In the last meditations we saw that God
wants His reborn children to put their sinful behaviour to death. We realized
that this mortifying process is possible because they have received God’s
Spirit. He has given them a new heart to love God and a new will to obey Him.
We read in Romans 8:1-14 that, under the
direction of God’s Spirit, this mortifying process prepares the way for a
Christlike transformation of our lives.
God’s Word gives us many other indications of
how to overcome the power of sin in our lives. We find a second example in Romans
6. Here the apostle Paul looks from another angle at the process of
mortification and transformation. Although the involvement and guidance of
God’s Spirit is not mentioned here, by now we know that His engagement in our
Christlike transformation is presupposed.
Indeed, there is no real change possible
without God’s Spirit. All attempts to change our selfish and sinful lives
without His presence and power are demonstrations of legalistic efforts and prideful
self-righteousness. They surely lead to vainglorious
self-deception and therefore to a tragic fiasco.
In Romans 6:1 the
apostle starts with asking Jesus’ followers a rhetorical question. The obvious
answer follows immediately:
“Should we keep on sinning
so that God can show us more and more kindness and forgiveness? Of course not! Since we have died to
sin, how can we continue to live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2*)
For Paul it is clear that all
those who are reconciled to God through their faith in Jesus Christ, have died
to sin! In Romans 8, we saw that Paul focussed on the involvement of God’s
Spirit in this mortification process. In Romans 6 he zooms in on the practical
consequences of Jesus’ death and resurrection.
“Don't you know
that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his
death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death...” (Romans 6:3-4**)
What a strange way of
thinking. How could I be ‘baptised in Jesus’ death? His death and
resurrection had already taken place 2000 years ago!
Well, the apostle Paul shows us in Romans 6 God’s
way of thinking and acting. Paul explains to the Christians in Corinth that “God
made him (Jesus Christ) who had no sin to be sin for us...” (2
Corinthians 5:21**).
It means that God off-loaded all our sins on His Son
Jesus and nailed them with Him to the cross. When Jesus died, our sins died
with Him (see Meditations 35 and 36). That is the way God looks at our
sins and our sinfulness!
The apostle calls this act of God: “baptism into
Jesus’ death”. God unites my entire selfish and sinful nature with His Son and drowns
it for good in His death. What a judgment! What a verdict! In fact, it is my
faith in this condemning and saving act of God that ushers in my new life as His
child.
After
having become God’s child through my faith in Jesus’ vicarious sacrifice, I
might want to go through the ritual of baptism by water. This role-play of
‘drowning’ is first of all an act of imitating God’s condemning judgment over
my sinful and rebellious way of life. It testifies to my agreement with God’s
verdict.
This
is what Paul means when he writes to the followers of Jesus in Galatia (a region
in Turkey): “You are all sons (and daughters) of God through faith in Christ
Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves
with Christ.” (Galatians 3:26-27**)
Yet,
the ritual of water baptism as a proclamation of God’s condemning verdict over
my sinful life is only one side of the coin. I don’t remain under water! As I rise
from the water, I imitate Christ’s resurrection and my resurrection to new life
with Him!
“...in order
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his
death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. (Romans 6:4-5**)
The apostle Paul repeats here what
he said earlier about God’s act of ‘baptising me in Jesus’ death’. As I said earlier,
that act of God is followed by a second divine act: the gift of His Spirit as a
response to my faith in Jesus. Paul describes that rebirth by God’s Spirit here
as ‘being united with Jesus in his resurrection to a new (Christlike) life.”
“Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ
so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For
when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin.
And since we
died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. We are sure of this
because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer
has any power over him. He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the
glory of God.” (Romans 6:6-10*)
Now
the apostle begins to write about the practicalities of my unification with
Jesus’ death and resurrection. When God ‘drowned’ my sinful past in Jesus’
death and gave me a new heart by His Spirit, He gave me the potential to
overcome the power of sin and live a life like Jesus! What is the
characteristic of Jesus’ life? Paul says: “He lives for the glory of God!” It
means that His entire life is devoted to loving and pleasing God.
“So you should consider yourselves dead
to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.
Do not let
sin control the way you live; do not give in to its lustful desires. Do
not let any part of your body become a tool of wickedness, to be used for
sinning.
Instead, give yourselves completely to God since you have been given
new life. And use your whole body as a tool to do what is right for the glory
of God.” (Romans 6:11-13*)
Having
received Jesus’ life by God’s Spirit, how should I then live? Actually, Paul
says that I should look at my sinful past in the way God looks at it: as being dead
and buried with Christ! From now on I should learn to devote my life to pleasing
God by the power of His Spirit. That is a matter of changed identity. For a
reborn child of God it is not any more ‘human’ to sin. On the contrary, it is a
sign of wilful disobedience to God!
We can take note of Paul’s three commands: “Do not let sin control the way you live; do
not give in to its lustful desires. Do not let any part of your body become a
tool of wickedness, to be used for sinning!” Does the apostle lead us back
to a form of self-righteousness by attempting to obey God’s moral Law in our own strength?
Of course not. We already found the answer in Romans 8:13**: “...if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of
the body, you will live.” (see Meditations 114 and 115). For God’s children, obeying
His commands is possible because of the presence and power of God’s Spirit!
“Before (my
conversion), you let yourselves be slaves of impurity and lawlessness. Now you
must choose to be slaves of righteousness so that you will become holy.”
(Romans 6:19*)
Here
we are at the heart of the matter. In Romans 8:13, Paul wrote about the
engagement of God’s Spirit in the mortifying process. Here the apostle points
to the part I play in it: I must choose to learn to live according to God’s
moral Law, and it is God’s Spirit who empowers me to do so. Besides, as we saw
in the last Meditation, God’s Spirit gave me a Christlike heart and a
Christlike will to be able to obey God’s commands.
“In those days (before your
conversion), when you were slaves of sin, you weren't concerned with doing what
was right. And what was the result? It was not good, since now you are ashamed
of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. (Romans
6:20-21*)
“Now (since your
conversion) you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God.
Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. (Romans 6:22*)
It
is clear what it means to be ‘a slave of sin’, but why should a Christian be
called ‘a slave of God’? The apostle Peter reminds Jesus’ followers of this by saying: “You know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you
inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or
silver. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless,
spotless Lamb of God.” (1 Peter 1:18-19*)
At
the end of these writings, Paul again shows that the mortifying and transforming
process, directed by God’s Spirit, leads to holiness. That is: a mature Christlike
life seen from an established Christlike identity. Paul refers to that when
he testifies: “I (my past sinful life) have been crucified with Christ and I
no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live (since my conversion)
in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me.” (Galatians 2:20**)
In
our next meditation we need to discover how God wants each of us to renew his mind so that
we are able ‘to think about life God's way’.
Translations: *
New Living Translation; ** New International Version
For more on ‘being
crucified with Christ’, see Meditation 35.
For more on ‘dying
and being raised with Christ’, see Meditations 36 and 37.
For more on
‘resurrection life’, see Meditations 38 to 43.
For more on Jesus’ guilt offering, see
Meditations 3 to 12.
For
more on the question ‘what is sin?’ see Meditations 101 to 103.
For more on ‘salvation’, see Meditations 19
to 26.
For more on ‘rebirth by God’s Spirit’, see
Meditations 27 and 44.
For more on ‘who is the Holy Spirit’? see
Meditation 28.
For
more on ‘Christlike transformation by God’s Spirit’, see Meditations 29 to
34, 45, 49 to 56 and 105.
For
more on ‘How to overcome the power of sin in my life’, see Meditations
101-115.
