Living worthily as recipients of the best gift (1)
[Romans 6:1-11]
We have already learned through meditation on Romans 5:12-21 that the greatest gift God gives us is eternal life. We must believe in Jesus Christ if we want to receive this gift of eternal life. Whoever believes in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confesses with his mouth that Jesus is Lord will be saved (10:9) and can enjoy this greatest gift, eternal life, not only in the world to come but also in this world. If there are people who have not yet received this blessing of eternal life, I hope and pray that you will receive this blessing today. Believe that Jesus died on the cross to forgive all your sins. Also, believe that Jesus, who died to justify you, rose from the grave (4:25). To all those who believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God will give you eternal life, the greatest gift that cannot be exchanged for anything in this world.
If among you, those of you who have already received the blessing of eternal life through your faith in Jesus Christ, you can enjoy this blessing of eternal life not only in the next world, but also partially in your current life on earth. Are you currently enjoying the blessing of eternal life? Are you partially enjoying eternal life in heaven while living in this wilderness-like world? Are you enjoying the blessing of becoming like Jesus in the work of sanctification of the indwelling Holy Spirit? Are you also enjoying the gift of love, the fruit of the Holy Spirit? Are you enjoying a life of love in heaven, at least partially, while loving God and loving your neighbor in this earth? Also, while living in this world without peace, are you enjoying the peace of God that the world cannot give? It is entirely by God's grace that we are able to enjoy all these blessings of eternal life, at least partially, on this earth (5:15). How should we live the more we realize this grace of God?
Today's Bible, Romans 6:1-11, as those who receive the greatest gift of eternal life through God's total grace, teaches us how to live a proper life as those who have received the gift of eternal life in two ways.
First, as those who have received the gift of eternal life, we must live a proper life as if we were dead to sin.
Look at Romans 6:11 – “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Here, how does the word to live as dead to sin mean to live? To live as if we were dead to sin means not to dwell in sin. Look at Romans 6:1 – “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” Here, the saying that those who are dead to sin do not go on sinning means that sin no longer reigns in death (5:21). The words ‘sin does not reign in death’ mean that sin no longer has dominion over those who have eternal life (6:14). Now that we have received the gift of eternal life, sin and death no longer rule us in our lives (6:9). An example we can have to better understand this verse is Genesis 4:7. Because God accepted Abel's offering and disapproved of Cain's offering (Gen. 4:4-5), Cain was angry and his face downcast (v. 6). So, God said to Cain, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” However, as we know, the result was that Cain could not master his desire to sin and killed his younger brother Abel (v. 8). This life in which we cannot master our desire to sin is what our life looked like before we believed in Jesus. In other words, before we believed in Jesus, our lives were governed by sin. Sin reigned in our lives. That's why we all turned away, and all together had become worthless, and did not do good (3:12). We couldn't do what was right in the sight of a good God. However, since we believed in Jesus, were justified, and enjoyed the bliss of eternal life, sin no longer had dominion over us. Sin no longer reigns in death, nor can it do so. Why? The reason is that we are already dead to sin (6:2). In other words, sin no longer reigns in death and has dominion over us because our old self has been crucified with Jesus and therefore dead to sin (v. 6). How do we know that we are already dead to sin? If we want to know that a person is dead, we can tell by looking at the body. No one will go to a funeral and see a dead body lying in a coffin and say he is alive. We know that the person has passed away and died when we see the dead body lying in the coffin. Likewise, when we look with faith to the death of Jesus, who died on the cross about 2,000 years ago to forgive our sins, we must admit that we are dead to sin. In other words, the shedding blood of Jesus on the cross proves that we are dead to sin. Paul expresses this by saying that the saints were baptized into the death of Jesus and buried with Him (vv. 3-4). This expression, in one word, points to union with Jesus. Union with Jesus, which is difficult for us to understand, means that Jesus died on the cross “once for all” (v. 10), so our old self also entered into the death of Jesus and died. In other words, the death of Jesus was the death for our own sins. Therefore, the relationship between sin and us was eventually severed as if it were dead (Park). So Paul, writing a letter to the saints in Rome, clearly told them in verses 6-7: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin-- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.”
Our old self, who belonged to the flesh before believing in Jesus, who committed sins by doing things to the sinful nature in the lust of the flesh, died when Jesus was crucified. Therefore, sin and death no longer have dominion and dominion over us, nor can they. In other words, believers who are united in the death of Jesus on the cross are no longer slaves to sin because their old self has already died. Why? The reason is that we have been freed from sin through the death of Jesus on the cross. That's why we sing this hymn to the Lord: (v. 1 & chorus) “Would you be free from your burden of sin? There's pow'r in the Blood, pow'r in the Blood. Would you o'er evil a victory win? There's wonderful pow'r in the Blood. There is pow'r, pow'r, wonde rworking pow'r In the blood of the Lamb. There is pow'r pow'r wonder-working pow'r In the precious blood of the Lamb.” Then why do we continue to sin even though we have been set free from sin by the blood of the Lord? Why do we sin even though we are already dead to sin by being united in the death of Jesus? If we explain this with Paul's theology, we have to look at it from the perspective of “Already” and “Not-yet” that we have already been saved and will be saved in the future. In other words, we have already received salvation through our faith in Jesus, but the completion of salvation will occur when Jesus returns. In other words, on the day Jesus returns, we will be suddenly transformed and put on a glorious body. At that time, we will have a glorious, spiritually strong body that not only does not sin, but also does not know what sin is. But until then, we must continue to fight sin as we live in the Church Age between "already" and "not yet." That is why we say that the church is a victorious church and also a militant church. Then, how should we engage in this spiritual battle?
- We must not forget God's grace.
In other words, we believe that God bestowed grace on us, sinners, and enemies of God, even sending His only begotten Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in order to give us the blessing of eternal life. should not be forgotten. As we engage in the spiritual battle, we must go deeper and deeper into this grace of God.
- We must not forget the grace of Jesus.
Jesus, who obeyed even to the point of dying on the cross to save us and all our sins were forgiven because He shed His blood on the cross and died. If we have been justified by faith, we have been reconciled to God and are enjoying the privilege of fellowshipping with God, calling Him Abba, Father. Therefore, we must not forget the grace of the cross of Jesus.
- We must not let this grace of God and the grace of Jesus be in vain.
As it says in Romans 6:1-2, in order not to waste God's grace, we must no longer live in sin as if we were dead to sin. In particular, what we need to keep in mind in this part is not to misunderstand the words where sin abounded, grace abounded more (5:20), and to realize that the more we sin, the more God’s grace abounds. This is a foolish idea and a foolish action. That is why Paul is strongly saying, “By no means!” (v. 2). How can we live in sin to increase grace? Believers who truly realize the grace of God and Jesus strive to lead a life of separation from sin so as not to make the grace of God in vain. We are no longer enslaved to sin. We live our lives of faith, counting ourselves as dead to our own sins. In particular, as those who are united to the death of Jesus on the cross, we do not allow sin to rule ourselves. In the midst of the work of the Holy Spirit, we live by mastering our sins.
Let us remember that we are dead to sin. Let us cry to ourselves, ‘I am a corpse for sin’. As dead to sin, let us keep in mind that sin no longer reigns in death. In the midst of this, even when we fall into the temptation of sin and commit sins, let us remember that we are dead to sin, looking with faith to Jesus who died on the cross in order to forgive our sins. Let's live far away from sin as those who have died to sin. Even though sin comes close and rushes to eat us like a roaring lion, let us fight and overcome by relying on the power of the precious blood of the cross of Jesus. Since Jesus was victorious on the cross, we too can be victorious.