Sin, grace and freedom : Romans 7 and 8
Part 4: We are always debtors to grace – because Christ affirms our human nature and becomes the channel of grace whereby we find freedom
However, Paul does see the correct solution to this dilemma -though it remains a painful situation. The key thing is not to reintroduce the righteousness that comes from keeping the Law by the back door. Paul has already wrestled with the problem: surely if we truly love and believe in God, and if we try really hard, then we will be able to stay right with God? “No!” is Paul’s sombre but honest and correct answer. So, don’t now fall into the trap of thinking, “Surely, now that I am saved by God in Christ and empowered by the gifts of the Spirit, surely now I will succeed?”. The answer is still, “No!” – and it is painful, but Paul’s correct answer is to keep directing us back to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Keep coming back to this spring of healing and forgiveness. We are always debtors to grace. We must keep relying on the free gift of God’s love shown to us in Jesus. This is so painful. Paul, and we too, who see the glorious transformation that God works in us through Christ, truly do feel that now perfection is within our reach. My own view is that, in principle, it now is, yet in practice, it remains just out of reach (sometimes very far out of reach!).
Does this mean that in some way Jesus has failed? That God’s plan of salvation in Christ has not quite worked out? No, I don’t think this is the case -though there is an irreducible tension in the Christian life. The key to understanding is to keep looking clearly at God’s method of salvation. This also has a powerfully affirming message for our creation -that is, of God’s creation of us, that he has not thought better of his initial attempts at making us in his own image and has replaced that with a better idea. So, God redeemed us through a gift of grace. This does have a powerful transforming effect on us, but it does not erase the fundamentals of our human nature. It is not as though humanity was having difficulty passing a test, so God did the test for us and gave us the pass certificate, saying “Now you’re ready to get this right by yourself”. We are, both at the start of our Christian lives, and throughout them to the very end, dependent on the grace shown to us in Jesus. Christians are always called to strive for righteousness, but our ability to stand before God at peace will never rest on our own righteousness, but on the gift that God has given us in Christ. We must always pay more attention to God’s power and willingness to forgive us than to our own sinfulness. Our failure is so painful, but it is not destructive to our joy, because always, always, the grace of God comes through to lift us up. Our redemption is always complete, our salvation secure, even though we will continue to sin. Paul corrected a possible wrong turning in his letter to the church at Corinth. There, some disciples were so delighted by the power of God to free them from sin that they had the idea that they were now free to sin as much as they wanted, because God’s grace would always simply wipe it away – in that way, they could enjoy even more grace. Paul gave that idea short shrift. Our faith must be genuine, and our commitment to Christ complete; we cannot deliberately commit ourselves to “colluding” with the divided will, even if, in practice we still sometimes find ourselves unwillingly subject to it. The whole point of Christ’s grace is to transfer us from the dominion of sin into God’s kingdom. In God’s kingdom we are called to live in God’s way, and so we cannot casually resort to our old way of life, not even trying to overcome the weaknesses of human nature, and think that that is somehow compatible with living in communion with God.
Nevertheless, perfection remains our calling. It appears to be tantalizingly within reach, though, in practice it always remains beyond us.
Spiritual Devotion 