Romans 6:4

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

At the end of The Wizard of Oz, after Dorothy has endured all kinds of scary adventures trying to get back to Kansas, Glinda the Good Witch casually tells her she’s always had the power to go home.

This is a good, if imperfect, picture of the Christian life. We put our faith in Christ and determine to follow him. But still we struggle with old sinful habits and fleshly desires. Perhaps we go off on a busy search for some kind of “magical” answer to our dilemma. All the time the real solution is within us.

How so? Through salvation God has changed our essential nature and linked us permanently to his Son (see Colossians 3:3-4). God has also implanted his Holy Spirit within us to give us the power to live as we should.

None of this is meant to suggest that our living holy lives is as simple as Dorothy clicking her ruby slippers together. But there is great and mysterious power in the promise of new life in Christ.

GOD’S PROMISE TO ME:

• I have joined you to Christ.

• Your old sinful nature has no power over you.

• I have given you the capacity to live a brand-new life.

MY PRAYER TO GOD:

O Lord, help me to better understand the monumental blessings and changes that salvation brings. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to me to live as I should. Give me eyes to see and ears to hear. Give me the faith to believe this amazing promise: As a brand-new creature, I do not have to yield to sin. Amen.