Richardo Sanchez famously said: “Satan knows your name, but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin but calls you by your name.” In today’s reading, Paul takes our battle with sin to the next level by assuring us that when Christ died, so did our sins.

Christ’s precious blood provided a path for the Most High God to call us by our name. We are “in Christ” and get all the benefits of His righteousness. We live in the reality in which He tore the veil between us and our Father, Who is in Heaven. So, what should we do with that?

A famous motivational speaker once put forth that the best way to quit a vice is to shed the identity of that vice. If you smoke, the speaker posited, “saying ‘I’m not a smoker’ leads to far more radical transformation than saying ‘I don’t smoke’”. If you changed your inner language to “I am not my sin...I’m a child of God, transformed by His death and resurrection”...how would it change your usefulness to God, your understanding of His lavish grace, and your action on His behalf, for His glory?

Paul exhorts us not to focus on sin, but rather on our identity.

Romans 6.3-4

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

[ WHAT ] is this passage saying and what is a key truth or thought that we learn?

+ What does it mean that we are “baptized into [Christ’s] death? [v. 3)]

+ Verse 4 makes a precious claim: that we have access to the same glory that raised Christ from the dead. What glory is that?

+ When Christ died, what did He accomplish? What didn’t He do that we wrestle with doing daily?

+ It is highly encouraged that you read and meditate on the rest of the chapter. Is Paul saying sin no longer exists? Or is he saying our mindset towards sin and our identity must change? [vs. 15-18]

[ HOW ] is the Lord calling me to action/obedience?

+ Is there sin to confess or a next step to take? How has it gone since last time?

+ Has your identification as a “sinner” ever caused you to stay away or shy away from God? From spending time in His Word? From approaching His Throne in prayer?

+ Conversely, do you think that identification has ever allowed you to plunge or wallow more deeply into a certain sin? What would an identify change mean for your life? If you put to death your “old man” (Ephesians 4:22 and Colossians 3:9) and instead identified as a child of the King, how would it change your orientation to God?

[ WHO ] am I walking with and praying for to discover Jesus?

+ What is my next step?