Order My Steps #3

Sunday, July 17, 2022

“Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me” (Psalm 119:133 KJV).

May we share the Psalmist’s wish!

“Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:24-26).

To be “justified” is to have imputed righteousness, considered just as if you have never sinned. Stated another way, Jesus Christ’s righteousness (how He measured up to God’s perfect standard of rightness) can be applied to our individual accounts. Be sure to notice this is “freely” given us—without cost to us—because Jesus Christ has paid the price for our sins by shedding His sinless blood. The fully-satisfying payment or sacrifice (“propitiation”) was He Himself offered on Calvary’s cross. He took upon Himself Father God’s wrath against our sins: He was our substitute. If we truly believe that message—that is, believe it in our hearts—Christ’s righteousness is credited to us.

Moving into chapter 6 of Romans, we learn the fundamentals of victorious Christian living. What is eternal life in Christ like? How does our new identity in Him affect our earthly, daily conduct? Verses 1-4: “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.”

When Christ died for our sins, we died with Him. (This is how Father God sees it!) In Adam, we were spiritually dead, severed from God’s life. However, in Christ, we are dead to (separated from) Adam and his fallen identity. We are now alive with Christ’s very life….