holiness – Simply True

Dead to sin, alive to God (Rom. 6:1-14)

Paul has told us that God’s kindness has dwarfed the whole sorry business that started with Adam sinning.

And now, in the light of this abundant grace, he shows how we may live to his glory.

In fact, Paul must respond to some who doubt, or scorn, the good news he has announced because they cannot believe or do not want to rely on God’s amazing grace.

And he does so by answering two questions.

Here’s the first of them. Shall we just let loose and do as we please, given that God is so kind (vv. 1-14)?

Some are actually arguing that Paul is teaching this[i]. If all the goodness belongs to God—and it does—why not let God take all the glory. There’s no point in our trying to be good.

I’ve included references in the following text to make it easier to locate where Paul makes each point.

We’ve heard that Jesus dies for our sins and rises for our justification. This continues to be the starting point for all that we think and do. But we also need to know the goal God has in doing this for us.

There are three purpose statements in this passage. First, God’s kindness to us is not so we can go on sinning (v. 1). Second, it’s so we can live a new life (v. 4). And third, it’s so our old life can be disabled (v. 6).

But first, everything here depends on what happens to Jesus.

Far from merely looking at Christ as a spectacle, or perhaps appreciating him as a benefactor, we have been included in his dying and rising, and in what those events have accomplished. When we say we believe in Christ, usually expressed in baptism, we’re accepting that our new life doesn’t start with us. It starts with what happens to him—and happens to us who are in him.

But Paul is now telling us how this death and resurrection with Christ impacts on our daily living. Jesus doesn’t just die for our sins. He dies to sin (v. 10). We need to know what this means.

Obviously, Jesus doesn’t die to sinning because he never sinned. But when he dies, he so fully exhausts what sin and condemnation and death can do to sinners, that he’s died to anything more it can do to him. He’s died to the dominion of sin.

Think about this a little more. Jesus said before his death, and concerning those who came to arrest him, ‘But this is your hour, and the power of darkness’.[ii] Jesus is engaging, not only sin’s penalty but it’s power to enslave and to kill. And when he says ‘It is finished’[iii], all of this is included in what is finished.

This is important for us because we’ve been united with Christ in ‘a death like his’ (v. 5). Sin can’t do anything more to him. So, it follows that it can’t do anything more to us either! But how can this be? Sin—as we see what it offers, and feel its tug, still seems to have plenty of influence on us.

It certainly doesn’t mean we have no temptations, no inner tendencies to do wrong, no failures. But God’s purpose is to disable our propensity to sinning (v. 6). Paul calls it ‘our body of sin…being brought to nothing’. We’ve been joined to Christ’s crucifixion specifically to bring this slavery to an end[iv].

This almost seems to be too ambitious! But Paul explains how this happens. Someone who’s died is ‘set free from sin’.[v] This should actually read ‘is justified’ from sin’.[vi] The freedom comes because God calls us righteous. We are clean. We are not being condemned anymore. This is the freedom Paul speaks about.

It helps if we think about the opposite of this. Consider the effect that personal failures have on our will to please God. Satan accuses us continually. He knows the effectiveness of guilt to keep us from doing good. Think of the sapping of energy when our conscience tells us we are compromised and contaminated. What can we do to lift our game?

But then, if Christ has stood, or hung, where we compromised and soiled sinners belong, and been raised from the dead, he can rightly call us righteous. And if we, united with him, have been through death and resurrection, we, with him, can live with a clear conscience.[vii] And someone who has been cleansed like this wants to stay that way and please his or her wonderful Benefactor. We don’t work towards getting a clear conscience. We start with one. And while we look to Christ and not to ourselves, we remain with one.

And so, with King David, we may have felt God’s heavy hand on us as sinners,[viii] and longed to know the joy of his salvation. But God forgives our sin, and upholds us with a willing spirit.[ix] Or, like Isaiah when God cleansed him, we can say, ‘Here am I Lord. Send me!’[x] Or, like the forgiven Peter, we can say, ‘You know that I love you’.[xi]

Paul also says that we are united with Christ in his resurrection (v. 4). Jesus now has a human life (not his eternal relationship to the Father) that is renewed—after bearing our sins.

