Meyer Minute for January 9 Can you identify one or two sins you’re struggling against deep within your being? We’re familiar with open sin, something a person might do or say that goes against the way God wants us to live. What about the thoughts and urges deep within you, hidden in your mind and heart that no other person can see? Many of us this Sunday will hear about Jesus’ baptism. The Bible teaches that Jesus is sinless, so He wasn’t baptized for forgiveness as we are (cf. Acts 2:38). He was baptized to identify with us. We, on the other hand, are baptized to be identified with Him, the sinless one (Cf. Romans 6:1-4). That identification brings us into struggle, struggle against the sin within us so that we live a life consistent with His holiness. We should not “adopt the opinion…that our Baptism is past and can never be used after we again have fallen into sin. It can happen that we slip and fall out of the ship (of Baptism). But when this happens and someone does fall out, he should at once swim for the ship again and cling to it until he can climb back on deck and sail forward as he had earlier begun to do.” (Martin Luther) (in “For All the Saints,” I, 217) Oswald Chambers: “The man who has been made obtuse by sin will say he is not conscious of sin.” (January 9)
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 13:18:34 +0000