THURSDAY
Let’s return today to the texts in Romans 5 and 6 that we looked at on Tuesday and see how the cross and the empty tomb go together.
Romans 5:6–10 (NIV)
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
We have been reconciled and justified to God through Jesus’ death on the cross. Now through his life we are saved. Saved is a big word that here is likely referring to the eschatological salvation (eternal life after death). Now that our relationship and right standing with God has been restored because of Jesus death on the cross, we are sure to be exempt from God’s wrath in the day of judgment. In taking this verse in parallel with what Paul says in 8:33-34 it is likely that Paul is here referring to Christ interceding for believers at the right hand of the Father. If we are justified and reconciled to God through Christ’s death then we can be assured of our eternal salvation because Jesus is alive and interceding for us at the Father’s right hand.
So, we are made right with God through Jesus’ death and we are assured of our exemption from God’s wrath and our eternal life because Jesus is alive and interceding for us at the Father’s right hand. This is God has fought for us!
Romans 6:1–4 (NIV)
6 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
The driving point of this section is to live in the resurrection life that Jesus has given us. Our identity fundamentally changes when we come to believe in Jesus. In this new identity we give Jesus our old sinful nature and he gives us his life. Therefore, we ought to live like we have this new identity in the life of Jesus. Living in the new creation identity means we do what is right. We follow the teaching of Jesus. It means we live in love for God and others. To walk in resurrection life is to walk in love. We consider how we can sacrificially give ourselves in love for one another.
Believers are enabled to walk in newness of life because the power of Christ’s resurrection has become theirs by virtue of their union with Christ. Through Christ’s resurrection the power of the eschaton has entered the present evil age.
Thomas R. Schreiner, Romans, vol. 6, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 312.
The eschaton refers to the age to come when Jesus returns and makes all things new in creation. New creation has entered our current age. We experience the new life in Christ now in part, then in full.
For our theme in this campaign, this resurrection, eternal life that we have is only found in connection to Jesus. We only experience eternal life if we identify with him so as to die with him and rise with him. The power for this is all in him. It is not in our ingenuity to create an earth-shattering technology. It’s not in our ability to live righteously and so earn our resurrection life status. That is to get it backwards. We die and rise with Jesus to new identity in Christ so that we can live a new life free from enslavement to sin.
Additional Content
Reflection
Thank you Jesus for new life in Christ!