Newness of life

Romans 6:1-4

6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

So, if grace beats sin, in fact if grace grows to be greater than sin, should we just keep on sinning so that there can be more grace in the world? That sounds ridiculous – but I hear something similar to that when people say: “Jesus died so that I can forgiven my sins. I am forgiven. And going forward into the future if I do wrong, if I sin, I will be forgiven. I am forgiven no matter what I have done or will do.” The implication being we don’t need to change our behaviour because we are forgiven, and we are promised forgiveness in the future.

One small problem with that argument. In baptism we die to one way of life and being born into “newness of life”. The way of sin stinks of death and destruction, and in our baptism, in our being marked as Jesus’ people, we are washed clean of the stink of death and we are marked to live the new life of Jesus. This new way of life is lived in the joy of new life, the joy of having been saved from the ways of death. The ways of death are so distasteful compared to living in “newness of life” that the thought of going back to the old way is repulsive.

Yet, the call of the old way still rings in our ears, and we need to remind ourselves of the truth of the new life. We hear that promise re-affirmed in “Amazing Grace” when we sing:

The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.

God is with us in this life, so that we may live in newness of life now, with our hope secure in God’s promise of good in our lives.

PRAYER:

God of hope and new life, shape us as your people that we may walk “in newness of life”, living in the joy of the new life you bring to us in Jesus Christ. Remind us that we have been washed clean of the stink of death to live in the life you bring. In Jesus’ name. Amen.