St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

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Paul Grapples with Faith and Sin (2)

Getting a fresh start in life

How can Paul be sure of this?  The truth is revealed in teh resurrection of Jesus Christ.  "It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.  Who will separate us from the love of Christ!" (Romans 8:34-35).  The risen Christ, a "new Adam" reversed the effects of sin and ended the reign of the kingdom of Death by entering into it and conquering it.  "And the free gift [through Christ] is not like the effects of the man's [Adam's] sin.  For the judgement following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification.  If, because of the one man's trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surly will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:16-17).

     It is in this context that Paul considers Baptism.  Paul begins his in-depth reflections by correcting a common misunderstanding of "justification by faith": "What then are we to say?  Should we continue in sin?  By no means!" (Romans 6:1).  Misunderstanding becomes obvious, Paul continues, what we consider what our Baptism signifies:  "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"  (Romans 6:4).

     Paul's theology is the reason the early Church baptized new members by fully immersing the believer into the pool of water.  This going down below the water was a concrete means of expressing the dying to one way of living-the way of cynicism, selfishness and despair that characterizes the kingdow of Death.  The newly baptized Christian rose up above the water to be reborn into a new way of living in the kingdom of Life, and experience of hope and joy in which our hearts are filled with the unconditional love of God.  This love inevitably manifests itself in the way we live.  To experience unconditional love through Faith in the risen Christ, in other words, and to be changed into a more loving person is not to experience unconditional love at all.

Why Paul wrote as he did

Paul's letter to the Romans follows the structure of a classical Greek letter. It begins with an opening salutation (Romans 1:1-7), followed by a prayer of thanksgiving (Romans 2:8-15).  Next comes the body of the letter, concluding with some personal remarks and closing reflections (Roman 15:14-16:27).  Like any good writer, however, Paul is not a slave to formality.  He weaves the proclamation of the gospel into the salutation of this letter, for example.  In his letter to the Galatians, Paul is so incensed that throws convention to the wind all together and gets right down to business (Galatians 1:6-10).

To be continued.

Fr. Joachim