Downloading newness of life

Christine Colliar May 22, 2026 4 2

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Romans 6: 1-14 (NIV-UK)

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin – 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Baptism happens in a moment. Water poured, words spoken, a turning towards Christ. Paul speaks of it as dying and rising with Christ, the beginning of a new life.

But beginnings still have to be lived.

Paul writes to people who have already been baptised, yet still struggle with old ways of living. The water has dried, but fear, anger, selfishness, and old habits still cling closely. So he tells them, do not let sin rule your life anymore. Live as people who belong to God!

That feels familiar. We know what it is to promise change and then find ourselves slipping back into old reactions. We know how easily anxiety settles in the body, how quickly bitterness returns, how difficult it can be to let go of ways of thinking that once kept us safe.

So, newness of life rarely arrives all at once.

The ‘download’ here keeps unfolding across ordinary days. God keeps working within lives that are still unfinished, still growing, still learning how to live in the freedom already given.

Baptism marks a beginning, not an ending. Day by day, choice by choice, grace keeps shaping us into people able to love more freely, let go of hurt more easily, and live more openly before God and one another.

Prayer:

Renewing God,

keep working your new life into us.

Where old patterns cling tightly, loosen them.

Where fear still directs us, free us.

Where hope has grown thin, renew us.

Write the life of Christ more deeply into us,

until his love shapes our living

and his freedom grows within us each day.

Amen