The Preacher's Lectionary Notebook - Grace That Transforms
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A)
This week’s epistle answers a question that seems to be naturally arising from Paul’s theology of grace. If God’s grace is so much more powerful and abundant than anyone else’s, then why don’t believers continue sinning so that God can increase the grace even more? Paul gives a direct and immediate answer: “Absolutely not!” For Paul, grace isn’t an excuse for sinful living. Rather, it transforms us and gives us a totally new way of thinking about sin.
In an attempt to explain, Paul points to baptism. We have been buried with Christ through baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, we too might walk in newness of life. The Christian life is not just about making a few moral improvements. It is about participating in the new life that Christ has made possible.
Paul wants us to know that something decisive has happened. Our old self has been crucified with him by faith in Christ. Sin was not merely something we did occasionally. It was the force that owned our lives. But Christ’s death killed that power. We are united with him, sin no longer has the same power over us. This does not mean believers never encounter temptation or fail. It means sin is not our master anymore. John Chrysostom states,
For he that is dead is freed from sin… For as it is not possible for one who has been buried to return again to this life, so neither is it possible for one who has died the death of sin to return again to his former wickedness (Homilies on Romans, 11).
The apostle then reiterates the certainty of resurrection life. If we have been united with Christ in death, we will also be united with him in his resurrection. The resurrection of Christ was not only a return to the earth, it was a beginning to a new and victorious life. Death no longer has dominion over him. Since Christ died once for sin, he lives forever in the presence of God. The believer’s identity and future are in all of this.
What makes this passage so practical is Paul’s final exhortation. He tells believers to “consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Paul counsels us to embrace what God has already done in Christ. We are to see ourselves through the perspective of God’s saving work. The basis of our daily choices, attitudes, and actions should come from this new identity.
We tend to define ourselves by our failures, habits, or past mistakes. Paul calls us for something greater. A new reality has been created by Christ. The old life of sin is judged and defeated. A new life of God’s grace has started. We are reminded that Christians must be willing to share in the life of the risen Christ. Since the risen Jesus is with us, we are called to live differently, not in our own strength, but in the power of God’s grace.
FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION
Why does Paul reject the idea that believers should continue sinning so that grace may increase?
What does it mean to be united with Christ in both his death and resurrection?
How can remembering that we are “alive to God in Christ Jesus” shape our daily decisions and actions?