Read Romans 6:1-11 In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes about the power of God’s grace to cover all of our sin. God’s forgiveness is amazing. We can think of the story of the Prodigal Son, where a young man went off with his inheritance and blew it on wild living in a foreign country. When he had lost all his money and all his friends, he thought maybe he could return to his father’s farm and get work as a hired hand. He figured his father would disown him as a son. But when he returned, the father welcomed him with open arms, and called a feast!
That’s the kind of grace that Paul is talking about. We know that the father in the story represents our heavenly father. And the love of the father in that story is God the Father’s love for us. He showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ – his own Son – died for us.
Paul reminds us that this is the greatest thing. It is greater than coldly following all the laws in the Old Testament. That’s why we hear about the older son in the Prodigal Son story. The older son obeyed his father and followed all the rules, patiently waiting for his own inheritance. We might think he was a good man. But when the younger son came home, he was full of hate and spite. He disowned his brother – he wouldn’t say “my brother”. He said to his father, “this son of yours”.
As Paul starts Romans Chapter 6, maybe he is thinking of people who are like that older son in the parable. People who can’t believe in the power of God’s grace, but see salvation in the rule book. Paul imagines them saying, “Huh! If you tell people that grace will cover all their sin, they’ll just go out and sin more!”
As one writer has said, that’s like the prodigal son deciding that he’ll go out on his wasteful adventures all over again – knowing that his father will still welcome him back with a feast.
Do you know people who do that? Well, to some extent, unfortunately, we do, don’t we? Some of us have bad habits. We start a new page, but then we fall back again.
Paul’s answer is to get us to look again at how we got that grace. God’s very own son died. And when he rose, that’s when our life changed.
It’s the work of love that gave us forgiveness. And our love of God the Father through Jesus should guide our lives. In love, we should do better than we did before. It was a work of love that went as far as the death of Jesus. In love, we should consider our old selves put to death also.
In baptism the symbol is clear. Going under the water is like dying. Coming up represents a changed life.
Be true to what your baptism means.Live as a child of the light!Live as a loved child of God!The power of love should guide us to right living that honours the grace in which we stand.
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