Listen

Should we continue sinning so grace will multiply? Absolutely not! All of us died to sin. How can we still live in it? Or don’t you know that all who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried together with him through baptism into his death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too can walk in newness of life. If we were united together in a death like his, we will also be united together in a resurrection like his.

Romans 6:1b-5

Think

We love to see what we can get away with. Staying up just a little later, nabbing one more donut hole. And that is nothing new. Back in the ancient church in Rome, people wanted to see how much sin they could sneak in. What was the maximum forgiveness that God would give them?

Paul says that’s not the right question to ask. We’re not supposed to see how deep we can dig to test how high Jesus can lift us. Instead, we should remember that Jesus already claimed us — he has already pulled us from the deep. When we are in Christ, it is not a competition as to who is loved better or has been saved more.

God lifts us up and wipes away our smudges — and by “us,” I mean all of God’s people. Christ brings us together from every spot on the globe. Together we shine.

Chris Suehr

Pray

Hi God, it’s me again. You lift me out of the deep and make me part of something. Help me shine your light through everything I do. Amen.

Go

When our hearts are saddened, grieving or in pain,
By Your touch You call us back to life again;
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been:
Love is come again, like wheat that springs up green.

from “Now the Green Blade Riseth” by John M. C. Crum, 1928