In Her Footsteps

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

We take for granted the nature of the gospel and the generosity of Christ. Because it’s been well over 2000 years since Christ walked this earth and made an impact causing a Second Testament to be added to the Hebrew scriptures in the 4th century, we take for granted the work of Christ, the things that he did that (intentionally and unintentionally) upheaved the status-quo of the kingdom of humanity, exposed divine expectation, and made God tangible to all who were forced to be without God or convinced they were unworthy to be with God. “Immanuel, God with us,” is met with a modern, “Clearly” or “Obvs” or, a bit younger, “No cap.” The grandeur of God’s descent and condescension to become as and like us even to the point of suffering death on an instrument of state punishment as one who was considered guilty but was completely innocent, is so well known and assumed that it barely solicits awe. That God loves us is presumed to such an extent that we feel that God must love us forgetting that love is, at its root, a feeling that springs from one voluntarily and solicits corresponding voluntary action, that it will even (voluntarily and by choice) obligate itself to the beloved.

This state and relationship with the love of God made known in Christ is both a good and bad thing. It’s good, because we’ve heard the message and have taken that message in. We know how to spread that message and to make others feel it to such an extent that God’s love spreads from one beloved person to another. But it’s bad because we’ve heard it so much that we assume God’s positive disposition toward us, that Jesus would take us on granting what we so desire. While I know I’m wading in potentially troubling waters, never wanting anyone to feel they are not loved by God (because they are), I want us to take a moment today to think about the what if God didn’t identify with us, what if we weren’t part of the beloved, what if we were considered too far outside the reach of God because we weren’t part of the lost sheep of Isarel, what if we were still the enemies of God and God’s people…

Matthew 15:21-28

Matthew tells us, And Jesus left from there and withdrew to the districts of Tyre and Sidon (v21). Jesus is withdrawing after his confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes mentioned in the early part of Matthew 15. His withdrawal signifies not defeat but a need to go where he is unknown, eager to get some distance from the opposition facing him from and among his own people.[ii] So, where else would Jesus go than the regions that are not Jewish and are, in fact, antagonistic toward the Jewish people (according to the First Testaments).[iii] Surely here, among these who do not care at all about the Jewish people, Jesus would find a bit of reprieve, blend into the background, go unnoticed, and maybe even ignored.

But then…

And, behold!, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was shouting saying, “Please have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is badly possessed by a demon!” In a few words, Matthew informs his listeners that Jesus’s plan to move about in obscurity is foiled. Someone has recognized him. And not just any someone, but this someone: a Canaanite woman. Two strikes against her.[iv] First, she is Canaanite[v] and bears the history of her people being those whom God drove out of the land before Israel inhabited it and those whom God warns against because of their religious idolatry that repeatedly threatened Israel’s religious purity.[vi] Second, she is she. (If “unclean” had the capacity to double, she would be it.) And this Canaanite woman knows exactly who Jesus is; she recognizes him and this recognition solicits her bold[vii] shouting to him using Jewish Messianic titles (not to mention that Matthew uses an aorist imperative here, signaling she is pleading with God[viii]).[ix] In her overstepping,[x] she didn’t care to get the attention of anyone else in that group but Jesus’s, the Christ’s.

Bad news: her plea is rejected. Matthew writes, But [Jesus] did not answer her a word (v23a). Good news: she doesn’t stop shouting. We know this because Matthew continues by telling his audience in the rest of v23, Now his disciples drew near to him and they were asking him saying, “Please dismiss her, because she is shouting after us!” Here is the first #ShePersisted as she makes it difficult for Jesus and the disciples to proceed in anonymity. Her mama-bear like love for her daughter drives her to stay her course, social conventions be damned.[xi] Narratively, she is the first woman to speak in the Gospel of Matthew, and when she does, she openly challenges the limited religious self-conception of Israel.[xii] Her shouting is shrill, unseemly, and unsettling; the disciples are desperate to get her gone so they petition Jesus to just do what she wants, man![xiii]

Bad news: Jesus’s responds to his disciples with, ummm, no. Or, as Matthew tells it, Now [Jesus] answered and said, “I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” (v24). Jesus interprets his silence to his disciples: none but the children of Israel have right and access to the ministry of Messiah.[xiv] Good news: she overhears this, dismisses religious (and social) restrictions, and comes closer! (the second, #ShePersisted!) Matthew writes, But she came and was bowed down before him saying, “Lord, please come to my aid!” (v.25).

Bad News: Jesus, according to Matthew adds insult to injury. But he answering said, “It is not good to take the bread of the children and cast it to the little dogs,” (v26). No matter how you spin it, even considering Matthew places the diminutive for dogs in Greek (τοῖς κυναρίοις ,“to/for the puppies”) in Jesus’s mouth, Jesus not only repeats to her what he said to his disciples in a more targeted way, he also insults her, playing up racial stereotypes reserved for those of this region specifically, and Gentiles in general.[xv] Jesus is clear, he only came for his own, the children (of Israel) and not for the dogs, puppies or not;[xvi] they are not the goal of the manifestation of divine revelation in Jesus. Good news: Once again, and for a third time, #ShePersisted! She takes control of the conversations and turns the parable table on Jesus,[xvii] But she said, “Yes, Lord, for even the little dogs eat from the crumbs that fell from the masters’ table,” (v27). This Canaanite woman understands the basic fact that even if Jesus’s first concern is to his people, it doesn’t mean that the rest of the world won’t feel the impact of Jesus’s presence. It seems that this Canaanite woman understands the mission of Israel better than the children of Israel. Israel was elected and called to bless all the nations of the world, to right the wrongs, to bring God’s presence close to those who were not of the chosen people.[xviii] Here, in this bold Canaanite woman’s pleading with Jesus, is one who is great in faith,[xix] faith that Jesus often finds lacking among his own people.[xx] Here and in her presence and challenge, Jesus’s ministry instantly expands.[xxi] Then answering Jesus said to her, “Woman, your faith is great! It was done for you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed at that very hour (v28). The impact of God in Christ sent to the lost sheep of Israel finds another home in Gentile territory. The circle of God’s children is broadening,[xxii] foreshadowing what is to come in Christ’s resurrection[xxiii] and the coming of the Paraclete where there are no dogs and only children of God by faith.[xxiv]

Conclusion

This woman had no such assumption of God’s love that we have today because of the broad and bold proclamation of the Gospel. Where we assume God loves us, this Gentile, Canaanite woman didn’t. She put everything on the line to heal her daughter. She very literally risked death to advocate and seek help for her beloved daughter as she ignored both social and religious boundaries. She did everything she could to bring liberation to one held captive.

But we, we take all this divine self-revelation in Christ for granted. And as we take it for granted we forget that we, too, are all Gentiles adopted by faith (Romans). What the Canaanite woman couldn’t even presume, we assume. And in assumption comes comfort and lethargy. No longer do we go to the boundaries and plead for boundaries to move and shift, ready to risk even death itself, rather preferring to stay and remain comfortable and cushy.

When we suspend our assumptions, we can identify with this Canaanite woman boldly challenging even Jesus’s self-identity and religious identity, challenging religious boundaries and social conventions. If you didn’t know God loved you for sure and one of your beloveds was ill, would you do the same thing she did? Would you break all conventions and ignore various social and religious laws to secure liberation for the beloved? Would you put yourself and your body on the line to see captivity obliterated and the captive set free?

This morning, we must remember that we are her heirs; we are in her family. She made the first motions to demonstrate just how far God’s love in Christ can actually go no matter how much religion, doctrine, dogma, politics, society have tried to limit and gatekeep. She has demonstrated for us and set the example for what it looks like to love someone so much, that there isn’t anything you wouldn’t do to secure their liberation and bring them true life. So, on behalf of those who find themselves threatened and rejected by the kingdom of humanity, pushed to the outskirts and margins, isolated and alienated, scared and terrified, may we remember just how amazing God’s love is in Christ and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, dare to demand change from both the temporal and spiritual realms on behalf of these beloved.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Gen. Ed Joel B. Green (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007), 592. “This was not a mission to the pagan cities (like Johah’s to Nineveh), but a retreat to a place where Jesus and his disciples could get away from Jewish opposition and Jewish crowds. There is no indication that he sought contact with the local people…”

[iii] France, Matthew, 591-592. “Galilee was bordered on the northwest by the Phoenician territory of which Tyre and Sidon were the principal cities, both (but especially Tyre) frequently condemned by the OT prophets as inveterate enemies of Israel.”

[iv] Anna Case-Winters Matthew Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible Eds Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 200. “Given these hostile relations, it is a bit audacious for this Canaanite woman to approach Jesus at all. Her gender as well as her ethnicity is a hindrance. According to Sharon Ringe, in first-century Palestinian society women were supposed to be invisible.”

[v] Case-Winters, Matthew, 200. “They are a rival people, even ‘the enemy,’ in Israel’s conquest of the land. They are accursed dn destined for slavey (Gen. 9:25). Israel’s victory over the Canaanites is, from the perspective of the victors, a gift of God and evidence of Israel’s elect status. It was a conquest celebrated in Israel’s traditions.”

[vi] France, Matthew, 592. “Canaanite” “…by this time was probably not a current ethnic term (like Mark’s ‘Syrophoenician’) but a part of tradition biblical vocabulary for the most persistent and insidious of Isarel’s enemies in the OT period, those whom God had driven out before his people Israel, and whose idolatrous religion was a constant threat to the religious purity of the people of Yahweh. That a ‘Canaanite,’ of all people, would receive the compassionate ministry of Israel’s Messiah would be a potent symbol to Jewish readers of the universality of the gospel…”

[vii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 201. “By her society’s standards, she has transgressed the boundaries. She might be called an ‘uppity’ woman.”

[viii] Daniel B. Wallace, “3. Request (a.k.a Entreaty, Polite Command)” in Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 487-488.

[ix] France, Matthew, 593. Lord, Son of David, “She clearly has some knowledge of Judaism, and in using a Jewish messianic title she is hoping to attract the interest of a Jewish teacher who would not have expected such a title in this foreign context.”

[x] Case-Winters, Matthew, 200. “At the very least he is at the border within access of the Canaanite woman in the story. Either he is crossing the line or she is.”

[xi] France, Matthew, 593. “That she nonetheless persists in her appeal already indicates remarkable willingness to challenge social conventions (as well as a mother’s desperation).”

[xii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 201. “She is the first woman in the Gospel to speak. When she does, she dares to ‘demand her share in God’s blessing,’ challenging the whole ideology of chosenness.”

[xiii] France, Matthew, 593. “Twelve strong men could presumably have driven the woman away themselves, so the fact that instead they ask Jesus to take action may suggest that by ‘Send her away’ they meant ‘Do what she wants, so that she will go away’; Jesus’ reply in v.24 suggests that sense.”

[xiv] France, Matthew, 594. v. 24 “Jesus is thus putting into words what was implied by his silence in v. 23: Gentiles have no right to the ministry of the Jewish Messiah.”

[xv] France, Matthew, 594. “Not only does Jesus repeat and make more explicitly the restriction stated in v. 24, but he does so now by another metaphor which in any culture would be demeaning to those depicted as dogs over against children, but which in that context also carried the force of Jewish invective which could use ‘dog’ (an unclean animal; cf. 7:6) as a deliberately offensive term for Gentiles.”

[xvi] France, Matthew, 595. “The children are in a position of right and privilege, which the dogs cannot hope to share; what is holy is not to be given to dogs (7:6).”

[xvii] France, Matthew, 595. “Far from being the meek acquiescence which most versions imply, it is a robust refusal to accept the apparent implication of Jesus’ words. She turns Jesus’ own parable against him.”

[xviii] France, Matthew, 595. “If Gentiles are to be ‘dogs,’ then at least let the dogs have their due. The dogs do have a right to be fed, even if all they get is the leftovers. Jesus, as the Messiah of Israel…must indeed first go to his own people, but that does not mean that his mission must stop there. Her reply, whether she knows it or not, thus encapsulates the importantly biblical theology of the election of Israel not for their own benefit alone but to be a means of blessing to all nations, a light to the Gentiles.”

