THE NEW LIFE
THE NEW LIFE
ROMANS 6:1-4
“So if God forgives sin, then why don’t I sin all the more?” Read this passage to discover Paul’s response.
Singlemindedly Paul has pursued his argument of sin and grace. The sharper the conviction of sin, the deeper the realization of grace, has been his argument. And now the imagined objector steps in subtly or perversely: “If that is so, the more we sin, the greater the grace given in forgiveness.” A temptation for the theologian is the verbal quibble. Exploring the infinite with finite words, forgetting the living, present reality of God in formulating propositions about him, people have been reduced to strange dilemmas.
Paul knew that he would face such quibbles in Rome. He had, no doubt, already met them elsewhere. That is the background to this passage, the swift refutation, and the great statement about union with a living Christ. Baptism is presented as a symbol of death and burial. In the catacombs both fonts and baptistries are to be found, and the mode of baptism would appear to have been dictated by the amount of water available.
On the other hand, the Jew knew only baptism by immersion. Such was John’s baptism in the Jordan. At Masada a baptistry has been discovered and, to the gratification of orthodox Jewry, the rock-hewn tank holds precisely the amount defined by rabbinical regulations as enough completely to cover someone. Such was the baptism a Gentile convert to Judaism knew. This is the background of Paul’s use of the figure and the ritual for the Christian’s “burial with Christ,” and his resurrection to a new mode of life.
This passage shows us that a person who has been put right with God cannot be isolated from Christ, who is his life. Such a person cannot be considered apart from their possession in Christ of a new possibility, a new power, a new and glorious call to living holiness. (Text adapted from Handley Moule, Expositor’s Bible, 5.556.)