Paul reminds us in Romans 6:1-4, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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.”
When we committed our lives to Christ by being baptized, we buried our old self and died to sin so that we could be raised to walk in our new life. As we continue to walk in our new life, Satan is there at every corner, tempting us back into living like our old self. Far too often, it seems as though we have forgotten that we died (to sin) and we live like that old person we buried in baptism. When we do this, it is as if we are the walking dead, which is not someone any of us want to be, and none of us want to see.
The apostle Peter put it this way in 2 Peter 2:20-22: “For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.’” Also, it’s not a pretty picture.
Have you forgotten that you died to sin? Live for Christ and walk in the new life every day!