🌎️ Romans 6:6 | 1 Simple Way to Share Jesus

📧 In today’s email…

• Putting together everything we learned this week ⏩️

• The real enemy 🛡️

• 1 simple way to point people to Jesus ✝️ 🌍️

• Introducing the Malachi Daily Shop 👕💥

 🧠 Memorize

_{see if you know what words go in the blanks}

We ____ ____ ___ ___ ____ ___ crucified ____ ___ in order ____ ___ ____ __ sin might __ _______ __ _______,

so that __ _____ no ______ __ ________ __ ___.

Romans 6:6

A review of what we’ve learned 🤔 

Here’s what we learned about Romans 6:6 this week:

• Paul wrote this letter to the body of Christians in Rome, which was made up of Jewish and Gentile Christians.

• The Roman emperor Claudius commanded all of the Jews to leave Rome (Acts 18:1-2), including Jewish Christians.

• Years later, those Jews were allowed to return (including Jesus-following Jews)

• They came back to a Christian church that had become non-Jewish in custom and practice, which led to division around things like circumcision, Sabbath and dietary practices

• So Paul wrote this letter in part to unite a divided church and ultimately spread the gospel further into the Gentile world

Then, we walked through Romans 6:6 verse-by-verse and the main idea we dug into is the fact that:

our old self is crucified with Christ and brought to nothing (katargeō),

— which means that our old self is no longer in the seat of control of our lives.

This quote from Bible commentator David Guzik summarizes it well:

To replace the old self, God gives us a “new self” – a self that is instinctively obedient and pleasing to God.

Paul describes this new self in some of his other letters:

And lastly, we pointed out that God is the Great Physician.

Not just because of the physical healing Jesus did throughout his ministry (or the physical healing we will experience in New Creation) -

— but also because God offers us:

• an accurate diagnosis of the root problem underlying every other problem

• the actual solution needed to heal every square inch of this broken world

Everything in the verse we’ve been memorizing this week culminates in this one phrase:

so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.

That’s the why behind Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.

To free us from the enslaving power of sin that leads to death, and instead to offer us life that is truly life.

The Real Enemy 🛡️ 

God’s diagnosis for the world’s problems is sin.

Which may seem obvious to us as followers of Jesus —

(after all, God created everything - it makes sense that he would have the truest perspective on what plagues this world)

— but the surrounding culture is deeply confused about the source of all of our problems.

And when you have the wrong diagnosis, it can be fatal because it leads to the wrong treatment.

Often, the world diagnoses the problem as those other people over there.

Rather than sin operating in the driver’s seat of those people.

One of the ways we can be witnesses to the world is to how we live in light of knowing the truth about sin.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Take how we parent for example:

When your child disobeys you, it’s easy to see your child as the problem.

And when you see your child as the problem, over time it affects how you relate to them.

But they are not the enemy. Sin is the enemy.

So rather than parenting being us vs. them, parenting becomes us on the same team as our kids vs. sin.

This shift leads to a very different heart posture and relationship with our children.

Imagine if God treated us as though we were the enemies rather than sin.

Where would we be?

💡 This can give you a lot more empathy and grace when you apply this to other relationships as well: with spouses, coworkers, and friends.

A World in Need of Hope 🌎️💡

Before we knew Christ, we were slaves to sin.

But now, we know the Truth.

His name is Jesus and he has set us free.

The people in our immediate spheres who don’t know Jesus are in need of true freedom.

Not the freedom to “do whatever they want” - which is often the kind of freedom that the world sells them.

But true freedom that can only be found in Christ.

Practice: Share your story 🗣️ 

In addition to living a beautiful life in Christ, one way to point people to Jesus is to share the story of how God has freed you from sin in your life.

We humans are story-driven beings. Stories resonate deeply in a way that a lecture on the definition of sin typically doesn’t (especially people who don’t know Jesus).

Let’s become people who get really comfortable sharing our story with non-believers.

Here’s are some elements of sharing your story:

1. “Before I met Jesus:” Share what your heart was like before Jesus - how was sin in the driver’s seat of your life? How did it affect your work, relationships, desires?

2. “When Jesus came into my life:” Share how Jesus entered into your life. What happened? What was it like? How did you know things were starting to change?

3. “Now:” What freedom do you have now that you didn’t have before? What is it like now?

📣 Share your story with at least 1 person who doesn’t know Jesus in the next week.

Recommended Resources 🎙️ 

In case you missed it, here’s this week’s round-up of recommended resources:

• 🎙️ Sermon: Sin as Slavery by Tim Keller (link here)

• 📚️ To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain by Matt Chandler (link here)

• 📹️ Bible Project: Overview of Romans (link here)

• 🎵 When Death Was Arrested by North Point Worship to help you meditate on this verse (listen on Spotify | listen on Apple Music)

💥 Introducing: The Malachi Daily Shop

If you missed Wednesday’s announcement, we just launched our first batch of Scripture-based clothing!

We would love for something as simple as the shirt you wear to spark a conversation with a friend, co-worker or neighbor about the Jesus who changed your life.

This is an easy way for you to:

1. Share your faith 📣 

2. Support our work 🙏 

💡 Note: Because the products are made to order, we do not accept general returns or sizing-related returns.

📣 If you currently support Malachi Daily by paying it forward, you get 15% off of everything in the Malach Daily Shop! Your discount code is visible below 🙂 

Answer key ✅ 

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing,

so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Romans 6:6