Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Reading:  Romans 6:1-11
    
    Jesus has undone Adam’s sin, leading to the ironic conclusion that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”(Rom 5:20).  Now Paul asks:  is this the way following Jesus works?  If our sin leads to more grace, do we keep sinning?  “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?”(Rom 6:1-2).  This is probably the accusation Jewish observers are making about Paul’s teaching:  if we set the Law of Moses aside and God forgives all our sins, then we can just sin freely.  Paul rejects this.  “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”(Rom 6:3-4).  The answer is that when we came to Christ, we died to sin, we buried our lives of sin, and we began to “walk in newness of life.”

    Especially does Paul want us to think of ourselves as participating in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  We are “united with him in a death like his”(Rom 6:5), “crucified with him”(Rom 6:6), “have died with Christ”(Rom 6:8) and are “buried…with him”(Rom 6:4).  Then, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”(Rom 6:4).  Christian conversion mirrors Jesus’ sacrifice, but it now leads us to live in a new way, obeying God rather than living in sin, like Jesus (Rom 6:10).  We also have hope in the future:  “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him”(Rom 6:8).  Our new spiritual life promises a future bodily resurrection.  “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”(Rom 6:11).

    Paul insists that our baptism was not simply a one-time event, but has ongoing significance.  It is in baptism that we bid a final goodbye to our life of sin, contact the power of Jesus’ death, and are raised to new hope and a new kind of life.  We do not perfectly live out our commitment to stop sinning, but we certainly do not “continue in sin that grace may abound.”  Now we live like Jesus:  dead to sin, alive to God.

-----------
One Thing to Think About:  How might this perspective change how I respond to temptations?

One Thing to Pray For:  Proper perspective about my past
 

The Anti-Adam

Reading:  Romans 5:12-21
    
    Paul has been thinking through how Jesus’ death brings life for us (Rom 5:10) and he wants to make a broader point about how Jesus is God’s great response to the universal problem of sin and death.  So he compares Jesus and Adam.  “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned”(Rom 5:12).  Adam was the first sinner, but the consequences of his sin were not restricted to him.  Death came into the world through him.  And because of his sin, death spread “because all sinned.”  Adam opened a kind of Pandora’s box, releasing sin and its consequences on the world and poisoning everything.

    Yet Jesus is the anti-Adam.  “But the free gift is not like the trespass.  For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many”(Rom 5:15).  Jesus’ legacy is the opposite of Adam’s.  Adam brought death and sin to many, but Jesus brings grace to many.  Adam brings condemnation, but Jesus brings justification (Rom 5:16).  Adam makes death reign, but Jesus makes grace and life reign (Rom 5:17).  “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience many will be made righteous”(Rom 5:19).  Jesus’ righteous life and sacrificial death transform the world, reversing the terrible effects of sin.  Paul even suggests that God gave the Law of Moses “to increase the trespass”(Rom 5:20), identifying (and even encouraging!) sin so that it could be undone in Jesus.

    All mankind wrestles with the problem of evil.  We struggle with evil done to us, evil things we observe in others, and evil things we do ourselves.  Adam let this sin into the world and we have made our contribution to it.  But how can we escape it?  Are we doomed to this cycle of pain and death?  In steps the anti-Adam, whose obedience blazes a new trail to God and allows grace and life to reign.

-----------
One Thing to Think About:  How have I seen grace and life spread?

One Thing to Pray For:  God’s grace to abound 
 

How God’s Love Builds Hope

Reading:  Romans 5:6-11
    
    Two thoughts dominate this section:  that God loves us and that this means not only present reconciliation, but future salvation.  Paul has argued that “hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts”(Rom 5:5) and now explains the degree of love he is describing.  “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Rom 5:6-8).  God’s love was unilateral and independent of any virtue on our part.  God loved us long before we were lovable, while we were in rebellion against him.  Paul explores human comparisons (“one will scarcely die for a righteous person”) to highlight the boggling depth of God’s love.

    But that love also gives us hope as we look forward.  “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved from him by the wrath of God.  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life”(Rom 5:9-10).  God’s love gives us assurance that we are now justified and reconciled to him—safe for now.  Yet that love also promises that in the future, when the wrath of God comes on evil, we will be saved.  Now instead of the death we deserve, we will receive “his life”—an idea he will flesh out in the verses that follow.  If God loves me now enough to give his Son for me, I can know he will love me enough to safe me at the end.  His love gives me hope.

