Saturday, March 27, 2010

127) Death has no dominion

Romans 6:9-10 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. (10) For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

Jesus Christ destroyed the dominion of death through his resurrection and he will never die again. Sin and death had dominion over the human race under the curse of the law. Christ perfectly fulfilled the law and yet suffered the penalty that the law imposed for not fulfilling it. Therefore, all that are baptized into the death Christ Jesus through faith have had their sin debt paid in full by Christ, and are counted as righteous because of Christ’s perfect obedience to the law. Thus, the dominion of death was destroyed by Christ. This is the amazing grace that leads Paul to conclude that believers are not under law but under grace. Through this grace the wretched man that is captive to the law of sin and death [Romans 7:23] is set free from the captivity and slavery of sin through regeneration and the New Covenant promise of a new heart.

Focus on Christ #127

2 comments:

mark pierson said...

"...and are counted as righteous because of Christ’s perfect obedience to the law."

Wayne, we must not forget the cross here - see Romans 3:24-26. To me the cross gets lost if we focus in solely on His life of obedience.

jazzycat said...

Mark,
True and I should have made that clearer. Without the cross and the atonement of Christ, there would be no justification because we would still be under God's wrath because of our sin. Christ was our passover lamb without blemish. He came to fulfil the law and the prophets, which led him to the cross of Calvary.