Ok Paul, sounds great, but how does it actually work?
Death to sin through baptism into Christ’s death
Romans 6:1-14
Servants of righteousness
Romans 6:15-23
Believers united to Christ
Romans 7:1-6
The purpose of the law
Romans 7:7-13
The conflict between the old and new natures
Romans 7:14-25
Freedom from condemnation
Romans 8:1-9
The privileges of the child of God
Romans 8:10-17
Future glory
Romans 8:18-27
More than conquerors
Romans 8:28-39
Paul continues with his exposition of the mechanism of salvation. Now he’s got the back off the clock, and we can see all the little cogs going round,he proceeds to explain how this justification, this righteousness machine, actually works. It’s to do with dying and rising again. What happened to Jesus must happen to us too. We are chained to sin as if we were slaves to it or as if we were married to it. There’s a cast iron legal contract in place. We can’t run away, we can’t divorce. We’re trapped. But legal contracts only have force while someone is alive. If we die, they lapse. If we rise to new life, we don’t need to step back into the old shackles. We’re free to walk the new life of peace.
So are we all perfect beings now? This laziness that I felt the other day, was it an illusion? I could have sworn I had feelings of lust, but perhaps I was kidding myself. Didn’t I just tell a lie?
How come I’m still sinning, if I’ve died and been born again? Has the cure not worked in my case?
This is where the struggle of being a Christian disciple is played out, day by day, minute by minute. Because what’s true of me is true of us all. We’re not perfect, just because we’ve become Christians What does Paul have to say about this?
First of all he acknowledges that he is still a sinner as well, that he wants to do good but finds himself still choosing the evil. He feels the sense of disgust that I sometimes do when I’ve failed yet again. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (7:24)
Then it’s time for another of his purple passages, as Paul triumphantly moves beyond his despair into the sunlit uplands of hope. We turn the page from chapter 7 and enter chapter 8 with a blast of hope: “ if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” (8:10-11)
The key is that we don’t belong to sin any more, now we’re children of God. If you’re a child you’ve got a status, you’re a member of the family. We are heirs.
So failure doesn’t mean condemnation. Failure doesn’t mean God turns off the love tap. Failure doesn’t mean God will stop his repair work inside our damaged hearts. Yes it’s a struggle, as day by day we experience the contrast between what we should be and how the world is, but we’re moving in the right direction. And nothing is powerful enough to stop us reaching our destination.
Death to sin through baptism into Christ’s death
Romans 6:1-14
Servants of righteousness
Romans 6:15-23
Believers united to Christ
Romans 7:1-6
The purpose of the law
Romans 7:7-13
The conflict between the old and new natures
Romans 7:14-25
Freedom from condemnation
Romans 8:1-9
The privileges of the child of God
Romans 8:10-17
Future glory
Romans 8:18-27
More than conquerors
Romans 8:28-39
Paul continues with his exposition of the mechanism of salvation. Now he’s got the back off the clock, and we can see all the little cogs going round,he proceeds to explain how this justification, this righteousness machine, actually works. It’s to do with dying and rising again. What happened to Jesus must happen to us too. We are chained to sin as if we were slaves to it or as if we were married to it. There’s a cast iron legal contract in place. We can’t run away, we can’t divorce. We’re trapped. But legal contracts only have force while someone is alive. If we die, they lapse. If we rise to new life, we don’t need to step back into the old shackles. We’re free to walk the new life of peace.
So are we all perfect beings now? This laziness that I felt the other day, was it an illusion? I could have sworn I had feelings of lust, but perhaps I was kidding myself. Didn’t I just tell a lie?
How come I’m still sinning, if I’ve died and been born again? Has the cure not worked in my case?
This is where the struggle of being a Christian disciple is played out, day by day, minute by minute. Because what’s true of me is true of us all. We’re not perfect, just because we’ve become Christians What does Paul have to say about this?
First of all he acknowledges that he is still a sinner as well, that he wants to do good but finds himself still choosing the evil. He feels the sense of disgust that I sometimes do when I’ve failed yet again. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?” (7:24)
Then it’s time for another of his purple passages, as Paul triumphantly moves beyond his despair into the sunlit uplands of hope. We turn the page from chapter 7 and enter chapter 8 with a blast of hope: “ if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” (8:10-11)
The key is that we don’t belong to sin any more, now we’re children of God. If you’re a child you’ve got a status, you’re a member of the family. We are heirs.
So failure doesn’t mean condemnation. Failure doesn’t mean God turns off the love tap. Failure doesn’t mean God will stop his repair work inside our damaged hearts. Yes it’s a struggle, as day by day we experience the contrast between what we should be and how the world is, but we’re moving in the right direction. And nothing is powerful enough to stop us reaching our destination.
No comments:
Post a Comment