[xix] Case-Winters, Matthew, 202. “She does not deny the distinctive place and priority of the ‘lost sheep of Israel,’ but she claims a place at the table of God’s blessing as well. Her ‘great faith’ stands in stark contrast to the ‘little faith’ demonstrated by Peter (14:31). She is in fact an exemplar of faith for the disciples—thought she is a woman a Gentile, and even a despised Canaanite.”

[xx] Case-Winters, Matthew, 202. “As the story unfolds the Canaanite woman exemplifies the great faith that Jesus does not find among his hometown folks, or the religious leaders, or the crowds, or even the disciples.”

[xxi] Case-Winters, Matthew, 202. “Her boldness, persistence, and remarkable faith empower the Canaanite woman to cross the boundaries that circumscribe here. In a sense, she empowers Jesus to do the same. Who can doubt that the love and compassion of God extends to one such as this?”

[xxii] Case-Winters, Matthew, 203. “The circle Jesus drew around the lost sheep of Israel is now expanding as he crosses the line into Gentile territory and encounters this Canaanite woman whose faith is so great.”

[xxiii] Ernesto Cardenal, The Gospel in Solentiname, translated by Donald D. Walsh (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 262. “Quique: “As I see it, there are two Jesuses here: the mortal Jesus who devoted himself only to the Jews because he was a Jew, and the resurrected Jesus, who’s for everybody, who’s international.”

[xxiv] Cardenal, Solentiname, 261-262. “I said: ‘On another occasion, when Jesus praised the faith of a Roman centurion, in Capernaum, he said that later many foreigners would come from the East and the West to sit down at the banquet of the kingdom of heaven. There are no longer dogs, only children; we are all brothers and sisters. And the bread of Jesus Christ is for all to share…”

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ICYMI from 2018: “Why I Love Preaching”

“Why I Love Preaching”

PS: I wrote this for the student body of Ascension Episcopal School on our first Eucharist/Opening Service of the year (or thereabouts) when I was the theology teacher there (8th, 11th-12th). Walking with those students, even on the bad days, was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had vocationally.

PSS: I could add to this “teaching,” too; teaching also has a strong story component to it but in the sense of story analysis and breaking down the story into various parts, seeing what is moving and hearing what is ticking behind the words of the story.

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What Now?: Centrality of Confession

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Our lectionary jumps from Romans 9:1-5 to Romans 10:5-15. This seems curious. However, Paul’s impassioned declaration of love for his siblings according to the flesh who do not follow Christ at the beginning of Romans 9 finds its conclusion in the very first part of Romans 10. Specifically, Romans 10:4 is crucial to understanding the link between what Paul says in the beginning of Romans 9 and what he continues to say in Romans 10:

For Christ is the end of the law toward righteousness for all who believe [in Christ].[ii]

Romans 10:4 is the hinge verse connecting Paul’s discussion of his siblings according to the flesh and why they do not follow Christ to the discussion he is having with the Roman Christians that they are justified by faith apart from works without forcing or causing supersessionism. 10:4 binds what Paul said before his impassioned cry in Romans 9:1-5 and what he goes on to say here in 10:5-15. Paul draws together the word of God in the First Testament and demonstrates how Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, of the Second Testament has fulfilled God’s promises to and covenants with Israel and how this Christ is the God of all, both Jewish and Greek.

Romans 10:5-15

For Moses writes about the justification out of the law, “the person who does will live by it.” Now the justification out of faith, in this way, says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘who will ascend into heaven?’ (That is to bring down Christ.) or ‘who will descend into the pit? (That is to bring up Christ out of the dead.) But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, on your mouth and in your heart. (That is the word of faith, which we proclaim.) (vv5-8)

Packed in these few verses are multiple references to various parts of Torah—Leviticus 18:5, Deuteronomy 8:17, 9:4, 30:12-14. Paul’s goal here is twofold. First, Paul’s argument follows from what he’s been writing regarding justification by faith, justification by the law, and the sustained call of his siblings according to the flesh. The source of Second Testament justification by faith alone is in the First Testament. Jesus the Christ, this man from Nazareth who is God, is the fulfillment of all the promises and covenants made in the First Testament. For Paul, Jesus is the one (the only one) who was able to secure justification out of the law because Christ is the only one who could live by it. Also, for Paul, Jesus is the one, in his incarnation, who “brings down the Christ” and the one who, in his resurrection, “brings up the Christ.” Finally, Jesus, the incarnate word of God, is near to those who hear the proclamation of the gospel, the one Paul proclaims to the Romans.

This then leads us to the second part of Paul’s goal here in these verses. While Paul is anchoring God’s fulfilling of the promises and covenants in Christ, he is also saying something about the people, the Roman Christians: once again, what they have in Christ by faith[iii] is nothing they can boast of or claim as their own. These ones are the ones who cannot live by the justification out of the law;[iv] no matter how hard they try, they will fail. They can only be justified if God acts on their behalf to justify them. Which God has done in Christ who fulfilled the law and the covenants. Thus is it only by faith wherein they are yoked to this Christ Jesus and receive his righteousness.[v] These ones do not need to ascend to heaven to find the Christ because the Christ has come in Jesus.[vi] These ones do not need to go down to the pit to find Christ, because the Christ has risen in Jesus’s rising from the dead. And, because of the power of hearing the gospel and faith that is given to them by God,[vii] the word is not only on their lips but in their hearts. Considering that in Romans 7 Paul declared that the good remains outside of one and evil close at hand, there is now the actuality that the good, for Christians, has taken up residence in their hearts and in their words by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who causes the disciples of Christ to become more like Christ. Thus, the Christian cannot be better than the Child of Israel; for the same faith that the Christian must have to be adopted into the family of God and Christ’s siblings is the same faith needed for Children of Israel and their called status.[viii] Thus why Paul then says,[ix] Because if you agree by your mouth that Jesus is Lord and if you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you will be saved (v9). This is the only confession that comes from faith and asserts and confirms that God is truthful and trustworthy.

From here, Paul can easily build a case for confession as central to Christian identity.[x]

For one believes by the heart toward justification, and one agrees by the mouth toward salvation. For the scripture says, “All who believe upon him will not be disgraced.” For there is no distinction of the child of Israel and Greek; for the same Lord [is] Lord of all people, being rich in all things to all who call upon him. For “All who might call upon the name of the lord will be saved” (vv10-13).

Confession, for Paul, levels the playing field.[xi] Anyone[xii] who believes in Christ, anyone who confesses Jesus is Lord, and anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord (ref. Joel[xiii]) are saved,[xiv] whether one is Jewish or Greek. Anyone who can agree with God that God’s declaration to humanity in Christ is trustworthy and truthful humbles themselves and finds themselves submerged in God’s righteousness and glory. [xv] Maintaining the flow of thought from the beginning of the letter through chapter 9, Paul reiterates the thesis of the letter: the one who is righteous is the one who believes in Christ and is justified by faith alone.[xvi],[xvii] God’s people, for Paul and the logic of Romans, are those who are defined by faith in Christ (both in word and deed, both inner and outer, even in alignment and misalignment).

A warning is needed here: Paul’s words should not be used as a means to segregate and separate who is in or who is out of favor with God. It is also not license to force people to believe in a certain way or certain dogma and doctrine. For Paul, the point is that our confession comes from our real need for God made known to us physically in Christ and spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit. These verses are not meant to be weapons to spiritually abuse, ostracize, marginalize, and alienate those ones God came to save from themselves for God’s self and for others. For Paul, this is all about God for anyone who feels so called to come forward and participate at God’s table.[xviii] This is why Paul then writes,

Therefore how might they call upon him they have not believed? And how might they believe in one of whom they did not hear? And how might they hear separated from proclaiming? And how might they proclaim if they might not be sent? Just as it has been written, “As beautiful[xix] the feet on the one who preaches Goodnews and good things” (vv.14-15).

Without God sending one called to be an apostle (one sent[xx]), then no one proclaims, then no one hears, then no one believes, and then no one calls upon Jesus. In this scenario, the law and the power of sin reign. However, the reality is that God sent God’s word in Christ to fulfill the law and cause God’s grace to be accessible to anyone through believing. [xxi] And this is the entire point of Romans. Calling upon, believing in, hearing from , proclaiming about, and being sent are all sourced in God.[xxii] These ones in Rome who follow Christ and who are foreordained, called, justified, and glorified find the source of their news lives wholly in God and are adopted children of God, siblings of Christ thus of Paul and of those whom Paul calls siblings of the flesh because of the beautiful feet of the one who comes proclaiming the good news of Christ[xxiii] and all the good things (peace with God, others, and the self[xxiv]) that come with Christ and faith.[xxv] All of this starts and ends with God.[xxvi]

Conclusion:

All of this that we have from God we have by faith alone apart from works, apart from birth, apart from status, apart from what is or is not in our savings account, apart from our occupations, our pedigrees and the number of degrees we have. All of this is of God and beyond our zip codes and area codes, beyond social constructions of identity, sex, gender, and race, beyond whatever class we find ourselves in. And if all of this cannot be located in and is found to be beyond what we do as human beings plodding along in the kingdom of humanity, then it sure as heck cannot be here to support the status quo, the structures that keep some up and some down, some well and some sick, some filled and some hungry, some quenched and some thirsty, some housed and some houseless. We might have systems of merit that we live in (and some of us may even swear by), but these systems fall apart in the light of the reign of God, lose power to hold captive in the liberation of Christ, refuse indifference it’s priority by the power of God’s love, and cause death to be dead where divine life is present.[xxvii]

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] τέλος γὰρ νόμου Χριστὸς εἰς δικαιοσύνην παντὶ τῷ πιστεύοντι.

[iii] LW 25:405-406. “In the first place, as in the glosses, it is explained that the apostle is comparing the two kinds of righteousness with each other, so that he attributes works to the righteousness of the Law but the Word to the righteousness of faith. For work was required for the Law, but faith is required for the Word (the Law was required for the deed, so that we might know what ought to be done, but for faith the Word was required not so that we might know but so that we might believe). Thus the first kind of righteousness depends on the work which has been done, but the second upon the Word which we believe. And what this Word is…as if to say that the Word which must be believed is nothing else than this: Christ died and is risen again.”

[iv] LW 25:89. “Here the word ‘man’ is emphatic. It is as if he were saying that a man can do these things and thus live in them so that he will not die according to the Law. But this is not sufficient, because beyond man there is the righteousness of faith.”

[v] LW 25:89. “That is, he is teaching nothing else but that we must believe that Christ died and rose again. This faith causes a man to live, even one who has not performed the works of the Law according to the righteousness of the Law. For those works are not necessary in order that you may live and be saved, as is the case with the righteousness of the Law, for faith suffices without these works. In this way, the apostle is comparing these two, the righteousness of the Law and the righteousness of faith, in the case of the first attributing to it good works and to the second only faith without good works.”

[vi] LW 25:406.

[vii] LW 25:407. “….the intent of the apostle is that the total righteousness of man leading to salvation depends on the Word through faith and not on good works through knowledge.”

[viii] Lancaster, Romans, 176-177. “These images already had a history of use to say that one does not need to ascend so high or descend so low to gain wisdom because wisdom is available near at hand in the law. For Paul to speak of Christ in this way is to say that wisdom is now near in proclamation of Christ.”

[ix] LW 25:90. “For Christ, as has been shown in chapter 4:25, ‘was delivered for our trespasses and raised for our justification.’ Therefore the apostle adduces these two mysteries here as he expounds the word of Moses, for the truth is that our righteousness is not by the Law and good works but by the death and resurrection of Christ. For whoever does not deny these two points, as the text continues, ‘will be saved.’”

[x] LW 25:90.

[xi] LW 25:411. “…for confession is the principal work of faith by which a man denies himself and confesses God and thus he both denies and confesses to such an extent that he would deny his own life and all things rather than affirm himself. For in confessing God and denying himself he dies. For how can he deny himself in a more forceful way than by dying in his confession of God? For then he forsakes himself in order that God may stand and his confession of Him.”

[xii] Lancaster, Romans, 178. “Paul’s main point in 10:11-13, though, is less about glory and shame itself than about who is entitled to hope in such glory. He stresses ‘all,’ Jew and Greek, with no distinction. For the community in Rome, this inclusive statement would have a leveling effect. Neither group stands above the other, so neither group should be ashamed by the other. All of them are saved by their believe and trust in Jesus Christ; salvation is neither hindered nor made possible by their ethnic identity. Those who recognize him as Lord will receive his salvation.”

[xiii] LW 25:91. “For the prophet Joel is prophesying concerning the time of grace when he says, ‘All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’”

[xiv] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 177. “Mouth and heart—the public self and private self—function as one, so there is integrity in one’s identity. The external confession displays to whom one belongs because of internal commitment. The integrity of inner and out life (wholeness) that this allegiance to Jesus Christ brings must surely be included in what Christians expect salvation to be.”

[xv] LW 25:407. “For God does not require a magnitude of good works but the mortification of the old man. And he is not mortified except through faith, which humbles our own feeling of self-importance and makes a person subject to that of another. For the whole life of the old man is concentrated in the feelings, mind, or wisdom and prudence of the flesh, just as the life of serpent is in its head. And so when this head is crushed, the entire old man is dead.”

[xvi] LW 25:410. “But true righteousness comes into being by believing the words of God with the hole heart…”

[xvii] Lancaster, Romans, 177. “Jesus Christ is the end (goal) of the law. All that the law gave to Israel—the covenantal relationship, the faithfulness of God and the people, the possibility of life—is now proclaimed in Jesus Christ. Confessing Jesus is Lord acknowledges this proclamation.”

[xviii] Lancaster, Romans, 176. “By following the law that God has given, Israel shows its loyalty to God. God shows loyalty to the covenant by fulfilling the promise God made to give land to the people. When this fulfillment happens, the people are not to think (to say to themselves) that it has occurred because of what they have done. Nor are they to think heat their prosperity is due to their own actions. The law itself warns against attributing God’s gifts to one’s own righteousness. Paul’s words are not against the law or against obedience to the law, and they are not against works. Rather, they point to the way one ought to do works—gratefully acknowledging God’ grace instead of claiming credit for oneself.”

[xix] LW 25:415-16. “In the first place, they are called ‘beautiful’ because of their purity, since they do not preach the Gospel for personal advantage or empty glory, as is now the case everywhere, but only out of obedience to God as well as for the salvation of the hearers.”

[xx] LW 25:92. “From this one word ‘to preach the Gospel’ the apostle proves that they cannot preach unless they are sent. For ‘to preach the Gospel’ is the same as ‘to announce.’ But it is not possible for a man to announce the Word of God and to be a messenger of God unless God has sent him and given him the Word. For no one can snatch he Word of God, but it is taken up only when God commends it and sends it. But if this does not occur, doubtless only a lie is spoken, albeit the message has the appearance of the truth. Finally in the same message he is a wonderful manner describes the nature of peace and of good things, namely, that they are such that they can be heard alone in the Word and comprehended alone by faith, but not visibility demonstrated…”

[xxi] LW 25:417-418. “Therefore we have these two sets of contrary terms: Law—sin. The Law shows up sin and makes man guilty and sick; indeed proves him worthy of being damned. Gospel—grace. The Gospel offers grace and remits sin and cures the sickness unto salvation.”

[xxii] LW 25:412. “…When god gives, He gives so strongly and boldly that we would not have been able even to imagine such things. For He is so powerful, that is, so strong and bold, that He gives more than our weakness asks.”

[xxiii] LW 25:416. “For these good things and this peace are not exhibited to the senses but announced by the Word and can be perceived only by faith, that is, without personal experience until the future life comes.”

[xxiv] LW 25:416-417. “And the term ‘good things’ refers to the granting of the gifts of grace, and ‘peace’ to the removal of evils; therefore he places the term ‘peace; firs t and then ‘good things.’ Thus these good things are under the cross, for no man is able to possess this kind of peace and good things, unless he has renounced the peace and good things of the world and is willing to suffer for his faith in the midst of the evils and tribulation of the world and his own conscience.”

[xxv] Lancaster, Romans, 179. “Proclaiming the gospel is the occasion for God to use human words to reveal the Word, to make present the reality that is being proclaimed.”

[xxvi] LW 25:91. “Do not doubt at all that He has ascended; for this is the Word which will save you. This is the way the righteousness of faith teaches. This is the way of the compendium, the short way to salvation. For the righteousness of the Law is long, winding, and circuitous, as is signified by the wandering of the Children of Israel in the wildness.”

[xxvii] Lancaster, Romans, 180. “This Messiah is not furthering human imperial hopes, and so the good news of Jesus Christ is most welcome when it challenges messages from social institutions that act imperialistically by controlling and diminishing human life.”

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What Now?: Not Replaced or Forsaken

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Over the course of 8 chapters, Paul crafted a biblical and theological account of the union of the Roman believers amongst themselves and with God by faith in Christ and by the Power of the Holy Spirit. He demonstrated that they are the adopted children of God, they are siblings, and , they are a family, thus they are the body of Christ: one, unified, grown together, all of them foreordained, called, justified and glorified. According to Paul and the first 8 chapters of his letter to the Romans, there is no need for infighting between the Gentil Christians and the Jewish Christians because they are family, for crying out loud! [Said like a parent quelling the incessant bickering of their children on summer break.] Paul leveled the playing field with faith, removing an over emphasis on law-obedience and a complete disregard for law-observance. These Roman Christians—every single one—are the beloved of God who loved them first. None can claim the superior way to do this thing called church and the life of faith as representatives of Christ in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In chapter 9, Paul, swept up in the good news of God’s work in Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, reflects on his siblings who have not heard their name called by Christ. While this reflection will inevitably open a discussion on how God’s grace and the proclamation of the gospel can be resisted, we must stay here with Paul in his inner grief and outer agony over the disbelief of his Jewish siblings who follow not this way.

Romans 9:1-5

I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie—while my conscience bears witness to me by the Holy Spirit—there is great grief for me and incessant anguish for my heart. For I was praying that I myself to be accursed and excommunicated from Christ on behalf of my siblings, my kindred according to the flesh (vv1-3)

Paul’s heart and soul are broken over his kindred who currently reject Christ. At this point in Christian history, “the followers of the way” are still tightly connected to their Jewish origin (hence the need for a letter to be sent to the Romans). Paul is writing from his heartfelt and faithful position that Jesus is the Messiah of Israel, the one who does and will (through those who follow the Christ by faith by the power of the Holy Spirit) right the wrongs of the world, the wrongs ushered in by Adam and Eve’s transgression against God’s law and disregard for God’s promise. Therefore, he painfully desires his siblings to follow this Messiah, Jesus the Christ of Nazareth, this man who is God. What he doesn’t know is that church history will find ample means to use these verses against the Jewish people, not only oppressing and ostracizing them but even attempting genocide.[ii] Paul never meant for these verses to be used as artillery against his siblings; this an emotionally charged[iii] moment that Paul shares with the Christians in Rome (esp. a predominantly Gentile congregation harboring animosity toward their Jewish Christian siblings[iv]). We must tread delicately and cautiously, refusing the tendency to cultivate violent doctrine and threatening dogma elevating Christians and Christianity above and as a replacement for Paul’s siblings according to the flesh.[v] For Paul and the thrust of Romans up to this moment in the letter, God calls and when God calls God doesn’t uncall.[vi] In this vulnerable moment, Paul knows his siblings in circumcision are still called, still God’s beloved…

They, They are Israelites, theirs is the adoption as children and the glory and the covenants and the institution of the mosaic law and the ministration of God and the promises; theirs is the patriarchs and out of them Christ according to the flesh, the one who is over all, God[/Christ be[vii]] blessed into the ages. Amen (vv.4-5).

Considering both the flow of chapter 8 and the fact that Paul was just caught up in Gospel fervor, doesn’t it make sense that he’d then consider his siblings according to the flesh?[viii] Doesn’t it make sense that the rapture he just felt would solicit a grief so powerful and anguish so strong that he’d turn immediately to consider his siblings who are not following Christ?[ix] In this light, Paul considers the faithfulness of God.[x] Thus, this isn’t about Christians replacing Jewish people as God’s people or the elevation of the “followers of the way” above the followers of not this way.[xi] Rather, it is about God’s historical activity coinciding with God’s current activity in foreordaining, calling, justifying, and glorifying this motley crew of faithful followers of Christ; the God of today is the same God of yesterday[xii] who called, covenanted, lead, liberated, sustained, gave the law to, and glorified the children of Abraham according to the flesh.

For Paul, these Roman “followers of the way” must never forget that both the Christ and their new covenant are sourced from the Jewish people. All of the covenants (even the new one) find their origin in the Torah and the Prophets (new covenant promises: Deut 30:6, Jer 31:31-34 and Ez 36:26-27); into these covenants (even the new one) the Roman Christians are adopted into by faith in Christ apart from any deed.[xiii] Thus, they cannot boast in the new covenant being theirs alone.[xiv] God elects and God calls; Paul has just finished writing this truth. Thus, this electing and calling holds for the Jewish people who were elected and called before these Roman followers of the way.[xv]

Conclusion

In these few verses, Paul shares and communicates his love for his siblings according to the flesh to the Romans; they are pulled into Paul’s love and, thus, God’s love because they are called to love those whom God loves.[xvi] And this is the whole point, right? Those who love what God loves are those who please God, and those who please God are saved even if they so wish to be accursed and separated from Christ so that others can be saved.[xvii]

As it was for those whose ears were the first to hear this letter, so it is for us, so many ears later. Being foreordained, called, justified, and glorified by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit is not about recreating the hierarchies and structures of oppression and alienation of the kingdom of humanity. Rather, it’s about participating in the reign of God, bringing God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation to everyone. Thus, if this is true that we Christians are the adopted children of God by faith, shouldn’t we not only look like our adoptive parent but also prefer God’s will over our own, shouldn’t we be transformed through prayer and the presence of the Spirit into those who represent God and those who love whom and what God loves? We should so desire all to experience God’s grace and mercy, forgiveness and unconditional love that we’d be willing to ditch our status so that those over there who are convinced they are abandoned by God would be convinced otherwise.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 155. “In [Paul’s] time, the followers of Jesus had not yet become thoroughly Gentile and separated completely from Judaism. He did not know, and he could not foresee, that Christianity and Judaism would eventually define themselves in contrast to each other, that Christianity would become the religion of the empire, and that Christians would use that power to persecute the Jews.”

[iii] Lancaster, Romans, 156.

[iv] Lancaster, Romans, 156. Many reasons why he might be stressing this point, even “A mostly Gentile community that has been without its Jewish brothers and sisters for some times might be leaning toward the idea that the followers of Jesus should all be Gentile.”

[v] Lancaster, Romans, 155. “The best way to learn from him is not simply to accept his description of the Jewish situation that he knew and hoped for, but to listen carefully to what he has to say about God.”

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 155. “His emphasis on God’s faithfulness to those who are called according to God’s purpose leads directly into the question of God’s faithfulness to Isreal, the people who were called according to God’s purpose long before Jesus Christ.”

[vii] LW25:80 Luther “…[Christ] be blessed forever.”

[viii] LW25:379 “From this text it is very clear that love is found not only in sweetness and delight, but also in the greatest sorrow and bitterness. Indeed it rejoices and delights in bitterness and sorrow, because it regards the misery and sufferings of others as if they were its own.”

[ix] LW25:380 “In the fifth place, the whole order of the text indicates that he is speaking with most fervent zeal about their salvation. For he wants to bring Christ to them, which he certainly was not doing then. For that reason he swore a most sacred oath, because it seems incredible that a man would desire to be damned in order that the damned might be saved.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 156. “He had just affirmed that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, but what about the Jews who do not follow Jesus? Can their lack of belief in Jesus as Messiah separate them from God’s love?…Rather, he wrestles with the faithfulness of God to Israel in light of what he has said about God’s faithfulness so far. God’s faithfulness demonstrates God’s righteousness, so his argument is showing the righteousness of God.”

[xi] LW25:79 “For he who ridicules and is pleased with the damnation of his neighbor and says that he loves his neighbor, he is adding a lie to his hatred.”

[xii] LW25:79 “In their obstinacy he has seen in effect what he already knew with his intellect, namely, that it is not the righteousness of him who runs but the imputation of God, who is merciful, which saves men.”

[xiii] Lancaster, Romans, 158. “All these things that belong to Israel make Israel a people to be honored, not scorned. Furthermore, by stating they ‘belong’ to Israel, Paul is not suggesting that they have been transferred from Israel to someone else. Rather, as he will go on to argue, Gentiles are given a way to participate in them.”

[xiv] Lancaster, Romans, 157. “…the new covenant is open to the Gentiles but does not ‘belong’ to them.”

[xv] LW25:80

[xvi] LW25:381 “…to those who truly love God with a filial love and friendship which does not arise out of nature but only from the Holy Spirit, these words are most beautiful and testimonies of a perfect example. For such men freely offer themselves to the entire will of God, even to hell and eternal death, if that is what God wills, so that His will maybe fully done. Therefore they seek absolutely nothing for themselves.”

[xvii] LW25:381 “For he wills what God wills; therefore he pleases God. And if he pleases God, he is loved by Him; and if loved, then saved.”

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What Now?: Foreknown, Called, Justified, and Glorified

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Last week, Paul moved his readers from the introspection of chapter 7 to the extrospection of chapter 8, Paul exhorted the Roman Christians to understand the symbiotic relationship redeemed humanity has with all of creation yearning for liberation, specifically the liberation that comes with the presence of the glory of God made known in the revelation of the adopted children of God—the ones who are saved by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit apart from any deeds. Christians, according to Paul, are the ones who understand that they are not the creator; they are the creature and God is the creator. This humble posture of the believer in Christ affirms and confirms that God is trustworthy and truthful (what God says about humanity and God’s self is true!); this is how we are justified because in affirming and confirming God’s trustworthiness and truthfulness, God deems the believer truthful and trustworthy. This then becomes the one who is adopted by God by faith and made one of Christ’s siblings, chosen to represent Christ in the world through truthful and trustworthy words and corresponding deeds. Once again, we were reminded that our salvation isn’t solely from something or someone or someplace, but, more importantly for something and someone and someplace. For Paul and the thrust of Romans, we are saved from ourselves for the wellbeing of our neighbor and creation and to the glory of God.

The last third of chapter 8 reinforces what Paul has been saying. As if he knew we could take what has been said thus far and run with it, thinking it is now up to us to save the world and our neighbor, Paul anchors it all in a subterranean dependence on the divine Spirit of God. From beginning to end, from start to finish, from the highest of heavens to the deepest mantel of the earth, this is all God’s activity—even when we pray and especially when we pray unintelligibly. While this may ruffle our American sensibilities, and specifically Western American sensibilities at that, it is important that we see how much we need God and must throw ourselves on God, on Christ, and on the power of the Holy Spirit working in us. Because, as Paul says at the end of chapter 8, if this is all of God then it is secure…absolutely nothing can undo what God has done in Christ for believers. And while this may sound like a “get-off-the-hook-of-giving-a-heck-about-the-world-and-its-inhabitants” card, it’s not. In being yoked to the One who is on the move, drafted by faith into God’s mission, and called into God’s purpose means that in our liberation from ourselves we, as Christ’s representatives and powered by the Holy Spirit, are free (in very imperfect ways) to help liberate others, to bring love where there is indifference, and to make sure life continues victorious over death.

Romans 8:26-39

Paul begins this portion of his letter by intensifying the believer’s dependence on the Spirit. Paul writes,

Now, in like manner, the Spirit takes hold of our weakness/frailty; for what we must pray for we have not perceived, but this same Spirit intercedes with/in groanings too deep for words. But the one who searches the heart has perceived the prudence of the Spirit because [the Spirit] pleads for the sake of the holy ones according to God (vv26-27).

Not even in our prayers and petitions do we find ourselves operating by our own power. In the words that we utter intelligibly and uttered unintelligibly, the Spirit intercepts and intercedes for us. When we are certain that what we pray for is what we want and even if it feels aligned to God’s will, the Spirit works in our hearts to conform our prayers and our wills to align with God’s own prayers and will.[ii] We may enter the state of prayer one way but we leave another, and that’s because the Spirit is working in us as we pray through the Spirit in the name of Christ to God. In and through prayer, we are changed as the Spirit intercepts us and our words, softening our hearts, informing and forming our minds.[iii] Also, the Spirit intercedes for us to God[iv] when we can only groan in response to the tragedies and terrors of the kingdom of humanity hallmarking the world around us.[v] In times when we cannot pray, the Spirit does so for us, bringing our moans and groans, our gnashed teeth, our collapsed posture into the throne room and pleads for our sake, rendering our inoperable and unintelligible prayers into viable communion with God.[vi] According to Paul, we do not pray alone even when we feel as if we’re the only ones praying. This is why Paul can then say, Now we have perceived that all things work together toward the good for those who love God, the ones who are being called according to purpose (v28).

Paul then moves to speak of God’s foreknowledge about those who have been and are being called—further emphasizing the believer’s dependence on God. Paul writes,

Because God knew beforehand those [who are being called] also foreordained [them] to be conformed to the image of God’s son in order that [Christ] may be the firstborn among many siblings. And those [God] foreordained these ones [God] also called; and those [God] called, these ones [God] justified also; and those [God] justified, these ones [God] glorified also (vv29-30).

Rather than causing hackles to go up, Paul’s point here is to bring comfort to those who believe in Christ, those who have received the Holy Spirit, and those who are trying to do this thing called life while straddling the kingdom of humanity and the reign of God. What matters most here is not who is in and who is out of heaven. Rather, the point is those who are found in Christ by faith are sealed by God[vii]: foreknown, called, justified, and glorified. Believers may be able to boast about a lot of things in the world, but they are forbidden from boasting in their salvation as if it were their own; they didn’t earn it, they didn’t achieve it, they didn’t do it for themselves. Also eliminated is the aspect of chance; for Paul, believers are foreknown, called, justified and glorified intentionally.[viii] Paul here in Romans 8 anchors the very identity and ontology of the Christian in Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in God. All of it, from beginning to end, is because of God’s grand and great love for the whole entire cosmos[ix] (ref. Jn 3:16). And in light of this, it makes sense to hold on to the spiritual fact that not only will all things work together toward the good for those who are being called (even when things look really bad[x]) (v28) but also that If God is for these ones, who is against these ones?? [xi] (v31).

Paul’s declaration and proclamation of the gospel rings through the halls of the church in Rome,

God who did not spare God’s only son, but handed him over in defense of all of us, how will God not give freely all things to us with [Christ]? Who will bring to account against the elect of God? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who will give judgment against [the elect of God]? Christ, the one who died, and so much more, the one who was raised, who also is at the right hand of God who also intercedes on behalf of us! (vv32-34).

As elsewhere in the Second Testament epistles by Paul, Paul works himself up in a ripe gospel moment resulting in fervent proclamation as he recalls for the Romans the good word of God in Christ! And he brings the conversation full circle, linking the work of the Spirit and Christ together through active intercession on behalf of the ones who pray intelligibly and unintelligibly. Humanity is fully represented in the throne room of God as our prayers mingled with divine intercession and intervention fill up bronze bowls pleading that God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

And if that wasn’t enough, Paul weaves in the divine love of God for the cosmos, humanity, and the elect. This very God, who flung the stars and the great and lesser lights into the sky is for them. This God who did not spare God’s only Son is for them. [xii] This one who is the judge of judges, the king of kings, the priest of priests is for them.[xiii] Thus, these ones can cast their entire selves onto this God not in the sense of giving up but in the sense that behind them stands this one who cannot be defeated by anything and who will not forsake them. God’s love, according to Paul, binds and entwines, grafts and drafts, grows together with and through the beloved of God—those who are called, hear their name, and follow Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That God loves humanity first is the catalyst for our love of God, the type of love that is born from within seeking the glory of the beloved. Nothing, says Paul in the remaining verses, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will ever be able to separate you from God and God’s love in Christ made known by the power of the Holy Spirit (vv35-39).

Conclusion

So, why proclaim such good news to us? What do we do with this very good news? What now? Well, we treasure it, let our weary and skeptical minds bath in it, our broken hearts heal in it, and our fatigued and exhausted bodies rest in it. We should let it wash over us, soak us down to the marrow, and let it begin to take root in our souls so that it can begin to form and inform, mold and sculpt our identity and action to conform to God’s reign, as those who are foreknown, called, justified, and glorified by God. We, through our hearing of the proclamation of Christ and our solicited believing in the Christ Jesus, this man who is God, we are created anew to become the representatives of God in a world that has either all too quickly forgotten this magnificent, unconditional, always and forever love of God or has given up hope that anything could ever be different, that there is only indifference, death, and captivity, that all is lost. As the adopted children of God, the “holy ones,” the saints, we are to bring the light of the word of truth to illuminate the darkness of falsehood and expose it, we are to use the keys of the reign of God to liberate anyone who is caught in captivity by the biased policing of the kingdom of humanity, and we are to use our voices and bodies against the authorities, and the principalities of darkness ruling this decrepit world to push back death in the name of life. We are called to live and spread grace, overhauling the power of sin and death one person at a time.[xiv] We are called to love because we were first loved.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] LW 25:365 “For unless the Spirit is helping, it would be impossible for us to bear this action of God by which He hears us and accomplishes what we pray for.”

[iii] LW 25:367 “…so God comes upon our feeling and thinking, seeing what it is praying for, what it is suitable for, and what it desires; then heeding the request He begins to mold the form which suits His art and His counsel. Then of necessity the form and model of our thinking is destroyed.”

[iv] Lancaster, Romans, 148. “Because the Spirit groans with us and intercedes for us, God knows our longing even when we are unable to articulate it.”

[v] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 148. “Living in and for a new reality and way of doing things puts us at odds with the way things are done now, so we do not rise in social standing or have the usual kinds of influence. Even in such weakness, we are empowered by the Spirit. To persevere in allegiance to God when something else constantly calls for our allegiance takes prayer. Because we stand between times, hoping for things not yet seen we do not see properly how to pray, so the Spirit works with us to assist us in prayer.”

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 148. “So inevitably our prayers are expressed in words and concepts that fall short of divine understanding. But the Spirit sees beyond our articulation to the prayer that lies beneath our utterance, and it makes our thoughts and words into real communion with God.”

[vii] Lancaster, Romans, 150. “The emphasis on calling and predestination is a way of affirming God’s initiative in salvation. Those who are called, foreknown, and predestined will be conformed to the image of the Son, so the Son Jesus Christ will be the firstborn among a large family of adopted children (8:29). When God decides to save (predestines), Go calls. Those who are called are also justified and glorified (8:30). What God begins, God also completes. God initiates salvation as well as carries it out to its fulfillment.”

[viii] LW 25:371 “For if it were not the purpose of God, and if our salvation depended upon our will and works, it would depend upon chance…he is showing that the elect are not saved by chance but by necessity.”

[ix] Lancaster, Romans, 150. “The theologically important meaning of predestination in this letter is about God’s initiative in our salvation, about God’s faithfulness in fulfilling God’s purpose for us to be saved, and about how both these affirmations remove all grounds for human boasting in what we have done for ourselves.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 149. “For those who ‘love God,’ all things work together for good. Even though the subject of the sentence is ambiguous (is it God, the Spirit, or the things themselves that are bringing this about?), the affirmation is not in doubt. Because we know and love God, we may be confident that good will come even out of the suffering that is now endured.”

[xi] Lancaster, Romans, 153. “The only rightful judge on that day is God; so if God is for us, no one could oppose us.”

[xii] Lancaster, Romans, 153. “Jesus Christ himself, who took on weakness and died a shameful death to glorify weak people, who was raised and with whom we also will be raised, and who has a place of honor with God, now intercedes for us. How could anything possibly sperate us from such a love?”

[xiii] Lancaster, Romans, 153. “Neither sufferings in history nor cosmic powers nor anything else will succeed in separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

[xiv] Lancaster, Romans, 149. Those who love God are called according… “This description sets our love for God in the context of what God is doing, so love for God is neither merely emotional nor does it arise apart from God’s own work. Paul addressed the recipients of this letter in 1:7 as ‘God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.’ Recalling this opening address shows us that we love God because we are beloved, that is because God first loved us; and because we are loved, we are called to be saints, that is, called to be holy or set apart as God’s …Being set apart for God means living in the dominion of grace—loyal to God rather than to sin.”

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Tupac Shakur’s “How Can We Be Free?” [A Guest Post by The Rev. Anthony Stevenson]

During the summer session I taught for BSK Theological Seminary this summer, I asked the students to submit weekly 300-word responses on the weekly assigned readings. For the last week, I assigned some poetry and lyrics by Tupac Shakur and a speech by Malcolm X (“The Ballot or the Bulelt”, 1964). The responses–across the board–were powerful; potentially the best week of responses of the seven (and, tbh, each week collected strong responses!). With that said, the following response about Tupac Shakur’s poem “How Can We Be Free” written by The Rev. Anthony Stevenson (pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church in Cynthiana, KY) demanded a wider audience. With his permission, I am honored to be featuring it here.

I love the impact of my theological education and my pastoral experiences, but what do I say to people who feel stretched thin by political division, economic pressure, and the relentless weight of social unrest? The question of what it means to be free is suspended in the air with new urgency. We live in a climate where people constantly speak of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of choice, freedom to live without fear, yet many still feel locked up by temporal forces shaped by a lack of feeling free. Where is my liberty in a world shaped by racialized poverty, surveillance of the Black community, and generational trauma? Tupac argues that “freedom” becomes a slogan rather than an experience. Tupac’s poem, “How Can We Be Free,” challenges me to recognize how societal structures, economic, political, and cultural divisions, have and continue to produce a kind of invisible imprisonment.

As I speak from a pastoral, sanctified voice that speaks honestly to the world’s realities while immersing people in the deeper freedom that God offers, I stand boldly before God. My pastoral leadership cannot ignore the pressures shaping people’s lives; it must acknowledge the exhaustion, the frustration, and the longing for something fresh and reviving. Tupac’s question, “How can we be free?” is not just poetic; it is prophetic. Yet I must also send a high alert to the Black community that freedom is not merely a political condition or a social achievement; it is a spiritual reality rooted in truth, justice, and the liberating love of Jesus Christ. In a world where many people feel ensnared by circumstances that seem beyond their control, they find themselves overwhelmed by the rising costs of food, gas, and a decent standard of living. I confess that many feel caught in generational cycles of debt, struggling to break free. As racial inequities continue to limit our opportunities, there is little space left for rest or meaningful reflection. The everyday tension between the promise of freedom, liberty, and justice for all humankind feels fragile, incomplete, or unevenly distributed. In this fork-in-the-road moment, Tupac’s question remains unanswered: “How can we be free?”

This pastoral moment invites me to invite us to imagine freedom not as a distant belief but as a present possibility. If “[t]his so called ‘Home of the Brave, / why isn’t anybody backing us up!” (lines 9-10), “How can we be free?” to live authentically, to stand against injustice, to walk with dignity, and to have faith that God can break every chain. In this pastoral moment, allow me to back you up.  I am thrilled to declare that the gospel offers holistic liberation, freedom from sin, fear, injustice, and every burden that confines us, restoring God’s love within all humanity.

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What Now?: Children of God

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

The last time we were in Romans, we were with Paul and his heart-felt confession that within him there is another law at work, the law of sin. Romans 7:15-25, describes that within the person a battle wages between desiring and acting, willing and practicing. Paul spoke of desiring to do the good but the evil, being closer at hand, that is the thing he does; it is easier because it, unlike the good, is in his flesh, it is embedded in his muscle memory, doesn’t demand change and requires less effort. Romans 7 reminds us that being comfortable isn’t the point of the incarnate word of God working in and through us; Christians are called to be afflicted, too, within ourselves and without. We must learn to battle against the other law that works within us, causing us to succumb (repeatedly) to the power of sin that readily lurks about seeking to devour. We are to be alert and aware that there is a misalignment between the inner and outer person; we are exhorted to do what we can to create alignment between inner and outer. Thus, for Paul and Romans 7, our need for Christ and the Divine Spirit, our encounter with God in the event of faith, is not a one and done deal. It’s daily; it’s forever until either Christ comes again or we find ourselves (bodily) in Christ’s presence in the resurrection. The only one who can save us from our wretched state and this body of death is Jesus.

However, Christians are not to be discouraged by this constant inner battle. Luther encourages us to stay the course in his treatise, the Freedom of a Christian, which discusses this tension between the inner and outer person. While it takes time and patience, perseverance and fortitude, we do learn—by following Christ and being influenced by the Spirit through our prayer, worship, and discipleship—that our wills can align with the will of God and this necessarily shapes our activity in the world. By divine love, mercy, forgiveness, and peace we are molded and shaped by God to be Christ’s representatives on earth as it is in heaven. Thus, in Romans 8, Paul beseeches us to live according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh because we’re no longer merely creatures of the flesh and of the kingdom of humanity. We are, by the presence of the divine Spirit and our faith, adopted children of God. And thus, as adopted children of God, we move and act in the world differently because we are inspired by and drafted into God’s reign and mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation.

Romans 8:12-25

Paul, addressing his “siblings” in Rome, tells them, …we, we are debtors/under obligation not to the flesh to live according to the flesh—for if you live according to the flesh you will die. But, if you, by the Spirit, put to death the practices of the body, you will live (vv12-13). This statement follows Paul’s exhortation in the first half of chapter 8 that these siblings by faith are to live according to the divine Spirit—the very person who unites them to God and moves them into their Christlikeness. The Christians in Rome are no longer bound by the law of sin and death but bound to the law of the Spirit and life. Thus, they are, in v.12, not under obligation to the flesh so as to live according to the flesh, but to God and the life God has given them and has in store for them.[ii] To live otherwise is to live oriented toward death and to serve death with the deeds and practices of the body. For the Christian, according to Paul, this is μὴ γένοιτο![iii] For how can those, who have been drafted into and are obligated to the service of God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation, now turn around and serve and become obligated to the flesh and therein the power of sin that lurks within (ref. Rom. 7)? (And if obligated to sin then obligated to die because death is a consequence of sin.) For Paul, the Christian cannot return to the old way of living; the patterns and practices of the kingdom of humanity[iv] are now blocked off.[v] These Roman Christians are new creations or, better yet, children of God, For many of you are brought by the Spirit of God, these ones are the children of God; for you received not a spirit of fear to return again to slavery, but you received a spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Papa Father!’ (vv.14-15).

To be adopted children of God by faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit[vi] means that not only do we bear the love of God for us in Christ, but also that we reflect that love into the world, representing God who chose us, pursued us, loved us, and grounded us in God’s self. And we love those whom and that which God loves.[vii] Thus, adoption status has public and private impact;[viii] Christians, for Paul, are obligated to God thus to one another as if family and friends, loving those whom and that which God loves.[ix] To be the adopted children of God comes with great blessing, we can call God our “Papa Father!” However, in being able to call God our “Papa Father!” we bear responsibility to suffer as our elder sibling, Jesus, suffered and, thusly, identify with the suffering of those with whom Jesus identified in his crucifixion[x] (those physically threatened and murdered by the state and ideologically threated and alienated by the status quo of the kingdom of humanity). As Paul writes, This same spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if perhaps we are afflicted in common with Christ so that we also might be glorified together with [Christ] (vv16-17). Christians are the adopted children of God thus those who inherit from God and with Christ both the suffering of God and the divinely gifted glory[xi] the follows.[xii]

This is why Paul then explains, For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not deserving of the glory about to be revealed to/for/in us. For the anxious longing of creation awaits eagerly the revealing of the children of God (vv18-19). For Paul, the current and present suffering of those following the will of the reign of God and forsaking the way of the kingdom of humanity pales in comparison to what is to come in the revelation of the children of God. Paul links the desperate cry of the person caught in misalignment of the inner and outer from Romans 7 to the cry of creation suffering under this power of sin waging war in the flesh of humans. Creation does suffer because of human sin and missing the mark.[xiii] (How many more unprecedented hot days do we need to see this is reality?) For Paul and our Holy Scriptures, it was not only Adam and Eve who suffered curses. While we know the serpent did, too, it is more important to see that humanity was pitted against the earth, to fight against the soil, to toil rather than work. For Paul, then, not only do we pray for deliverance, but so does the earth yearn to be released from the slavery of the kingdom of humanity unto the liberation of the dominion of those children of God who participate in the reign of God and God’s mission (vv20-23).

Paul then weaves this discussion through hope, writing, For we are saved to/for hope. Now, hope being seen is not hope, for who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we await eagerly by endurance (vv24-25). Paul is drawing a correlation between the hope that drives the Christians in Rome to await eagerly by endurance and the anxious longing of the creation that is awaiting eagerly for deliverance into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.[xiv] As Creation yearns to be liberated from destruction, the Christian yearns to be liberated from death; both of these liberations come in the consummation of God when the new heavens and the new earth become one. Also hinted at here, is this: even right now[xv] the endurance of the children of God in their current suffering against the kingdom of humanity brings creation a step closer to seeing the children of God because they are exposed through their participation in divine liberation which is the glory of God being revealed in and through and to them.[xvi] In other words, as these Roman Christians participate in the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation the creation begins to receive liberation from the vile ways of the kingdom of humanity, liberated unto and into God’s glory through those who dare to follow Jesus.[xvii] These Romans, by faith, love, and hope, are transferred out of themselves and into God, forever changed in to the one in whom they believe, into the love they have received, and into the hope they have by the Spirit.[xviii]

Conclusion

Paul moves us from introspection of chapter 7 into extrospection of chapter 8. We are exhorted to see a correlation between our own yearning to be free of from the power and law of sin and the yearning of others and all creation. Our bodies and our deeds have impact on the world—this isn’t just about us and our personal relationship with Jesus. For Christians, we are new creations, new creatures called to be something different in the world, and we are neither controlled by the status quo nor in bondage to the indifference, death, and captivity peddled by the kingdom of humanity. In these words, Paul reminds us that we are not our own, that “private” sin is a lie, and that we have a divine obligation to give a heck about what happens to those of us sitting here, to our neighbors outside of these walls, and to respond when creation cries out in labor pains or, worse, in death cries. By the presence of the Spirit we are forbidden from not caring, from turning a blind eye, to letting it all burn. By the Spirit, as adopted children of God by faith in Christ, our ears are open to hear the cries of the many oppressed groups even the silent ones, our eyes are opened to see the fear and terror of those who are forced to run and hide, and our hands and feet are strengthened to respond in deeds aligned with incarnated word of God dwelling in our hearts and minds.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Heaner, Romans, 137-138. “In saying that we are not ‘debtors’ to the flesh, Paul is saying we are not obligated to live according to the mindset of the flesh.”

[iii] LW 25:358 “…Now that you have been freed, you have not received this spirit of fear a second time, but rather the spirt of sonship in trusting faith.”

[iv] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 137. “By adding the word ‘body’ to ‘flesh,’ Paul’s words point clearly to the way we enact our sinful orientation. The embodied actions of living ‘according to the flesh,’ referenced as ‘deeds of the body’ (8:13), bring up the ethical dimension of this exchange of laws.”

[v] Heaner, Romans, 139. “…the mindset  of the flesh seeks honor according to the structure that the world has established, that is, within a system of relationships of superiority and inferiority. This is not the system to which the followers of Jesus are obligated. They do not find their place there.”

[vi] Heaner, Romans, 140. “The status of child of God is not given to all humans simply by virtue of being human. It belongs specifically to those who have been led into this relationship by the Spirit.”

[vii] LW 25:359 “For we cannot love those things which God loves unless we have the love and will and spirit which He has…And those people are called godlike men and sons of God because they are led by the Spirit of God.”

[viii] Heaner, Romans, 138.

[ix] Heaner, Romans, 138. “Paul explains they are not ‘debtors’ to the flesh, and this word (opheiletēs) is the one he used also in 1:14 to refer to his obligations to Greeks and barbarians. The word was used at that time to refer to social obligations that bound people to one another. These obligations were extensive, so they pertained even in family relationships and friendships. Living up to those obligations determined one’s honor and reputation.”

[x] Heaner, Romans, 141. “Their allegiance to the dominion of the Spirit presets them with a new set of obligations—not obligations of slave to master but rather the obligations of joint heirs because of the common adopted status.”

[xi] Heaner, Romans, 142. “The passive ‘be glorified’ indicates that glory is not ours to be won, but rather it is God’s to give.”

[xii] Heaner, Romans, 142. “Suffering comes before glory.”

[xiii] LW 25:363 “And because of man the whole creation has become vanity, even though unwillingly.”

[xiv] Heaner, Romans, 145. “So creation expects and longs to participate in the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Hope for humans and hope for creation are interdependent.”

[xv] Heaner, Romans, 148. “We do not have to settle for the brokenness and injustice that we see, but we may reveal through our actions the alternative way of being in the world that God already makes possible.”

[xvi] Heaner, Romans, 143. “If the glory is revealed to ‘us,’ who are the children of God, and then we the children are revealed to creation, then the glory that is revealed to the children is also revealed in or through the children as they reflect the glory of God.”

[xvii] Heaner, Romans, 144. “As the gospel spreads, the children of God become known, and they reflect God’s glory, which is not like the glory sought in hierarchical social relationships.”

[xviii] LW 25:364…love transforms the lover into the beloved. Thus hope changes the one who hopes into what is hoped for, but what is hoped for does not appear. Therefore hope transfers him into the unknown, the hidden, and the dark shadow, so that he does not even know what he hopes for, and yet, he knows what he does not hope for. Thus the soul has become hope and at the same time the thing hoped for, because it resides in that which it does not see, that is, in hope.

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What Now?: Simul Justus et Peccator

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

The last two Sundays we’ve covered Paul’s argument in Romans 6 that leed to his prohibitions against returning to sin and the life of the old person who is persuaded by the ways of the kingdom of humanity and exhortations to the believers in Rome to pursue the reign of God, to actively present themselves for service in God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation. Believers, according to the logic of chapter 6, are not defined by their works of the law in attempts to self-justify; rather, they are justified by God’s grace which is given to them when they assert and affirm (by faith) that what God says about them is true. In this exchange based on faith, the believer finds themselves forgiven and justified, the law fulfilled on their behalf by Christ and divine righteousness given of which the Spirit is a deposit and confirmation. The believer is, again by faith, united to God in such a way that they are grafted and grown together with Christ; thus, any attempt to return would result in a maiming and marring of the believer who would have to amputate themselves from the vine. For Paul, to go and seek one’s justification by own’s own accord and deeds is the basis of sin (which is founded in unbelief, not believing God is trustworthy and truthful) and is anathema for believers who have identified with Christ in his death and thus identify (and will identify) with Christ is in his life and resurrection. Believers are not justified by the law but by faith and therein receive the law fulfilled and are liberated—in accord with the law of love—to now go love the neighbor to the glory of God without needing to use the neighbor as a means to an end.

Sin, for believers and according to Romans 6, is a present reality but not one that controls them, for they are now no longer enslaved to sin and its impulses, its domination and control. Believers are now voluntarily enslaved to God’s reign through faith in Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit; they are not their own (and, in fact, never have been!). What is important to retain from the past two Sundays is that, according to Paul, due to the encounter with God in the event of faith, believers—those who follow Jesus out of the Jordan and to the Cross—are no longer willing participants in the death, indifference, and captivity of the kingdom of humanity (no longer can they uphold and promote any institution and structure, ideology or authority that intentionally promotes these things). Rather they are Christ’s representatives who participate in bringing divine love, life, and liberation to God’s beloved, the neighbor and this brings God glory. But this does not mean they are sinless as if they will never sin again. They are still human creatures in need of intervention and disruption, and this is what the passage from Romans 7 tells us…

Romans 7:15-25a

Paul writes, For I do not know understand/cannot judge that which I accomplish[ii]. For I practice not that which I desire but I do this thing which I hate (v15). In humility, Paul uses himself as an example of the tension of being simul justus et peccator (simultaneously justified and sinner).[iii] No matter how much education and training any of us have—including clergy—we are not exempt from the tension we live in as new persons striving against the old person. For Paul, sin isn’t just some detached external act or something that lacks power, it is a force that can dominate and it must be resisted because it is actively prowling about looking to devour and dominate. Paul emphasizes the tension between the failure of the outer person to align with the inner (regenerate) person. This tension Paul emphasizes highlights a greater reality that the law is necessary and good, as Paul says, But if I do this which I do not desire, I concede to the law that [it is] good (v16). While Paul has articulated earlier that the law brings the trespass and this surely cannot be good, it is. (Theologically) In the discrepancy between the inner desire and the outer doing of the opposite, our need is exposed: we are brought to the end of ourselves and in need of a mediator through whom we can align the outer person with the inner person so that the desired thing is the thing that is done thus not hated but loved. Also, (Civically), failure to do that which is desired and opting for that which is hated leads us to conclude that law is needed so that we do that which desired even if we do it (internally) kicking and screaming and obeying the law (even in letter only) can maintain peace and order and keeps evil at bay while protecting the upright. And in this concession (both theologically and civically) we see that the problem isn’t the law; the problem is us.[iv]

Paul explains further about the inner/outer tension highlighting the role sin is playing (even in the new life of the regenerate),

But now I, I no longer accomplish this thing but that which dwells within me: sin. For I have perceived that good does not dwell within me, that is there in my flesh. For it is easy[v]/close at hand for me to desire, but not to accomplish the good. For I do not do the good I desire, but the evil that which I do not desire this I do. Now if I do not do that which I desire, I, I no longer accomplish this thing but that which dwells in me: sin (vv17-20).

Here Paul is highlighting that the tension between the new person/the inner nature and the old person/the outer nature is provoked by the misalignment between the two. Using the term “flesh,” Paul speaks of the part of the person that is in the world (the outer nature) and most prone to wanting to conform to the will of the kingdom of humanity rather than the will of God (the old person), which causes a the tension between the inner and outer, the new and old, the justus and peccator. Paul is not making a distinction between the good soul and the bad body;[vi] rather it is one person who is torn in two[vii] as the battle wages on through the will and flesh, through the mind and heart and the muscle memory of the body,[viii] through the self.[ix] This is why Paul centers that there is another at work here: sin;[x] sin (the domination and power of) is at work creating the discrepancy between what is desired (the good) and what is actually done (the evil).[xi] It is not enough to be educated in the good, the head and the heart can know all about the good but the *actual* doing of the good is something altogether different.[xii] As the colloquialism goes, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” (This also explains why things like sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, ableism, etc., all, sadly, still exist.) This is why Paul can then say, Therefore, I find a law for me when desiring to do the good that for me the evil is easy/close at hand (v21). Sin and its domination and power reside in the person while good is external, it is outside the body, thus evil is easier or closer at hand to do. Just like the nervous system preferring a familiar hell to an unknown heaven, that which is easier to do is more comforting for a body eager to use the least amount of energy to do anything. To know the good and to do it are not only two different things, but it also demands a lot of energy and fortitude for the knowing to become the doing.[xiii] In fact, it takes external intervention and disruption of the self and the domination of sin. [xiv]

Conclusion

Thus why Paul then writes,

For I rejoice in the law of God according to the inner person, but I see in my limbs another law waging war against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity by the law of sin which dwells in my limbs. Miserable person I am! Who will deliver me out of this body of death? Grace/thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (vv22-25a).

The necessary intervention and needed disruption to help bring the outer person into alignment with the inner person is no one else but the mediator Jesus Christ of Nazareth, this man who is God. When/ever we come into an encounter with God in the event of faith in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we begin our journey through this tension and we receive a Spirit (the Divine Spirit) that brings the good—Jesus himself—closer to us than it ever was before (though not to such an extent that we not no longer sin[xv]…we still prefer to do that which is easy and comfortable).[xvi] In that Jesus—the good himself—is closer to us through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we receive directly the mercy, forgiveness, love and grace of God (which is the fullness of good in the inner person) apart from/despite our external deeds. This spiritual reality, then, helps us to labor to bring the outer person in line with the justified and righteous inner person so that the good can be sought and done in the temporal realm for the wellbeing of the neighbor and to the glory of God.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] LW 25:64. “This ‘doing’ means not to fulfill our duty, but to try to do so and to desire to do so. Therefore he also distinguishes ‘to do’ (facere) and ‘to accomplish’ (perficere) (v.18).”

[iii] LW 25:339. V 17 “Therefore sin remains in the spiritual man for the exercise of grace, for the humbling of pride, for the repression of presumptuousness. For he who does not earnestly strive to drive out sin certainly still possesses it, even if he had not committed any further sin for which he might be condemned. For we are not called to ease, but to a struggle against our passions, which would not be without guilt…if the mercy of God did not refrain from imputing to us.”

[iv] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 126-127. “Because the law is holy and just and good, it is ‘spiritual,’ that is, it is of the Spirit, or of God. If sin is able to use the law to bring death, it is not because there is a problem with the law. Rather the problem is in ourselves.”

[v] LW 25:339. “Therefore he who comes to confession should not think that he is laying down his burden so that he may lead a quiet life, but he should know that by putting down his burden he fights as a soldier of God and thus takes on another burden for God in opposition to the devil and to his own personal faults.”

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 127-128. Sin dwells in me/nothing good in me (vv17-18) “Paul’s point, though, is something different. Although he is talking about the self, he is not talking about the nature of human beings—what we essentially are. Rather, he is talking about where sin resides, and therefore where it exercises its control.”

[vii] LW 25:339. “Moreover, we must note that the apostle does not wish to be understood as saying that the flesh and spirit are two separate entities, as it were, but one whole, just as wound and the flesh are one. For although the wound is something by itself , and the flesh is another thing, yet because the wound and the flesh are one , and because the wound is nothing else than wounded or wakened flesh, we can attribute to the flesh the properties of the wound.”

[viii] Lancaster, Romans, 127. “‘Flesh’ conveys what it is like not to be oriented to God but to be oriented to the world without reference to God. This problem surely embodies the world without reference to God. This problem surely embodies itself in some way, but the problem is not the body. Being ‘of the flesh,’ Paul says, is having been ‘sold into slavery under sin.’ Paul is not concerned to explain how or why one gets sold into this slavery; he only describes the condition itself.”

[ix] Lancaster, Romans, 128. “Although a universal power, sin does not rule from a distance or exert its power in some diffused, impersonal way. Sin lives within the self, so its control of the self is near and personal. Because good does not live within the self, it is not in control of the self.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 127. “The explanation for this contradiction is that it is not ‘I’ or the self that is the controlling agent but sin (7:17).”

[xi] Lancaster, Romans, 127. “Living under the dominion of sin involves a deep and confusing contradiction, namely not doing what one wants but what one hates (7:15).”

[xii] Lancaster, Romans, 127. Ancient idea that reason keeps passions in order and if it knows the good it does the good, “Knowing what was truly good, then, should lead to doing what was good. Paul, though, points out that knowing what is good does not always lead to doing what is good.”

[xiii] Lancaster, Romans, 128. “…sin rather than good resides in the self, so evil rather than the good ‘lies close at hand’ (7:21). Because it is so close, it is much easier to grasp and implement what sin wants instead of what the law directs. So even if one delights in the law…and studies it regularly with the intention of learning from it, and keeping it, the self is in conflict—wanting to enact the goodness of the law but under the control of sin. So even if one knows the good intellectually (with the mind) one may not carry out the good (with the members of the body). What one actually puts into practice is in conflict with what one knows to be right.”

[xiv] Lancaster, Romans, 128. “Trapped in this way, the self is miserable. Furthermore, sin is so strong that it is not possible for the will to resolve itself out of the problem. The self needs to be rescued from it. Jesus Christ is, of course, the deliverer, and Paul thanks God for him (7:24-25).”

[xv] LW 25:64. “He uses the term ‘sin’ because according to blessed Augustine although in Baptism there is forgiveness as far as the guilt is concerned, yet it remains in fact and again turns us toward sin.”

[xvi] LW 25:63. “God in Christ restores man as created and cleanses corrupted man of his guilt immediately and of his weakness gradually.”

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What Now?: Liberated Unto Life and Love

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Last week we looked at Romans 6:1-11 and saw how Paul, using baptism and faith, demonstrates that we cannot voluntarily re-yoke ourselves to sin and the death, indifference, and captivity of the kingdom of humanity. We are grown together with Christ in both his death and, thus, his resurrection through our identification by faith with Christ (and his death thus his resurrection). Being grown together provokes the imagery of grafting: we are grafted onto the branch of Jesse who is Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, this man who is God. For us who are justified with God by faith in Christ apart from deeds by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are forbidden from using our new spiritual liberation in a way that participates in furthering indifference, death, and captivity (intentionally); as those who are justified, we are not grafted onto and drafted into God’s mission of the divine revolution of love, life, and liberation for the neighbor to the glory of God.

Here, in the second half of Romans 6, we get our second μὴ γένοιτο! Also, we receive Paul’s profound insights about what it means to be the recipients of divine liberation as those who believe. We are not, according to Paul, free to return to our old ways and old patterns and the patterns of the kingdom of humanity. We are enslaved to God’s righteousness made known in Christ and proclaimed and promoted by the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, in the second half of chapter 6, we see that our liberation in and with God is a liberation that sets us on a different path from our society and culture: we are liberated from ourselves for others and not from others for ourselves. We are not our own, we are God’s beloved children, siblings of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit and are, thusly, drafted into God’s divine mission and heavenly revolution, on earth as it is in heaven.

Romans 6:12-23

Based on what was written in vv 1-11, Paul begins the second half of Romans 6 with two prohibitions and a command/exhortation,

Therefore do not let sin be ruler in your mortal body for the purpose of subordinating it to its various[ii] impulses, and do not present your limbs as offensive weapons of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as living out of death and your limbs as offensive weapons of righteousness for God (vv12-13).

For Paul, and based on what he explained above in vv1-11, the logical conclusion of being liberated from sin is not a backward movement but a forward trajectory where the entire person (limbs and all) is used to bring glory to God in the world. Rather than using one’s liberation and limbs for destruction and death, the Christian, for Paul, is liberated to act both defensively and offensively in and for construction and life. By refusing sin to rule in the mortal body, the corresponding sinful impulses are quieted and are refused opportunity to find footing[iii] (defense); by presenting oneself as the living and being rescued from death, the believer can use their limbs as weapons for the glory of God[iv] (offense).[v]

Thus, why Paul then says, For your sin will not rule [unless you let it[vi]] over [you], for you are not under law but under grace (v14). Here, Paul quickly correlates his earliest arguments in Romans to his argument here about the relationship of the believer to the old sinful person. As the believer is no longer defined by obedience to the law but rather is defined by God’s gift of grace received by faith, so, too, is the believer defined not by sin and its rule and impulses but by the power of God living in them by faith[vii] anchoring them to the ground of the living.[viii] The law, in and through Christ’s death and resurrection, has been put back in its proper place: not as a divine tool to condemn humans, but as a divine gift for humans to use to love their neighbor and bring glory to God (original intent); as the law is put back in its place and stripped of its power to condemn, sin itself loses ground because sin thrives where humans are convinced they are justified by the law and their own deeds and not by God’s word of promise and faith clinging to the promise.[ix]

This is why Paul then says,

What then? Should we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Hell/ck no! Have you not perceived that if any of you present yourself [as] obedient slaves, you are slaves whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness [through faith]? Now, thanks be to God that you were slaves of sin but you obeyed out of [your] hearts toward that which you were handed over to according to the rule of the gospel; now being liberated from sin, you were brought under subjection for righteousness (vv15-18)

In other words, what Paul is saying here, is that the Christian, though liberated is not an autonomous person—meaning, the believer is not a law unto themselves, liberated to do whatever they want to do at whatever expense to their neighbor and to God’s glory. Taking a cue from Martin Luther and his treatise, The Freedom of a Christian, the Christian is liberated from themselves for others/their neighbor to the glory of God. This notion rubs against the orientation of the person in the kingdom of humanity who believes that they are liberated from others/their neighbor for themselves. For Paul, there is no such thing as a liberation unto the self that is liberation in the true sense. Either you are a slave of sin and are free to serve sin and death, or you are a slave of God (righteousness) and are free to serve God and life. The language Paul uses in these verses highlights that there is no neutral ground here[x] and there is no blank slate; for Paul, you are either serving sin or you are serving righteousness, you are voluntarily selling yourself into slavery to sin or voluntarily selling yourself into slavery to righteousness, [xi] you are either being molded by sin or molded by the gospel[xii] and being made more Christlike,[xiii] an argument that is both highly logical and contemporary to his context (which is why Paul then says, I am speaking in a way common to humans… (v19a) and follows with a re-exhortation[xiv] toward active participation in righteousness and away from active participation in unrighteousness (v19b-c).

Wrapping up chapter 6, Paul writes,

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free/unrestrained for (had no claim to) righteousness. So then what fruit did you have at that time about which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things [is] death. But now after being liberated from sin being brought under subjection to God the fruit you have [is] sanctification, and the end [is] eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the favor/grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (vv20-23)

Paul presses home the point, when we are slaves to sin, we have no claim[xv] to divine righteousness and find ourselves molded to sin and its various impulses and held captive by its ruling over us (a rule ending in eternal death).[xvi] However, when we are liberated from sin by faith to be formed by the Gospel of God into Christlikeness where we receive divine eternal life.[xvii],[xviii] This means that believers, who are now slaves of God and of divine righteousness, serve the reign of God and reject the things of the kingdom of humanity that promote sin, its impulses, and its wage: indifference, captivity, and death (now and in the future).[xix] Believers, as those who have been handed over to the incarnate Word of God and are being formed by the law of love and the gospel, are forever altered,[xx] unable, according to Paul, to turn back to a life of upholding the status quo, supporting systems and ideologies that thrive in fear and anger, and promoting institutions and structures that promote death.[xxi]

Conclusion

We are free and liberated by faith and God’s grace revealed in Christ Jesus, this man who is God. However, we are not liberated unto autonomy or ease[xxii]; liberation from sin and death unto righteousness and life puts a “claim” on us,[xxiii] puts a demand on us: the law of love. Being encountered by Divine Love, reborn from Divine Love, and nourished and sustained by Divine Love means that this Divine Love puts a demand on us because Divine Love can acknowledge the demand and the claim and meet the Beloved there in the midst. To follow Christ is to endure the trial of the journey out of the Jordan to the Cross; Christians who are disciples of Christ will have lives decorated with the accolades of death and resurrection, of self-sacrifice and self-receiving, of solidarity and identity with the neighbor (esp. the oppressed). Daily the Christian will, by the grace and mercy of God, take a long hard look in the mirror, confess their complicity and captivity to the ways of the kingdom of humanity, and then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, try to be different in this world, as one scholar put it, “Being under grace, then, places us under continuing revolutionary struggle,”[xxiv] privately and publicly, just as it was for Christ—the one who was truly liberated from himself for the wellbeing of the entire world.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 110. “Epithumia could include desire for many pleasurable things, including food and comfort. The control of desire was n important topic of reflection in the ancient world that resulted over time in identifying many types of passions that could get out f control Anger and fear, for instance, could be as powerful as lust.”

[iii] Lancaster, Romans, 111. “Spiritual well-being has to include freedom from the temptations into which the passions lead us. With no passions, sin cannot find a place to enter.”

[iv] LW 25:320 “Thus the apostle wants to say that the members of the body must not be surrendered to ‘sin,’ that is, to evil lust and to the tinder of sin, for in obeying sin they become weapons of unbelief, and out of believers they make unbelievers in that they perform the orks of unbelievers according to the lusts of sin. But we must obey God, in order that ‘our members may be instruments of righteousness to God’ …that is of the life of faith and life.”

[v] Lancaster, Romans, 110. “If Paul’s concern about epithumia is limited to sex, we will miss the many ways that sin threatens to take control of our bodies. He reminds us that by being set free from sin, we no longer have to let those desires rule our lives. In fact, we are expected to present ourselves to God, thereby accepting God’s dominion of grace and receiving God’s grace to resist their controlling power. “

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 114. “Never our own masters, we must choose whom to serve—sin or righteousness.”

[vii] LW 25:316 “Therefore sin has dominion over all those who are under the Law…For he who is without Christ is still in his sins, even if he does good works.”

[viii] Lancaster, Romans, 111. “Grace exerts shattering power as it makes the old person die so that the new person can live.”

[ix] LW 25:316 “For those people understand the expression ‘to be under the Law’ as being the same as having a law according to which one must live. But the apostle understands the words ‘to be under the Law’ as equivalent to not fulfilling the Law, as being guilty of disobeying the Law, as being a debtor and a transgressor, in that the Law has the power of accusing and damning a person and lording it over him, but it does not have the power to enable him to satisfy the Law or overcome it. And thus as long as the law rules, sin also has dominion and holds man captive.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 117. “We see that our choice is between death and life, with no middle ground.”

[xi] Lancaster, Romans, 114. “It was common for a person to sell oneself into slavery for economic reasons or event for eventual social advancement if serving someone of high social importance. This voluntary practice of putting oneself into servitude lies behind Paul’s explanation about presenting oneself as an obedience slave (6:16).”

[xii] LW 25:317 “For the wisdom of the flesh is opposed to the Word of God, but the Word of God is immutable and insuperable. Therefore it is necessary that the wisdom of the flesh be changed and that it give up its form and take on the form of the Word. This takes place when through faith it takes itself captive and strips off its own crown, conforms itself to the Word, and believes the Word to be true and itself to be false.”

[xiii] Lancaster, Romans, 115. “In other words, along with the enslavement image is also an image of being molded into the likeness of Christ. Obeideicne, then, is allowing oneself to be poured into the teaching, and so take the shape of Christ. Modern minds may find it easer to embrace this image than one of slavery.”

[xiv] LW 25:321 “For through the terms ‘sanctification’ and ‘cleanness’ he is trying to convey the same concept namely, that the body should be pure, but no with just any kind of purity, but with that which comes form within, from the spirit of sanctifying faith.”

[xv] Lancaster, Romans, 116. “The only freedom we have in the dominion of sin is freedom from righteousness: that is, freedom from being in right standing with God.”

[xvi] LW 25:53fn12 “That ‘sin reigns’ and ‘to obey’ sin is to consent to and do what sin desires.”

[xvii] LW 25:54fn16 “That is, you have been delivered from the form of error into the form of the Gospel…For the Word is not changed, but we are, and we yield to Him…For ‘the Word became flesh,’ so that we might be made the Word.”

