Day 1 of 4

I Will Save You

Many of us think about salvation the way we think about an item on our bucket lists: Been there, done that. What’s next? 

But when we check off salvation like we would a dream vacation, we lose sight of the significance of the moment. Salvation is more than a memorable experience. Salvation is like moving to another country forever. 

When we ask Jesus into our lives, we start a new life with Him. Like a man who moves halfway around the world, our position changes in an instant. We become citizens of God’s kingdom, where sin has no jurisdiction. 

And the same way that it takes time to adjust to life in a new country, it can take time to adjust to this new life with Jesus. In both cases, the language is different and the culture is unfamiliar. There’s a temptation to stick with what we know instead of embracing the new world we’re in. But how can we experience the fullness of our new lives until we let go of our old way of doing things?

In a paraphrase of Romans 6, Eugene Peterson writes, “If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? … We entered into the new country of grace — a new life in a new land!” (Romans 6:1-3, MSG). 

Jesus saved us from our sins in the past, but He also saves us to a life with Him in the present and in the future. Salvation isn’t something that happened one time during an altar call. It’s an ever-present reality that affects every part of our lives. 

Pray

God, thank you for saving me, and thank you for continuing to change me. Show me any areas where I need to let go of my old way of doing things and embrace the new life you’ve given me. 

Challenge

• Do you know someone who needs to experience a new life with Jesus? Invite them to church and share how Jesus has changed you. 

Romans 6 King James Version

Complete Renewal

1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?

² God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

³ Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

⁴ 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.

⁵ For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

⁶ Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

⁷ For he that is dead is freed from sin.

⁸ Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

⁹ Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.

¹⁰ For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

¹¹ Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

¹² Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.

¹³ Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

¹⁵ What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

¹⁶ Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

¹⁷ But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.

¹⁸ Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.

¹⁹ I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.

²⁰ For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

²¹ What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

²² But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

²³ For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.