"Much more then having been reconciled we shall be saved by His life." Romans 5 v 10
Paul concludes again arguing from the greater to the lesser. Since it is a fact we have been reconciled to God, brought into a relationship with God, a close relationship that nothing can break, so also is the lesser thing a fact that we shall be saved by His life. In order to understand this we must take account of the biblical meaning of salvation. When God does anything, He does it perfectly, He does it completely. The bible indicates there are many aspects of salvation, the particular aspect being decided by the context; but in summary, salvation refers to three main aspects which could be termed as different time periods. There is salvation from past guilt, and the penalty of sin; there is salvation in the future from the wrath of God and to the glory of heaven; but there is also salvation in the present, which is what he is talking about here. We could say that in the past we were saved from the penalty of sin; that in the future we will be delivered from the presence of sin; in the intervening period we are being saved from the power of sin. We are being saved from living a wasted life, salvation is not just from the past or towards the future. It is a full salvation and affects our lives here and now. We were saved by His death in the previous verses, we are being saved in His life every day now that we live.
This focuses on the fact that Jesus Christ is alive today, and indeed lives for the betterment of our lives. Paul says as much later on " "who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Romans 8v34 Again, if we read the letter to the Hebrews we will quickly learn that Jesus is in heaven today, actively engaged in the lives of His people. What Paul is saying here is repeated in Hebrews 7v25 "Wherefore He is able also to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for us." He is involved presently in the salvation of our lives as a Great High Priest in the presence of God, and the verse we have just quoted says that He will see the work through to its completion. The apostle John puts it another way with the same result "if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." 1st John 2v1 So then even if a believer falls into sin, the abiding value of the blood of Christ is sufficient for all and Christ stands in the majesty in the heavens as our Great High Priest and our Advocate. When we referred to the mercy seat in Romans chapter 3 as being symbolic of the work of Christ, we noted then that the blood was sprinkled ONCE UPON, AND SEVEN TIMES BEFORE the mercy seat. Once upon the mercy seat was enough for God, seven times before refers to the totality of the value of Christ's blood for all His people, at all times. The one is the completed work of Christ, the other refers to the ongoing work of Christ. This is what Paul means when he says "we shall be saved by His Life."
There is however another very important aspect of this, and it is that "by His life" should more properly be rendered "in His life." This introduces a new aspect of our salvation entirely; indeed it may be said that this phrase is pivotal to the Roman epistle, if not to the Bible as a whole. To this everything pointed forward, from this everything will flow, and it is this; because Christ died all who believe in Him are VITALLY and INDIVISIBLY united in Christ. This is a massive New Testament truth, that will be developed by Paul particularly in the letter to the Ephesians. Christ not only died for us, as a result we are IN CHRIST. This phrase occurs more than 70 times in the New Testament and almost 40 times in the Ephesian epistle. Here, the glorious concept is introduced, we are in Christ, we are in union with Him, a union that cannot be broken. It is extremely important that Paul brings this in here, else we should not understand the full force of Romans 5v12 to the end of chapter 8. He will point out to us in verses 12 - 21 that the entire human race was seen to be IN ADAM. He will, from here on, develop the fact that all that we are, sinners on this earth, suffering all the consequences of sin, came from Adam. He will further develop the parallel but contrasting truth that just as we shared the curse that Adam brought upon us, we now share all the blessings that Jesus Christ will bring to us and to the entire universe. It is important to take this on board, only then do we understand the truth about humanity, and only then will we understand the truth about the new humanity that Christ has brought!
We are in Christ, everything He is and has, we will share. In salvation we have joined a new order, life in Jesus Christ. Wherever He is we will be, whatever He does we will be involved. In the mind of God as we shall later see, we died with Christ, we were buried with Christ, we were raised with Christ, we ascended with Christ, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, and we shall reign with Christ forever. No less than all this does the expression "in Him" mean. The believer is vitally united to Jesus Christ forever and this is what Paul will develop in the later chapters.
This is stated in the context of God reconciling us to Himself through the work of Christ. We have seen that reconciliation means that we are in a relationship to God, we are on speaking terms with God. However the trials of life and the weakness of our grasp and the anti-God atmosphere around us can often hinder the practical reality of that. Christ exists in heaven as a Great High Priest to maintain the practical reality of our reconciliation.
Much more then,................ we shall be saved in His life.
Tomorrow d.v. we consider the essence of true joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment