▪︎ Gen 2:17 – Every disobedience and trangession adds to the debt that eventually must be paid.
▪︎ Gen 3:23, 24 – Man was expelled from the garden, experiencing the separation and death in contrast to the life of God.
▪︎ John 5:24 – Thanks to the free gift of God, we do not have to experience eternal separation from God if we change our mind about following God. This is called repentance. Its the free gift of God that allows us to experience the good side of this contrast… moving from death to life in Christ.
▪︎ Rom 6:4, 5 … Likeness (ὁμοίωμα – Greek) – homoióma ► the same or similar to something totally different. It “does not require one element of a comparison to be derived from the other; indeed, it can be wholly separate from it.” Our deadness in sin is not congruent with life, but through Christ’s atoning sacrifice we can experience His new life, His resurrection life…
(full text – Rom_6:4-7
4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7for he who has died is freed from sin.
). ▪︎ Rom 8:3 – We who are alive (physically, or so we think) have the opportunity to be united with Christ in His death, so that we can experience newness of life… His life. Thanks to the free gift of God, we can experience the good side of this contrast… John 5:24 moving from death to life in Christ.
▪︎ Other contrasts between life and death include…
• Prov 10:16-17;
• Prov 16:25;
• Matt 10:39; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24-25;
• Gal 2:20;
• 1Peter 2:24, 3:18;
• Rom 8:1-2, 5-6, 13;
(full text – Rom_8:1-17
1Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so,8and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
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9However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
12So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.