Romans 6:1b-11 (NRSV)
Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2 By
no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you
not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into his death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism
into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will
certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know
that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be
destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For whoever
has died is freed from sin. 8 But if we have died with Christ, we
believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ,
being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion
over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but
the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider
yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Romans 6:1b-11
has the theme of baptism, sin, death, life, and being “in Christ.” Paul is
facing the harsh reality that human beings find it difficult to change. In fact,
they may find it difficult to recognize they need to change. Even when they
know they must change for their own good, they will not do so. Paul is being
the spiritual healer here, offering the divine prescription for what ails
humanity. A person asked Socrates why
it was that Alcibiades, who was so rich, so brilliant and so able a public
official and general, who had traveled so much, and seen so much of the world,
was nevertheless such an unhappy man. Socrates replied, “Because wherever he
goes Alcibiades takes himself with him.” Such is the plight of each of us. We carry
the prison of our past with us wherever we go. We can turn our fight
against evil and for good into an evil, as Nel Noddings in Women and Evil points out, “We do evil in the name of some
overriding good, usually, paradoxically, the conquest of evil.” W. H. Auden
said it well in his poem, Epilogue to The Age of Anxiety:
We would rather be ruined than
changed,
We would rather die in dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
Change does require a moment or event in our lives that
stands out from the rest. We need to recognize the power of the
self-destructive forces in our lives. A song written by Nicholas Orain Lowe and
sung by Johnny Cash sums up the problem we face. The title is, "The Beast
In Me."
The beast in me
Is caged by frail and fragile bars
Restless by day
And by night rants and rages at the stars
God help the beast in me
The beast in me
Has had to learn to live with pain
And how to shelter from the rain
And in the twinkling of an eye
Might have to be restrained
God help the beast in me
Sometimes it tries to kid me
That it's just a teddy bear
And even somehow manage to vanish in the air
And that is when I must beware
Of the beast in me that everybody knows
They've seen him out dressed in my clothes
Patently unclear
If it's New York or New Year
God help the beast in me
The beast in me
Shall we name the beast? We might call it sin. Can we name
the event or moment needed in order for change to begin? We might call it
conversion.
In Romans
6:1b-11, Paul begins his discussion of the difference Christ can make in our
lives. It will take an event, a moment, in which we separate ourselves from
what we are now to what our destiny is in Christ. Obviously, the coming of
Christ as the promise of the eschatological destiny of humanity is not fully a reality
in the present. Humanity still wrestles with the reality of Adam. Sin and death
are realities in Adam (5:12ff). Humanity continues to make the decision Adam did in
turning away from God and therefore the source of its life. Adam has become our
prison. Humanity is in bondage to sin. The sin of Adam finds a reflection in
the sin of each human being. However, participation in eschatological life is a
reality for those in Christ. God takes sin seriously, which we can see in the
cross. God remains committed to humanity in divine love, which the cross also
shows. Christ offers humanity a new possibility. Christ holds before us the possibility of
reconstituting humanity toward eschatological life. Baptism is a sign of the
moment or event in our lives that signals our needed transformation. Faith and
grace that we find together in baptism unites the believer with Christ. Humanity
naturally unites to Adam, but must make a choice to unite with Christ. The believer
participates in the fate and destiny of Christ. Participating in the death of
Christ releases one from the destiny of humanity in Adam, while participating
in the resurrection of Christ unites one with the redeemed and reconciled life
of the risen Christ. In this sense, the death of Christ is an expiatory
offering, transferring our sin to the innocent Jesus. We have no way to make
amends with God for our rebellion. The death of Christ is the offering provided
by God that set aside the Old Testament sacrificial system.[2] This
fact reminds us of the deep connection between Christian theology and its
Jewish context. Humanity cannot liberate itself from sin and death, but union
with Christ shifts the focus from our efforts to the power of the risen Christ
at work in us. Yet, our today is a life of tension between the pattern set by
Adam of turning from God and the pattern set by Christ of turning toward God. Truly,
the more graphically we see the depths of human sin, we see the heights to
which grace lifts us. Of course, the point of this grace is to liberate us from
sin and death. Faith and grace do not lead us to indifference regarding the
plight of humanity or the battle each of us face. Far from surrendering to
Adam, sin, and death, we look forward with faith to our hoped for
transformation because of participation in Christ. The humility of faith will
lead to a life devoted to love and virtue. Will and rationality continue to
orient us toward Adam, but faith and grace orient us toward Christ and life. Death
and life become metaphors for the human struggle. In the cross of Christ,
humanity died to sin. Our corporate identity in Adam leads to sin, but our
corporate identity in the cross of Christ liberates us from it. Humanity is now
the tension between Adam and Christ. Paul can become quite literal here, as
baptism into the death of Christ is burial with him, while we unite with the risen
Christ so that the course of our lives is now in the context of the newness of
resurrected and eschatological life. Christ is a sign of the end or destiny of
humanity, while humanity is still on the way. The heart of the ethical
reflection of Paul is that the future glory of resurrection life impels one to
live in the present in a way that is consistent with and worthy of that future
reality. The power of resurrection pressures itself into my existence of sin
and death and moves me toward newness of life. Baptism reminds us of who we
are. We naturally orient our lives toward Adam, but baptism focuses us upon
what we can be through union with Christ. While our present is so little
conformed to Christ, we live with the hope of resurrection.[3] Jesus
represents humanity in the possibility contained in their death. The Father
already links our death to the death of the Son. Yes, his death has an
expiatory character. Paul is also discussing the universal vicarious
significance of the death of Christ. His death was truly for others. Theologically,
this means his death stretches beyond the immediate circle of the friends of
Jesus and extends to humanity past, present, and future. His death is for all. Yet,
this also means humanity already links to the resurrected life in the
resurrection of the Son.[4] We
can see the anthropological position of humanity as closed in upon itself in
sin and death, while humanity is also open to the world in a way that points
toward its fulfillment beyond death.[5] The
Christian life becomes a process of dying with Christ and experiencing
resurrected life with Christ. Baptism anticipates the whole course of human
life. Baptism is a sign that the believer no longer belongs to self, but rather
belongs to God. This passage is an important witness to the idea that baptism
occurs once in our lives. Baptism is present throughout our lives. The moment
or event lasts a lifetime. The destiny of our lives is that our new identity in
Christ will transform us throughout the course of our lives. As important as
the moment or event is for us, it must be a moment that has a continuing
transforming influence throughout our lives. Such change of human life is not easy, and
thus the metaphors of death, crucifixion, and resurrection are significant. The
well-known tension we find in Paul between Already and Not Yet is present in
this passage. Even crucifixion takes time. The death of Adam in us takes time. United
with the death and resurrection of Christ, the transition remains incomplete. We
await the fullness of faith, hope, and love in the promise of resurrection.
No comments:
Post a Comment