How Can I Change?/United With Christ

From Gospel Translations

Revision as of 12:32, 30 May 2008

charismatic and Jesus movements, I wasn’t impressed by logical arguments about God or the Christian life. Mine was an irreverent generation, a “get high and stay high” generation. I was more likely to mock any serious conversation on the subject of religion than listen.

What I needed was an experience with God. And that is exactly what I got.

I met a Christian family whose joyful lives made a tremendous impression on me. They talked about Jesus as if he were right there, and they acted as if his life made a real difference to them. At first I thought it was quaint. But then I became curious. I was attracted by the quality of their lives. And when they explained that it had not always been this way for them, but that Jesus had changed their lives, I began to hope the same could be true for me.

By “changed life” I am referring to the difference Jesus Christ makes in a person’s manner, habits, and worldview, even down to the very core of his nature. This family was solid proof that God did indeed make a difference. And when I was born again and my life began to change, I too concluded that Jesus is alive.

But I also learned that change involves more than a one-time experience. We need to understand how change happens, why it happens, and who makes it happen. These issues are squarely addressed in Scripture. Here’s where to go if you want to grow.

A Letter to Rome

How do we overcome sin and live victoriously in Christ? Christians everywhere are looking for answers to this question...many of them in the wrong places. As you might expect, God has given the answer in his Word. The sixth chapter of Paul’s letter to the church at Rome has long been recognized for its essential contribution to the doctrine of sanctification. In it we find Paul contending for a proper understanding of what it means to live as a Christian. But it would be a mistake to try to discover Paul’s meaning in Romans 6 without regard for its context, so a brief review of the letter is in order.

Romans, more than any of Paul’s other letters, system- atically sets out the doctrine of salvation. After some introductory remarks, he unleashes a stinging indictment of the entire human race, showing that all men are guilty as sinners before God. He then explains how God justifies those sinners through faith in Jesus Christ. This is the gist of the first four chapters.

In Chapter 5 Paul begins to talk about the peace and assurance that come to us as a direct result of Christ’s atoning work on the cross. We now have peace with God and can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We can even rejoice in tribulations that come our way because they develop our character and produce hope. God’s love has been poured out upon us through the Holy Spirit. And since these great things were done for us when we were his enemies, we can be all the more assured of God’s continued grace now that we’re his friends.

In the latter part of Chapter 5 Paul sketches a comparison and contrast between Jesus and Adam, showing that the sacrifice of Christ more than compensates for the misery caused by Adam’s sin. He ends the chapter with these two verses:

The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Ro 5:20-21, emphasis added)

Paul would like to go on describing the blessings of justification, but he pauses, realizing hislast statement could easily be misinterpreted. Thus he begins Chapter 6 with a frontal assault on those who would try to twist his meaning:^[1] “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Ro 6:2).

When rightly preached, the gospel of grace will always be open to the charge that it promotes lawlessness. Wherever Paul went he was hounded by opponents who accused him of teaching people that since they were forgiven, it did not matter how they lived. This was how they distorted his reasoning: “If God forgives us freely by grace (which he does) and if it is true that God’s grace is magnified in the forgiving of sin (which it is), then why not sin all the more so that more grace flows and God receives more glory?”

“Not so fast.” says Paul. “You’re missing something fundamental. Through this gospel, we died to sin. And if that’s the case, how can we go on living in it?”

Paul spends the rest of Chapter 6 countering this charge of lawlessness, or antinomianism. In doing so, he not only answers his critics but supplies us with some of the richest teaching to be found in the New Testament. For here we discover what it means to be united with Christ, a status that radically alters our relationship to sin.

Were You There?