CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
The underlying theme of these chapters is that the Christian life is a new life—complete ‘newness of life’, in fact (6:4). Christians are indeed Men Made New. And each chapter contributes another feature to the portrait.
To begin with, ‘we have peace with God.' We were enemies, but we have been reconciled. We live in a state of grace, in the favour of God, under His smile. And we rejoice in our confident expectation of the final glory.
Next, we have been united with Christ in His death and resurrection. This is what our baptism signified. The benefits of His death and the power of His resurrection are now ours because we are His.
Then also, we are freed from the dreadful tyranny of the law. Our relationship to God does not depend on our slavish obedience to rules and regulations. In Christ we are now under grace. This is the liberty with which Christ has set us free.
At the same time, we have the Holy Spirit Himself dwelling within us. And although we are no longer under obligation to keep the law to win our salvation, yet, having been saved, the righteous requirements of the law are fulfilled in us by the inward power of the Spirit. The same Spirit, who sanctifies us, also witnesses deep inside us that we are God’s children, and helps us in our prayers.
And finally, we know that nothing can hinder the outworking of God’s eternal purpose for us, or separate us from His unfailing love in Christ. One of the greatest of all Christian privileges is this knowledge of our absolute security amid the vicissitudes of life.
For these vicissitudes are many. There are tribulations inflicted by a hostile, unbelieving world. There is ‘the flesh’, the fallen nature which remains in the regenerate, ‘sin which dwells within me’, which dogs our footsteps, causing us to bemoan our wretchedness and to cry out for deliverance. There are also the sufferings to which we are prone as a part of the whole creation ‘groaning in travail together’. External persecution, inward moral corruption, bodily frailty— these are our abiding problems. For all our privilege as Christians, we do not escape these.
If our Christian privilege does not insure us against these trials, it does not exempt us from obligations either. On the contrary, ‘we are debtors’ (8:12). Having become united to Christ in His death and resurrection, we must live the new life to which we have risen. Having yielded ourselves to God as His slaves, we must obey Him. Having received the Spirit, we must walk according to the Spirit. Having been given life, we must put to death all that is inconsistent with it.
Indeed, the more clearly we grasp the greatness of our Christian privilege, as Men Made New, the greater will be our Christian obligation to live accordingly, ‘in newness of life’, and the keener will be our longing to do so.