New Life in Christ

Week Six - Day 5

Today's Reading

Romans 5:1 to 8:39

Yesterday I wrote that "Paul spends much of his energy arguing that nothing is to be gained by following the Law, for God's promise of righteousness cannot be earned but is received through faith."  The context of my remark is more clearly understood in the light of the section of Romans that we read today.  Paul is writing as one who has lived by the Law, and is not saying that the Law was wrong or in some way ineffective in its purest sense.  On the contrary, Paul holds that "the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good" (6:12).

The problem is that in human weakness, our "flesh",  our actions, when compared to the Law, are exposed as sin. Since we are bound in our unconverted lives to actions of the flesh, we also have no escape from our sinful lives. But as Christians, as those who have been received the Spirit of God at our baptisms, we are not under the Law but rather bound to the Spirit of Christ.  Our old lives of slavery to the Law have been put to death in the waters of baptism so that our new lives may be lived to God.  As Paul writes, "it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" (8:16-17).

This does not mean, however, that we will live charmed, challenge-free lives.  We are still in the world are still subject to the weaknesses of our mortal nature.  What it does mean is that there is nothing in "all creation" that "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (8:39).  The Christian assurance of salvation can meet any challenge or power that might come against it as we stay united to the Spirit to God.