He rises to live to God. Of course, he has always lived to God, but we couldn’t share in that—as though we could merely copy his example. He’s living to God now after bearing our sins. He’s been where we were before God—condemned and under sin’s dominion. And now he’s alive to God. Death has lost its power over him.

And we’ve been raised up too. We can act and choose and think in the Father’s presence, as Jesus did in his life among us, and particularly, as he does now. We’ve been equipped to live as the righteous people he created us to be!

And we can be sure that if we are included in what he has done by dying for us, we will most certainly ~~will~~ share in being physically raised from the dead as he was (v. 5).

So much for death being in charge of history! Sin, and condemnation, and the threat of death crippled our living (as Paul has shown in his previous section[xii]). But not now! We’re ready to live.

Paul tells us to do three things so that we don’t waste these privileges. They belong together and help us live in the blessing we’ve just considered. Here they are.

We must regard our life the way God is regarding it. We must breathe this new air deeply. We should notice what is controlling our thinking. We should give up our introspection, or living by our own piety, and start with ourselves where God has placed us—in Christ.

We must say no—over and over again— to temptations we used to give way to. Problems don’t go away by meditating, or just knowing things. Sometimes we just have to say ‘No!’ We should tell sin that it’s not in charge. There’s no negotiation here. No hesitation. We might be surprised how powerful our ‘No’ is! It’s backed by all that Christ has won for us.

And we must say ‘Yes’ to God and his will—over and over again—to exercise the new freedom we’ve received. We’re not meant to be overfed consumers. This new life is built for action. We used to be the living dead! But we’re alive to God now.

And just in case we’ve forgotten, we’re not under law’s condemnation, or congratulations! Everything is under the reign of God’s grace. And our humble beginnings are a delight to our heavenly Father.

A sceptics question has yielded a rich feast. Next time, we’ll look at a second objection people have raised about the reign of God’s grace. And we’ll learn how to live as God’s joyful slaves!

[i] Rom. 3:8

[ii] Luke 22:53

[iii] John 19:30

[iv] Jesus has said that whoever sins becomes a slave of his sin (John 8:34).

[v] V. 7

[vi] Every other time Paul uses this word, this is what he means.

[vii] Heb. 9:14

[viii] Psa. 32:4

[ix] Psa. 51:12

[x] Isa. 6:7-8

[xi] John 21:17

[xii] Rom. 5:17, 21

God’s Happy Slaves (Romans 6:15-24)

We’re discovering what it means to live in the amazingly generous life that God provides for us in his Son. For some, this raises questions. In particular, how seriously does a Christian need to regard sin in his or her life?[i]

In the previous section, Paul showed us that God has placed us wholly in Christ and in what he has accomplished[ii]. And he does this so we are able to live an entirely new life, and so our sinful propensities may be disabled.[iii]

And now, Paul asks the question again. ‘Are we free to sin?’

He has just said we’re not ruled by law. God’s law is no longer in a position to condemn us. Does this mean we can sin without consequences? If there’s no road rules, can we just do whatever we like?

As with the first question, Paul responds with some horror. ‘May this never be!’ Such a thought would cancel belief in a good God, or human responsibility or a moral universe. Unfortunately, much of the world embraces these ideas. And the results are clear. Total chaos.

Rather, we are shown what it means to be under the control of grace! This is what Paul knows personally, and he’s seen it work out in the lives of many new believers.

And every converted person knows it too. ‘Don’t you know…’ Paul says. Sin had enslaved us. Now, righteousness—that is, justification—rules us. We have a new master.

Is this the truth we know? Not just forgiveness—a life wiped clean of every impurity, but righteousness—God’s final judgement revealed in advance. If we understand this, we can’t live without it. We are ‘slaves’ to this new identity.

Paul knows that slavery isn’t really what Christian faith is like, but it’s like it in the ways he describes. And he’s happy to identify himself as Christ’s slave at the beginning of his letter.

And here’s what undergirds this. When the gospel is preached, we become obedient from the heart to what we are hearing.

We don’t just give assent to an idea. To believe it is to obey it. That’s why Paul talks about ‘the obedience of faith’ later on.[iv] The gospel itself brings about this obedient faith.

Paul uses an unusual phrase to describe how the gospel comes to us. It’s a ‘standard of teaching’. It’s not just another lesson to learn. It’s God, speaking—to us. The word suggest that it’s imprinted on us. God knows how to speak to those he calls. When he forgives our sins, he writes his law on our hearts. He gives us a new heart.[v]

And we are ‘entrusted to’ it. In other words, God doesn’t trust us to believe his gospel. He entrusts us to his gospel and the gospel does the job he wants it to.

This gospel teaching leads us to righteousness. And in this context, righteousness is God’s gift[vi]. We are justified. But, as anyone who is justified knows, it’s liberating to be clean and at peace with God. Righteousness is a good way to be. We want righteousness.

Here’s Paul’s opportunity to show that the news of God’s goodness is precisely the way he brings us to living well—to be his happy slaves.[vii] He’s led us out of sin, not freed us up to enjoy it.

So now, we need to choose which master we will serve—sin or righteousness. There’s no real freedom that isn’t related to an authority. We make this decision when we believe in Christ, but it’s a decision affirmed with each new day—to present ourselves to God for his service. This is what Jesus did as God’s suffering Servant.[viii]

In one sense, knowing what to do when sin is pressing for attention is simple. Run from it! Joseph is a good example.[ix] But we’ve got more resources than just running. We have powerful reasons for our choices. And there’s a wonderful reward.

Sin, contrary to entertainment promotions, is not nice! It comes with an agenda of its own—and we are its victims. We used to give ourselves to thoughts and deeds that God says are wrong. Paul gave us a list of them earlier in his letter.[x]

We had an illusion of freedom because we felt free of any external demand. But sin has a destination in view. It wants us dead. Or, more accurately, he—Satan, wants us dead.

And sin pays wages. In other words, we get what we deserve.

Now, contrast this with being obedient. We give ourselves to Christ who loves us. We trust him and are pronounced righteous. And righteousness becomes the desire of our whole being. Jesus teaches us that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled—filled with righteousness.[xi]

So—and here is the only command in this passage—give all you’ve got to this ‘standard of teaching’![xii] It will lead you on to sanctification—that is, actually living as one devoted to God. You’ll increasingly want and be doing God’s will on earth, just as it is in heaven.

And then, you won’t get what you deserve! Who would want to live with this hanging over their head? Rather, you will receive a gift. Eternal life—in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So, living under the reign of God’s grace is not a free ride into irresponsibility. Neither is it an impossible journey of committing and recommitting ourselves to obey an unrelenting law. It’s trusting and enjoying and living in the amazingly generous decision of God to receive us as his righteous people. We’re happy to be his slaves. It’s here that we’ve found freedom.

[i] Rom. 6:1, 15

[ii] Rom. 6:1-14

[iii] Rom. 6:4, 6

[iv] Rom. 16:26

[v] Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:25-28

[vi] V. 16

[vii] Being Christ’s slave is the way Paul introduces himself in this letter.

[viii] Isa. 50:4

[ix] Gen. 39:6-12

[x] Rom. 1:22-32

[xi] Matt. 5:6

[xii] V. 19

We’re alive—because of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:1-17)

We’ve come to the part of Paul’s letter to the Romans where he tells us how ‘new life in the Spirit’[i] actually happens. In other words, this is how to live as a Christian. We belong to Christ because we have received his Spirit.[ii] That’s our new life. And now, we are to continue as we began.[iii]

We need to know what God has done (vv. 1-4), what has happened to us (vv. 5-11), and what we should do (vv. 12-17).

What God has done begins with him not condemning us. There’s no other starting point for us sinners. Those who try to stir us to action by making us feel guilty (what the world is doing all the time) are doing devil’s work, not God’s! And those who punish themselves to generate more effort will probably give up eventually. God has no other way to have people doing his will than by beginning with no condemnation.

What God has done is to send us his Son. He gives him a body like ours—not sinful as our flesh is, but like ours so that he can feel the effects of what sin does. He bears our sin. God condemns our sin, in his flesh. That’s why there’s no more condemnation of us. To ignore this, or work around it, is not only ungrateful and unbelieving. It’s useless.

And then God sends his Spirit—as life itself. He is nothing less than the outpouring of God’s love.[iv] And he hasn’t come as a mood changer. He’s come to be our Helper—as Jesus was to the disciples when he was physically present[v]. He enables us to know God and his salvation. And he also teaches us to love God and his will, and enables us to live in tune with that. We’re under a totally different regime[vi].

In this way, and no other, God has done what his law couldn’t do. Now, we will truly fulfil the righteous requirement of his law.

Our obedience in this life is never complete. But it’s real. And the blood of Christ cleanses all our sins—as they happen[vii]. Condemnation never gets a look in.

God doesn’t rescue us just to toss us back into the mess we made of our lives. And freedom is not choosing our own life style! It’s being liberated from condemnation and doing what we are created to do.

This is a massive claim and we need to know how it works out.

So, we look at what has happened to us.

What God has done means that there are now two kinds of people. There’s Spirit people as described above, and flesh people, meaning everyone ese.

What’s important to flesh people is things that can be seen, controlled and indulged—and certainly not God or his commands. There’s no way they are going to spend their lives pleasing God. But to choose this is to choose death—walking.

What’s important to Spirit people is what the Holy Spirit reveals and does. This way is life and peace—as we have already seen[viii].

Paul is confident that people reading his letter belong to this latter group—people like ourselves. The work of the Spirit in our lives is evident. He is creating new life in us—and all because we are justified—righteous in God’s presence.

We belong to Christ. Christ has come to us and lives in us. And even though we are still sinners (remember chapter seven!), and going to die, the Holy Spirit who is given to every believer, guarantees we will be raised from the dead—like Jesus.

With a life like that, isn’t that what you would set your mind on?

So then, what should we do?

If we’ve understood the gospel as God’s power[ix], and God’s grace[x], and God’s presence and God’s future—not just an ideology, we’ll know that we owe our old life nothing!

Rather, we owe everything to this beloved Holy Spirit. This is short-hand for saying we owe everything to what he has brought to us—God and Jesus and righteousness.

If we now set our minds on this, and if we say ‘No!’ to our miserable former selves, we will have life from God.

Look at it! We’re God’s children! His Holy Spirit doesn’t just rely on the psychology of gratefulness to make us obedient. He forms in us the same cry he formed in Jesus—‘Father!’ And, like him, we want to do our Father’s will. We’re happy to be slaves of Christ but don’t feel or act like slaves. There’s no anxious fear here!

And being part of this family has a future. We’re going to share with Christ in the family inheritance. There’s some suffering to endure—and Paul is going to talk about that in a moment. But if we set our minds on what the Spirit is about, we’ll share in the coming glory with Christ.

Every day, we will need to ask ‘What is important in this moment of my life? Where is my life coming from?’ What will be important when this coming day arrives? And every day, we will need to answer, ‘I’m going to listen to the Holy Spirit’.

[i] Rom. 7:6

[ii] Rom. 8:9

[iii] Gal. 3:3

[iv] Rom. 5:5

[v] John 14:16-17

[vi] This is probably what Paul means by ‘a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’.

[vii] 1 John 2:1

[viii] Rom. 5:1-11

[ix] Rom. 1:16

[x] Rom. 5:15

[i] Rom. 7:6

[ii] Rom. 8:9

[iii] Gal. 3:3

[iv] Rom. 5:5

[v] John 14:16-17

[vi] This is probably what Paul means by ‘a law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus’.

[vii] Rom. 5:1-11

[viii] Rom. 1:16

[ix] Rom. 5:15

Whose promise counts? God’s or mine?

The promises of God we often turn to are those that offer help with our daily life and its battles. But the promise we look at here is a promise that God will make us holy—that is, like himself.

This must be the best of all promises. It’s our one chance to be what we really are. We are God’s image, and if we are not reflecting him, every part of us is working hard to be something we are not built for.

This promise that God will make us holy—or sanctify us, is absolutely necessary. It’s like a parent’s confidence that their baby can walk. God believes we can be holy—and will make it happen. That’s what we need to hear.

Like Paul, we can ask God to sanctify young Christians, and keep them so they will be entirely blameless for when Christ returns. And Paul adds, ‘God is faithful. And he will do it’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24). To another group, he says God will keep them guiltless—to the very end. And he adds, ‘God is faithful’ (1 Corinthians 1:7-9). This is very different from telling people they are on their own!

If we are going to be godly—that is, trust him and become like him, we will need to know that this is something God has promised to do.

This is illustrated dramatically when Peter promises Jesus that he will be a faithful disciple. The Lord contradicts him. And by morning, Peter knows that his claims have been empty (Luke 22:31-34). But Jesus has prayed for him that his faith will not fail. And this is exactly what happens. He fails, but not his faith.

He thought he loved Jesus. Jesus knows better (John 14:28). But God’s promises are fulfilled, and, after the resurrection, he knows himself better, and he knows he loves Christ (John 21:15-19). His holiness is dependent on Christ’s prayer and promise.

This is the way with all of us. We fail, even often. But because God makes a promise to keep us, we get up again and make progress.

What Jesus is doing here is fulfilling God’s promise to write his law on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:31-34). In other words, what God commands will become what we want to do. And God vows to relate to us in such a way that this will happen. He will forgive our sins and enable us to know him.

God also promises to fill us with his Spirit. Instead of having hard hearts, he will make them clean and will live in them. And what he wants will be what we want (Ezekiel 36:25-28).

These promises are part of a new covenant that God makes when his earlier covenant has been broken. And it is this covenant that Jesus puts into action. Just before his death, he gives a cup of wine to his followers and says ‘this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood’ (Luke 22:20).

This means that if we take the ‘cup’ he offers—if we entrust ourselves wholly to what he does when he dies for us, God will fulfil the promise he made and forgive our sins, enable us to know him, and his law will be written on our hearts. We will pray the Lord’s prayer with enthusiasm— ‘May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ (Matthew 6:10).

Don’t underestimate what is going on here. Our situation is hopeless. Jesus must do, for us, what we will not and cannot do for ourselves. We should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and our neighbour as ourselves. But we don’t. And we should suffer God’s judgement for our failure. And we can’t do this without being destroyed forever.

But Jesus is keeping this new covenant promise. Because we share with Christ—in his body and blood—that is, in what he does with his body and blood, we will know God as he really is. We will want to live as his people. And he will forgive all that has happened beforehand.

We need to know this new covenant promise well. Here’s how it is spelt out by the apostles.

First, the letter of Hebrews tells us that we are forgiven—completely (Hebrews 8:6, 10-12; 9:14, 24-26). Sin has effectively been ‘put away’.

The sacrifice Jesus offers to God for our sins turns a light on inside our conscience. We can stop debating with ourselves about what we have done. We can stop inventing ways to appear righteous. Instead, our cleansed conscience can tell us what to run from and what to give ourselves to.

And when Jesus enters into God’s presence on our behalf, we travel there with him (4:14-16). We are ‘at home’ with God and want to please him.

Second, Peter, as we have seen, is renewed by this new covenant promise. He says there are many promises—great and precious. They enable us to share in what God is like (2 Peter 1:3-11).

Peter is not suggesting we be lazy. He urges us to give everything we have to pleasing God. We need to get some virtue into our faith, and some knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, affection and love. All these take work, but we have the enthusiasm for it because we know God is reliable. He’s guaranteed that our godliness is going to happen.

On the other hand, if we don’t do this, Peter says we have forgotten we are forgiven! God’s forgiveness is not just him emptying our trash can. It’s Jesus showing us that God is totally reliable and gracious. We’ve not just had an experience. We’ve met a person.

Third, Paul tells us how bold this can make us (2 Corinthians 3:4-18). There’s no life in just having instructions. The world is handing out instructions all the time but it has no power to put love in people’s hearts.

The promise we are living under is actually the outshining of God’s glory in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). And while we keep looking at Christ rather than at ourselves, we are being changed—being made more glorious!

With hope like this, we have every reason to be confident. And this is what God wants. We can come to him, we can live in this world, and we can look forward to the future God is making.