Romans 6:1-4 : so do we bring back competition between sin and grace? That’s
what you want to do by bringing the sin issue back.
6:2 we
hope that you know that we can’t go back to the graveyard and urge the corpse
to live again. We can’t be dead and alive at the same time.[1]
6:3similarly
through baptism we have been murdered, dead and buried. Sin is now a dead
foreign language.
6:4 the
baptism of Christ In which we share In an equal stature shows us how dead we
are and how alive and active we have raised up to life to walk in a kainos new
way of life to the glory of God.(Kainos Amplified)
What
shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How
can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know
that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death?
4 We were buried
therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life.(Esv)
The gospel is good news proclaiming life, peace and
salvation to all and even as Prophet Isaiah said “How beautiful on the
mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who
bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion , your God reigns”(Isa
57:7)
The gospel sounds too good to be true. How can the
gospel just be about peace, good tidings, salvation? The ‘Gospel of grace’ has
been misconstrued as the ‘free’ ‘easy’ gospel. I have heard of many accusations
concerning a firm radical proclamation of the gospel.Many are the times people who preach this gospel have been considered s heretics, people who appear to be too easy and cosy with sin .
Lets go back to the heart of the matter. If we have
been raised with Christ and are sited with him in the highest seat of heaven. If
indeed we are heirs of God and co heirs with Christ, if we are the prime
recipients of what David was seeing ahead that blessed is the man whose
transgressions are forgiven (Psalm 32:1) then why do we want to go back to the grave
and resurrect the dead while we are living ?
Why should you and I be grave cops? This is indeed
what we insinuate when we say that we should continue sinning that grace may
abound. To be a grave cop is to inundate yourself with the duty of being a
grave cop and always reminding people of their sins. That even though they have
been forgiven and their slates washed clean that they will indeed never be free
from sin as long as they live . If indeed we are waiting for death to make us
finally free from sin as Pastor Benjamin Dunn says, we have then made death
our savior. We have hence deposed Christ and installed death as our savior.
I am usually at pains that as believers we take pride
in thinking ourselves as fallen, sinful, miserable people who each and every
time will always need an ounce of God’s grace to come through the travesty of
life at least as the one who as escaped a fire by a whisker .we think its
humility to think ourselves as nothing, as sinners in the hands of an angry
God. With humility I say this is a great scorn at the cross, its to demean the
on who can cleanse you until you become clean indeed.
Another misconception we have is that of time. We think
that we are not Christ like because it can’t be possible on this earth. A lot of
evangelicals believe that sanctification is a lifelong process which basis can
be argued (this is a Pandora’s box for another day). We sometimes believe
because we are thinking wrongly then we are not truly sanctified or rather
something is amiss in the process. I would only think time as a servant that is
meant to reveal something we have eternally in us. We simply have to renew our
minds and believe the spiritual realities that have already been accomplished
in Christ. Then as we believe, we realize that we already. The scriptures take
emphasis to reveal what we already have not what don’t have and especially
scripture s that speak of what Christ has already accomplished for us .
Why do we continually take pride in pampering your
sinful nature, (if you believe you have any still) and wallow ourselves in self
pity, always being unaware that we have been bought at a price and indeed have
been born of the imperishable seed(1st Peter 1:23) I call this being a grave
cop .
I am not insinuating sinless perfection here. I am
trying to say that we should be righteousness conscious. Even though we
sometimes succumb to the deeds of the flesh and sometimes our actions betray
who we are, we should always go back and look at the cross of Christ, from
whence our sins are washed away and our slates made clean.
By no
Means! How can we who have died to sin continue living in it? How could we possibly go back
to the grave and urge the dead corpse so to say live again? Am saying this with
full awareness of the fleeting desires that seek to entice us . For a believer
sin is no longer within but its on the outside trying to entice itself in us.
The scriptures attest that our old sinful man was cut away /circumcised from us
: Col 2:1-15. This was a glorious operation which happened in Christ to
completely remove sin and its influence in us.
We have been baptized in Christ. I wrote about
baptism in the last post to show that we have been sunk into the nature of Christ.
We have been baptized into his death, buried through baptism in his death and
also raised to live a new life. This represents spiritual realities already
accomplished in Christ so that we who believe in Christ now might be to the
praise of his glory. This is what I believe what Paul was communicating in Ephesians
2.
If we indeed have left the old country called sin
and are no longer citizens of that city, why would we want to be grave cops
again? If you think you can satisfy that urge to always be conscious of sin
then I have some news for you, Christ died once and for all and when he comes
again he won’t be coming to open up the old scroll called sin again.
To many grave cops out there, I do understand the
incessant urge to preach against sin and uphold God’s holiness. I just have one
thought. You cannot extinguish sin by preaching more sin, you cannot extinguish
darkness by talking more about darkness, you simply have to switch on the light
Arise n shine for your light has come !
Good news the baptism of Christ In which we share In
an equal stature shows us how dead we are and how alive and active we have
raised up to life to walk in a kainos new way of life to the glory of God.
Christ was raised so that we too might have the
experience of new life in him, It cant get any better than this, any holier
than this, any more serious than this. It’s a done deal . The light is shining deep
in the darkness of the world. Darkness will never triumph over light. No more
grave copping, we are the city of light exposed upon a hill that we may shine
for the whole world to see and come to the light.
[1] Similarly
we cant die more or lesser than we have already died, Dead is dead and alive is
alive . The talk of dying daily is out of context .The only thing that remains
is to renew our minds that our mental faculties catch up with the reality of
what has already happened in our spirit .
[1] Similarly
we cant die more or lesser than we have already died, Dead is dead and alive is
alive . The talk of dying daily is out of context .The only thing that remains
is to renew our minds that our mental faculties catch up with the reality of
what has already happened in our spirit .
