March 13 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Romans 6:1-14:

¹What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
²God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
³Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
⁴Therefore 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.
⁵For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
⁶Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
⁷For he that is dead is freed from sin.
⁸Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
⁹Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
¹⁰For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
¹¹Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
¹²Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
¹³Neither 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.
¹⁴For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

Devotional

The first day of the week, the Lord's Day, commemorates the resurrection of our Redeemer from the dead. We follow after the great company of witnesses and believers who have worshiped the risen and living Lord in the past. Like them we adore Him who not only claimed to have power over death, but who demonstrated that power by raising others from the dead and also by rising Himself.

The resurrection of Christ transformed the early disciples into heroic witnesses willing to seal their testimony with their lives. The message of the Saviour's conquest over the grave has been proclaimed by them and others down through the centuries, and the Church of Christ - rejoicing in the resurrection - has penetrated to the far places of the earth.

United with Christ, Christians have been raised to walk in newness of life and have borne testimony through their lives to the fact that their Saviour lives.

With animating hope many have been enabled to look to the time of resurrection for all who sleep in Christ. The Saviour was the first-fruits; afterward they that are His at His coming.

On this Christian sabbath we, too, witness to our risen Lord with the universal church of Christ. Let us more abundantly show forth in our lives the fruits of His triumphant resurrection.

Welcome to "Think on These Things," a twelve-week daily devotional prepared by the late Dr. John H. Skilton, an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and for many years Chairman of the New Testament Department at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia.

We are indebted to P & R Publishing and Skilton House Ministries for permission to use this copyrighted material on the OPC Web site. (P & R held the copyright from 1975 to 2005, at which time they reassigned the copyright to Skilton House.)