    Jesus is the eternal proof of God’s love.  Our unworthiness makes the gift even more amazing.  God wants our salvation, not destruction.  He is not against us or eager to punish us.  This gives us hope that the life that we have a taste of now will be ours when Jesus returns.

-----------
One Thing to Think About:  How much must God love me?

One Thing to Pray For:  Confidence in God’s will toward me—especially as I approach death 
 

Past, Present, and Future

Reading:  Romans 5:1-5
    
    Having reasoned extensively through our path into sin and the salvation by faith Jesus offers, Paul takes a step back.  Where does all this leave us?  “Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”(Rom 5:1).  We look into our past and see our own sins and the judgment they deserve, yet we find in Jesus a way God will spare us from this fate.  Our past is shameful but redeemed.  

    Presently, we experience a treasure-trove of blessings.  “We have peace with God”(Rom 5:1), reconnecting us with our Creator and resolving the great problem of our lives.  “We have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand”(Rom 5:2).  We have not only received grace for past sins, but we stand in grace.  We know that mistakes we make now can be forgiven (although this can never encourage us to sin, as we will see in chapter 6).  This gives us confidence and joy.  “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope”(Rom 5:3-4).  We even rejoice in hardship because even hardship strengthens us and reinforces the hope we have.  God is working in us to make us more like Jesus (Rom 8:29).  This gives us deeper hope.  We also celebrate that “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us”(Rom 5:5).  We know we are loved—and how to love others—because of God’s revelation of his own love to us.

    We also eagerly anticipate a glorious future.  “We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God”(Rom 5:2).  When Jesus returns, we will be glorified along with him.  It is this hope that strengthens us even through times of suffering.

    Past, present, and future are all transformed by Jesus’ gift.  Rather than shame, we look back at our past with relief and gratitude for our redemption.  Rather than despair, we live presently with love, peace, and joy.  Rather than fear, we face the future with hope and confidence.  Praise God!

-----------
One Thing to Think About:  How might I learn to rejoice in my sufferings?

One Thing to Pray For:  That I might rejoice in the hope of the glory of God 
 

Believing Against Hope

Reading:  Romans 4:16-25
    
    Since the way all people can now be saved is through faith in Jesus, Christians do not seek to keep the Law of Moses but to “(share) the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all”(Rom 4:16).  God promised Abraham “I have made you the father of many nations”(Rom 4:17, Gen 17:5) and Paul says that this is fulfilled when Jews and Gentiles have a faith like his (not just when he has many great grandchildren!).  Yet all this started with Abraham and Sarah, a lonely nomadic couple past the age of childbearing.  Abraham trusted in the God “who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist”(Rom 4:17).  Just as Jesus calls unstable Peter a rock long before he becomes one, so God calls Abraham a father to many long before he becomes one.  Abraham believes him.

    Paul then discusses the challenge of Abraham’s faith.  “In hope he believed against hope”(Rom 4:18).  He knew there was no earthly cause for hope, given his own age and Sarah’s barrenness (Rom 4:19), yet he looked beyond what he saw.  “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God”(Rom 4:20).  Rather than beginning to doubt, Abraham became more convinced as time went by.  He was “fully convinced that God was able to do what he promised”(Rom 4:21).  This, Paul insists, is the faith that God counted as righteousness.  And Abraham’s faith shows us what our faith should be like—so that we can believe similarly in Jesus and find an even greater salvation.  

    I am intrigued by Paul’s phrase “in hope he believed against hope.”  At times God’s promises are hard to believe because our experience teaches us to expect something different.  Abraham and Sarah had no natural reason to ever expect a child.  Similarly, nothing in the current state of the world would lead us to believe that justice is coming, that God is in control, that we will live eternally, or that Jesus is coming back.  These are matters that we accept by faith, believing against hope that our good Savior lives and will fulfill his promises to us.

-----------
One Thing to Think About:  How do I grow stronger in faith?

One Thing to Pray For:  The endurance to continue trusting God throughout my life