The cross of the Lord Jesus divides between death and life! Presented to the sinner the cross holds the key to destiny and our response to the cross of Jesus determines heaven or hell. God is not interested in making us a better sinner, or making life a little better, feeding us on more of the same. By the power of the cross there is radical transformation, metamorphosis. Jesus carried dead men to the cross but emerges from the cross the head of a new creation, the last Adam bringing living men from the cross! Through His people Jesus is now glorified in them as we live for God by Him. Here is a life of absolute surrender for the glory of God.

Romans chapter 6 unpacks Paul's teaching on sanctification. Now that I am saved, now I am a Christian, how should I live? Can I live as a please? Can I as a Christian do whatever I want? Does God have a purpose for my life? Can I continue in sin that grace may much more abound? Romans teaches that a life which receives salvation is a life changed by Christ. Salvation comes by relationship and that with a living Saviour! Our water baptism demonstrates this truth. In baptism by immersion we are dead, buried and raised again in Jesus! The Christian life is lived out in the sanctuary of Romans chapter 8, like that of David, at the altar of Romans chapter 12 like that of Abraham and in the congregation of Romans chapters 14 to 16 like that of Moses. Like the lepers of old, God takes our broken and dead lives and transforms them and changes them not for our glory but for His! He brings Miriam's flesh alive from the dead, Naaman the leper through the waters of baptism and the leper of Luke chapter 17 to the pinnacle of glorifying Jesus.

Romans chapter 6, sanctification and salvation in the life of the Christian, illustrated from Leviticus chapter 14 and the cleansing of the leper. Three men, David, Abraham and Moses, 3 deaths, Christ, self and the Old Man, the doctrine of propitiation and expiation and justification by faith and living life in the light of the sanctuary, Romans 8, the altar Romans 12 and the congregation in Romans chapters 13 to 16. 

Dr J Stewart Gillespie