[xviii] Lancaster, Romans, 116. “if we obey sin we get what we deserve: our wages are death. If we obey God, we receive God’s free gift, grace, which bring us into the relationship with God that means eternal life.”

[xix] Lancaster, Romans, 116. “If honor and shame are connected to social status, and if faith in Jesus Christ overturns the usual standards for honor and shame, then their participation in the entire social system is something to be ashamed of. A system of exploitation that assigns personal value hierarchically and treats those on the lower end of that scale as worthless is s a system of death.”

[xx] Lancaster, Romans, 116-117. “Living in the dominion of grace obedient to righteousness calls for a completely different way of life.”

[xxi] Lancaster, Romans, 116. “The followers of Jesus may not fully be extricated form that system, but where once they participated without questioning the system, now they are ashamed of it. Where once these followers of Jesus may have worked dot position themselves as high on the scale as they could, perhaps treating those below them poorly in order to get an advantage of over them, now they understand how pointless and harmful that behavior is.”

[xxii] Lancaster, Romans, 117. “Being under grace does not give Christians an easy life. Instead, grace puts us under pressure between its promise and its demand.”

[xxiii] Lancaster, Romans, 117. “The very power that affirms us also makes claims on us.”

[xxiv] Lancaster, Romans, 117.

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What Now?: New Creatures by God’s Grace

“‘Dear Lord God, I wish to preach in your honor. I wish to speak about you, glorify you, praise your name. Although I can’t do this well of myself, I pray that you may make it good.’”[i]

Introduction

Continuing with our journey through Romans, we find ourselves in the first half of chapter 6. Here, Paul is addressing claims coming from the Roman church, specifically claims that if believers sin more than God’s grace abounds more. Paul is clear here, while we are justified by faith apart from works, we must not intentionally pursue sinful behaviors that drag and disrupt God’s revolution of the divine mission of love, life, and liberation in the world for the well-being of the neighbor to the glory of God. (Plus, we will have enough unintentional sin in our lives, we don’t need to pursue it!) We are, according to Paul, new creatures born of the waters of Baptism and are now defined by love, life, and liberation, and therefore voluntarily re-yoking ourselves to that which is indifference, that which is death, that which is captivity is not only anathema but also cut off.  

Romans 6:1b-11

Paul begins with a refutation of what is considered (by some scholars[ii]) to be a quotation from some at Rome, What then will we say? May we continue to sin, with the result that grace might superabound? Hell/ck no! We who have died to sin, how will we still live in it? (vv1-2). The question Paul asks in return is the driving theme of the chapter. It is also, especially for us, a crucial question for those who are justified by faith apart from works. Rather than the event of justification being a license to intentionally sin, it is an exhortation to live a new life. It is a gift given to be enjoyed—this is what the incarnate word is. Remember, back in chapter four, Paul gave a crystal-clear explanation of the gospel summarized by the events of Christ’s death and resurrection, [Jesus] was handed over for the sake of our trespasses and was raised for the sake of our acquittal/being pronounced justified/righteous (4:25). If we claim to believe in Christ, then we’ve come to the end of ourselves and have entered union with God by the power of the Holy Spirit. To intentionally return to the behaviors of the kingdom of humanity is to deny this belief and faith, it is to deny Christ and what Christ achieved for us because it is contrary to the very grace of God.[iii] In a sense, the claim Paul refutes makes God’s grace a human endeavor; for Paul, this is a μὴ γένοιτο! In the economy of God’s activity in the world and, especially, toward humanity, emphasis cannot fall on humans sinning to bring God’s grace. Rather, it must fall on God’s gracious activity in giving us God’s grace. Those who have been saved from the life of the dead are ushered into the life of the living and there’s no going back and certainly no human-centered way to make God’s grace abound more than it already is in Christ by the power of the Spirit. This is why Paul can then write,

Or are you ignorant that whosoever of us was baptized into Christ Jesus we were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from death by the glory of Abba God, even as also we might walk in the newness of life (vv3-4).

Paul then explains more,

For if we have become grown together with [Jesus] in the likeness of his death, but also we will be [grown together with him in the likeness of his] resurrection. Knowing this that our old person was crucified together with [Christ] so that the body of sin might be abolished, so that we are no longer a slave to sin, for the one who dies has been declared to be righteous from sin (vv5-7).

Paul anchors the believer’s new life not in the old life and person of the kingdom of humanity, but in the new person who is of the reign of God and who identifies (by faith) with Christ’s death and resurrection. This new person is born from the trifold dipping of Christian baptism, marking the fullness of the invested Godhead and our identification with Christ in the tomb.[iv] For Paul, this is all the believer needs to cling to. The believer does not need to take matters into their own hands and cause God’s grace to manifest; God’s grace is (already) made manifest in their lives (in its fullness) because they believe. Now, it is also shared out and into the world as they proceed to live into their resurrected new life and leave the old person and body of sin to the kingdom of humanity (like: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead” Mt. 8:22, Lk. 9:60). These ones are grown together with (bonded to) Christ,[v] just as they were previously bonded to and grown together with sin and the old person. Therefore, they cannot return to the old way, old life, and old person. Again, Paul is refuting any notion that believers must return to sin to make God’s grace abound; the believer causes God’s grace to abound in the world as they live into their new life by the power of the Spirit and by faith in Christ and in union with God.[vi] (But they cannot cause God’s grace to become more present in their own lives than it already is by returning to sin.) Thus, believers become midwives of God’s grace by God’s grace and are encouraged and exhorted to go further and deeper into the world bringing God’s love and grace to all, especially the oppressed. Anyone who identifies with Christ by faith and baptism has identified with Christ in his death and will identify with him in his resurrection; herein is our justification: for the one who dies is declared righteous from sin. Sin is no longer in control and no longer boss (so, too, the law[vii]); God is now in charge of this new life, and Paul exhorts the Romans to live as such going forward and not backward. Saying,

Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. Knowing that Christ, being raised from death, dies no longer, death no longer rules him. For he, he died, once for all he, he died to sin; but he, he lives, he, he lives to God. And in this way, you, you reckon yourselves to be dead to sin and living to/for God in Christ Jesus (vv8-11).

Conclusion

For Paul,[viii] Christ is the sacrament[ix]; it is Christ with whom we identify in both the waters of baptism and in the broken bread of the eucharist. It is not that water and bread are significant in themselves, but through them we come into contact with the dead and risen Christ; in partaking in these sacraments we identify in Christ’s three-day death and in his body broken; and as we identify so here, we can and will identify with Christ in his new life and bodily resurrection (today and tomorrow, present and future).[x] Further, to identify with Christ in his death—sacramentally and spiritually—means that we, too, like Christ our elder brother, are caused to be dead to sin, as in, sin no longer has dominion over us,[xi] eternal death,[xii] too, is rendered impotent for those who believe. (Because of Christ, death is dead, captivity is held captive, and indifference has met is own cold fate.[xiii],[xiv]) Sin’s stain and its consequence, death, are forever removed from the life of the believer;[xv] they are new creatures[xvi] (forever and daily[xvii]) no longer defined by sin but by God’s grace, no longer under the dominion of sin but under the reign of Christ.[xviii] No longer defined by death, but by life; no longer defined by captivity, but liberation; no longer defined by indifference but by love.[xix] We do not need to return…Nay! We cannot return to the sinful existence of the old person, of the kingdom of humanity; [xx] for God’s grace enters in anew every morning with God’s mercy.

Thus, we walk in all this newness, on the move because the Christian life is on the move because it is defined by Christ the gospel, defined by God and God’s Holy Spirit all of whom are always on the move looking for and seeking the beloved.[xxi]As those who identify with Christ by faith, we also identify with whom he identified: the lost, the unheard, the unvoiced, the ignored, the pushed off and pushed aside, the ones the society of the kingdom of humanity has deemed unworthy of love.

[i] LW 54:157-158; Table Talk 1590.

[ii] Martin Luther Lectures on Romans: Glosses and Scholia (1515/1516) LW 25 Ed. Hilton C. Oswald (Saint Louis: Concordia, 1972), 50. “…as falsifiers understand the passage, when they say, ‘Let us do evil,’ that is, let us commit sin, ‘That good may come’ (Rom. 3:8), that is, that grace may abound.”

[iii] LW 25: 50. “By no means, because this idea is absolutely contrary to the work of grace,..”

[iv] LW 25: 50-51. “…the threefold dipping of Baptism signifies the three-day death period and the burial of Christ, into Christ Jesus, that is, by faith in Christ Jesus…”

[v] Sarah Heaner Lancaster, Romans, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, eds. Amy Plantinga Pauw and William C. Placher (Louisville: WJK, 2015), 108. “The kind of participation that baptism makes possible is an incorporation into Christ that is a secure joining for a thorough sharing, a kind of bonding.”

[vi] Lancaster, Romans, 107. “For Paul, baptism is s a clear sign of leaving the dominion of sin and entering the dominion of grace.”

[vii] LW 25: 308. “But he over whom sin reigns, no matter how he resists sin, is still under the Law and not under grace.”

[viii] LW 25: 310. “thus in this passage the apostle is speaking of the death and resurrection of Christ insofar as they refer to the sacrament, but not to the example.”

[ix] LW 25: 309. “For having put on our mortal flesh and dying only in it and rising only in it, now only in it He joins these things together for us, for in this flesh He became a sacrament for the inner man and an example for the outward man.”

[x] Lancaster, Romans, 108. “By being buried with Jesus, we are made participants not only in his death but also in his resurrection. To be united with him in death means also being united with him in resurrection (6:5).”

[xi] Lancaster, Romans, 107. “[Paul] describes sin’s power as ruling power; sin has dominion over us, enslaving us to its purposes and exercising influence over us as a kind of lordship. When we are under the lordship of sin, we are bound to submit to its influence.”

[xii] LW 25: 310. “Eternal death is also twofold. The one kind is good, very good.it is the death of sin and the death of death, by which the soul is released and separated from sin and the body is separated from corruption and through grace and glory is joined to the living God. This is death in the most proper sense of the word, for in all other forms of death something remains that is mixed with life, but not in this kind of death, where there is the purest life alone, because it is eternal life.”

[xiii] LW 25: 311. “Just as the death of death means to act against death, which is the same things as life, so the sin of sin is righteousness.”

[xiv] LW 25: 311. “Because for death to be killed means that death will not return, and ‘to take captivity captive’ means that captivity will never return, a concept which cannot be expressed through an affirmative assertion.”

[xv] LW 25: 310. “This is the way sin dies; and likewise the sinner, when he is justified, because sin will not return again for all eternity, as the apostles says here [v9]…”

[xvi] LW 25: 313. “The term ‘old man’ describes what kind of person is born of Adam, not according to his nature but according to the defect of his nature. For his nature is good, but the defect is evil.”

[xvii] LW 25: 314. “The meaning is that we must undergo this spiritual death only once. For whoever dies thus lives for all eternity. Therefore we must not return to our sin in order to die to sin again.”

[xviii] Lancaster, Romans, 107-108. “Those who have died to sin because they have been baptized into Jesus’ death. By participating in the death of Jesus, the follower of Jesus is dying to the lordship of sin and accepting the lordship of Christ.”

[xix] Lancaster, Romans, 108-109. “Dying to sin means that a person dies to an old way of life, and participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus means that a person enters a new way of life. The one who was crucified conquered death, and because we share in his victory, we are no longer enslaved to sin….The proper commitment to the new dominion in which we are privileged to live is to give up sin and live for God.”

[xx] Lancaster, Romans, 107. “To follow Jesus Christ means leaving the dominion of sin and living in the dominion of grace. If that is the case, then the follower of Jesus can no longer do the bidding of sin. By changing dominions, a person has changed lords and loyalties.”

[xxi] Lancaster, Romans, 109. “…new life in Christ is not static…Rather to walk in newness of life means to be on the move, to be ever attentive to what it means to live to God and to exercise our allegiance daily.”

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