阅读经文 

在我得感冒或流感时，我会比平时更注意自己的身体。咳嗽、发烧、疼痛和发冷等症状不容忽视。疾病使我意识到什么地方出了问题，它使我渴望得到医治。

我们若对自己诚实，就会看到，罪仍然存在于我们的生命中。我们被引诱去犯罪，而且经常深陷其中，我们需要恳求赦免。当我们想到永生时，我们会想像未来我们的生命将没有罪恶。但还不止于此。在基督里，我们已经被改造一新了！

关于基督的死和复活的一个重要真理是，靠着相信神拯救我们的大能，我们已经向旧的生命中的罪死了，与基督一同受洗进入祂的死，又与祂一同复活，靠圣灵的能力“有新生的样式”。在耶稣的受死中，我们的罪债已经被偿还了，在祂的复活中，我们被圣灵引导着过一种圣洁的生活，一种感恩的生活。

我们不是被困在属灵的等候室里，遭受灵性疾病的折磨。我们已经得到了医治，使我们能够靠着神的能力抵挡罪恶，以感恩的心生活，与他人分享神的爱。在基督的受死中，我们已经向罪死了，藉着祂的复活，我们正在被重新塑造。

When I have a cold or the flu, I am more aware of my body than I usually am. Symptoms such as coughs, fevers, aches, and chills cannot be ignored. Sickness makes me aware of what’s wrong, and it makes me long for healing.

When we are honest with ourselves, we can see that sin is still present in our lives. We are tempted to sin, and we often fall into it and need to ask for forgiveness. And when we think about eternal life, we imagine a future when our lives will be sin-free. But there is more. In Christ, we are already being made new!

An important truth about Christ’s death and resurrection is that by believing in God’s power to save us, we die to our old life of sin, we are baptized with Christ into his death, and we are raised with him to “live a new life” by the power of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ death our sins have been paid for, and in his resurrection we are led by the Spirit to live a forgiven life, a grateful life.

We are not stuck in a spiritual waiting room suffering from spiritual sickness. We are already receiving the necessary healing that allows us, in God’s strength, to resist sin and to live in gratitude, sharing God’s love with others. In Christ’s death we have died to sin, and by his resurrection we are being made new.