In this series, we have been taking an indepth look at one of the most foundational elements of our faith – the nature of grace.
We began by establishing that the grace of God is where salvation begins. Sinners cannot undo a single sin nor is sin outweighed by righteous deeds. Redemption from sin is a gift that God is able to give since Jesus died to atone for our sins.
We then considered how grace moves us to embrace godly change. It calls us to grow up into the image of God with thankfulness and humility. It is never an excuse for apathy or stagnation.
In this article, we will consider the virtue of obedience and how it follows the path set out by God’s grace…giving special attention to Romans 6.
Obedience in A Permissive and Freedom-loving Culture
Perhaps more than anything else, we value personal freedom. We live in a ‘free country’ that for the most part allows us to do as we please. We avoid anarchy by obeying the law and secure domestic peace for the common good. It is a social contract – an agreement between equals, that otherwise stays out of our personal lives.
The grace of God is not like that. It is not a relationship between peers. Grace is a divine offer of peace with God. It is a gift that cost God everything and while it is free to us, it is not free. We must accept God’s terms of peace in order to be saved and to remain saved. Freedom in Christ is not freedom from God. It is freedom from sin which puts us in God’s debt. And it is freedom to truly be the new persons that we have become.
Not surprisingly, our culture thinks that grace and obedience are mutually exclusive. If we are saved by grace, then there is no role for obedience. And if obedience is required, then grace is not that gracious. It is false advertising – bait on the hook, before making the switch. A gift with obligations is no gift at all.
May it Never Be!
In Romans 6 the apostle Paul explains, how the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ lays a foundation for Christian living. He unpacks the relationship between grace and obedience, showing just how wrong it is to ask ‘why not sin even more…so that grace may abound?”. If you think that that is a serious question, your salvation is in trouble.
The grace of God incentivices obedience. It motivates us to grow up and into – the kind of goodness that qualified Jesus to save us. God’s grace and our obedience are partners. They do not work at cross-purposes.
This is clearly seen in the method that God has by which we accept his grace. Jesus instructed his disciples to call believers to repentance. They had to change their hearts and the direction of their lives before being united with Jesus in baptism. God requires us to renounce sin and all intentions to sin, before embracing Him. We must plan and purpose to love God by obeying him. And the Christian life so begun, must pursue more of the same.
Grace Comes Through Death
In Romans 6, two deaths are joined together. Jesus died for our sins and rose to live a new post-resurrection life. His death was once for all. He died once and is a sacrifice sufficient to forgive all sins for all time.
When we accept the gift of salvation by being buried with Christ in baptism, we die with Him. This event in our lives bring us into spiritual contact with our Lord’s death on the cross. Our sins are taken away and we come up out of the water to live a new resurrected life. We did not die physically, but spiritually. And then we came to life spiritually – and God intends for this new spiritual life to go on without end.
At our baptism, we were indwelt by the Spirit of God so that in the resurrection, God might claim our bodies as well and join them to our redeemed spirits. In Christ, God has redeemed the whole person. When sin entered the world, our spirits were the first to die, followed by our bodies. When we accept the grace of God, our spirits are the first to come back to life, followed in the resurrection by our bodies.
It turns out that we can either be alive to God or alive to sin. This is an absolute choice. When we were baptized into Christ, we came alive to God and died to sin. Our new life in Christ calls us to put to sin death along with our desire to sin. His grace has set us on a godly path which has broken all connections with sin. Sin is no longer a part of who we are or what we do. When we repented, we changed direction entirely and when we were baptized into Christ, we came alive to Him.
Now this does not mean that when we said ‘yes’ to God’s grace, that we somehow earned salvation. God is able to offer salvation because Jesus died to atone for our sins. We access salvation by dying with Christ in baptism and rising to live a new spiritual life. But only his sacrifice can remove our sins. And having been set free, we are to live free…free from the power of sin and from the second death which would have separated us forever from God.
Grace Comes Through Resurrection
As we have already hinted, we have been born again to start our news spiritual lives – joined to Jesus. As he rose from the grave, we rose with him. He has lifted our spirits to the resurrection side of life so that we need never to die again. This new life is characterized by freedom from sin. It is a life lived for the glory of God and marked by communion with God. It always seeks to do His will. It is real life and it is forever.
The notion then that grace promotes sinful behavior, is fundamentally flawed. No one can accept God’s grace and cling to sin. No one can be united with Christ in a death like His without dying to sin. And no one who truly rises to live life anew, sets his heart once again on sin. Wilful disobedience renounces God’s grace. So Paul says “may it never be”.
Offer Yourselves to God
We embrace new life in Christ by doing two things. We put off sin – day by day. And we offer ourselves in obedience, to God. Having put off sin to become saved, we keep on doing it because we are saved. We have become blameless through the blood of Jesus, who wants to keep us that way.
He empowers us to do what is right and forgives us when we do not. As we grow up into the image of Christ, our lives become more and more like His. God set us apart when we were baptized into Christ so that we can live ‘set apart lives’. Life sanctified by the blood of Christ must be filled with godly choices and kept on course by humility and repentance.
So, we put off sin, when we put on Christ. And He rules in place of sin to preserve our freedom. Submission to Christ is a daily choice – that keeps on getting easier. The more that we want what He wants, the more free we become. The more we thirst for righteousness, the more right things God gives us to do. And when His will will becomes ours completely, we shall be free to do all that we wish. This is true freedom: free from sin with the power of divine righteousness at work within us.
The Gift of Obedience
God never intended for us to twist grace into a license to sin. The very essence of the gospel proclaims that we have died to sin in order to experience the blessings of Christ’s sacrifice. We are raised to a new life by a new master. So we cannot take hold of grace with one hand and sin with the other.
The Christian life demands that we die to sin in order to live fully for God. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it: “The demand for absolute liberty brings men to the depths of slavery.” True freedom is found not in indulging sinful desires, but in surrendering to God’s will.
We pause then to recognize that God’s plans for us, are indeed good! Obedience to our Father is no burden. God loves us and this is how we love Him back. An obedient life is a thankful one. It is new life and so much better than the one we left behind.
After God delivered Israel out of bondage in Egypt, they forgot about how bad life had been. They wanted their old lives back and accused God of breaking his promises.
May it never be.
May we never look back except to thank God for how far we have come. He has saved us from sin and saved us for Himself. Thank God for obedience to the one who lives forever, for this is life indeed.