingly submitting to the cross. Rising from the water mirrored Christ rising from the grave, breathing again the air of new creation. This act proclaimed that Christ’s victory over sin was not only His own triumph but the believer’s new identity.

Because Christ died to sin and rose to new life, those united with Him share in that same pattern. Life after baptism is not meant to be lived under sin’s dominion. The believer is not a slave returning to an old master but a resurrected person walking in newness of life. Sin may still tempt, but it no longer commands. Its authority has been broken. The gospel calls believers to live as people who have already passed through death and emerged into a different kind of existence—one shaped by Christ’s victory rather than Adam’s fall.

LORD, when sin wants to drag us down, remind us of the time when you raised us up. Remind us that sin no longer dominates us.

Posted in baptism, sanctification, sin | Tagged Romans 6 | Leave a comment

grace reigning through righteousness

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:18-21

¹⁸ Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came as a result of one transgression, so too by the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.¹⁹ Because in the same way that the disobedience of the one man made many sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.²⁰ Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,²¹ so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

grace reigning through righteousness

The passage describes the contrast between two realms of authority: the reign of sin and the reign of grace. Under the rule of sin, the law—though holy and good—ended up exposing human disobedience rather than curing it. The law revealed the depth of rebellion but could not transform the heart. As a result, sin increased, and with it came the inevitable consequence Scripture associates with sin: death. This death is not only physical but spiritual, a separation from the life God intends.

Into that bleak reality came a new reign, established through the death and resurrection of Christ. Grace entered human history not as an abstract idea but as a power that accomplishes what the law could never achieve. Grace does not merely forgive; it creates new life. It produces righteousness—real, lived obedience that flows from a heart changed by God rather than pressured by external commands. Because condemnation has been removed through Christ, the people of God are no longer trapped under the old dominion. They are free to grow in righteousness, to resist sin, and to reflect the character of the Savior.

This growth is not perfection. Scripture never promises a life without struggle or failure in the present age. Yet it does promise genuine transformation. Grace trains, shapes, and strengthens believers so that obedience becomes increasingly possible. The reign of grace is not passive; it is active within the heart, forming the righteousness God desires to display in the world. Through this work, glimpses of eternal life appear even now—moments of holiness, joy, and spiritual clarity that anticipate the fullness of the life to come.

LORD, we have had enough of sin reigning in our lives and producing death. We surrender our hearts to your grace. Produce in us the righteousness you want to demonstrate.

Posted in eternal life, grace, sanctification | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment