Title: Freedom from sin
sin and grace
It's probably a story from a play called 'Agnes of God', and there is a story that took place in the Roman Catholic Church. An accident occurred when a student attending a Sunday school at a church did not come to the church on Sunday and went to play outdoors with his family, but the carriage overturned and died. The next Sunday, when the Sunday School children were gathered, the nun in charge of the children named the dead child and said to the students: The reason the child died in an accident was because he did not go to church on Sunday. Of course, in extreme cases, the idea of linking unhappiness with sin lies with almost all Christians, not just the Roman Catholic Church, but us Protestants. Speaking of the cathedral one more time, they must confess before the priest every Sunday before they can participate in the most important communion at Mass. The sacrament of confession is to confess the mistakes you have committed during the past week. This means that sin occupies a very important place in their spirituality.
Most likely, most Christians will always feel burdened by the fact that they are sinners. Perhaps because the idea that sin is the essence of the Christian faith is so strong, even those who do not attend church vomit, “I am sinful . . .” when they are told to go to church. What is the relationship between Christianity and sin? Also, what is sin? We tend to take the Christian faith vaguely, so we don't take this very seriously either. Even though I read the Bible so much and keep in touch, I don't think much of studying the Bible's teachings about sin. This is similar to a person with cancer who only resorts to folk remedies and does not receive diagnosis and treatment from an authoritative doctor. Let's listen to today's text.
Verse 1 of today's text reads: “Then can we say that we should continue to sin so that we may receive abundant grace?” These words are related to the following verses in 5:20: “When the law came into being, crime increased, but where sin abounded, grace abounded.” This verse is not that difficult. If both the person who did the big wrong and the one who did a little bit were forgiven, then of course the person who made a big mistake would be much more grateful. If Jesus had opened the way for all people to be forgiven and saved, people who thought they were sinners like tax collectors and thugs would like them much more than model students who thought they were innocent like the Pharisees. If this is true, the logic that we have to sin more in order to receive more grace is possible. Now Paul is arguing against this logic.
Although this logic seems very plausible, it has fundamental limitations and pitfalls. That is, it mechanically establishes the relationship between sin and grace. We are forced to sin, and this structure that God forgives us works almost mechanically, but the depths of sin and grace are overlooked. It's similar to thinking that students who cause a lot of similar problems habitually write a letter of reflection every time they do so and think that it will be solved. Or it's similar to thinking that no matter how much trouble you have, your father will solve it for you, like sloppy children.
sin and death
Paul responds in verse 2 to the logic of “sining” in order to receive grace abundantly. “You can never do that. As long as we have already died and are freed from the power of sin, how can we continue to live in sinning?” Paul then elaborates on the meaning of baptism. To be baptized means to die with Jesus. If the result of sin is death, then sin can no longer work on us who died with Jesus. Paul clearly expresses this fact in verse 7. “He who is already dead is set free from sin.”
This saying that when a man dies he is freed from sin has a very real meaning. No matter how strong a person is, when he dies, he is no longer a prisoner of desire. No matter how vicious a dictator may be, when he dies, he can no longer do evil. No matter how selfish a person may be, when he dies, everything is lost. In this sense, sin is only a very limited force that operates only when a human being is alive.
Conversely, this means that a man can never be free from sin until he dies. If we study to govern ourselves, we can become a little more moral than other people. Or you can take the social order through the law. People may avoid sin because they are afraid of being punished, or they may do good deeds to get praise. The Jewish law is also a device to keep people away from evil and to pursue good. However, no matter how hard people try, they only live a relatively good life, but they are not fundamentally freed from sin. In this respect, the Christian teaching that death must be free from sin is correct.
Here lies the Christian's existence. This existence is both contradictory and tense. On the one hand, there is a contradiction and tension between the fact that we live in a world dominated by sin and, on the other hand, the fact that as believers in Jesus Christ we must live free from sin. So Paul once explained the existence of Christians as the dual personality of sin and good. “I know that in my heart I welcome the law of God, but in my body there is another law that is at war with the law of my reason. That law takes me captive and makes me a slave to the law of sin in my body. . . I am indeed a human being who obeys the law of God with reason, but in the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:22-25).
The Christian life must always maintain this tension. Because it is difficult to maintain this tension, many Christians go to extremes. There are people who think that they have already been completely saved, or that they have become like angels. They always use religious rhetoric and pretend to be very religious in their behavior. We always live with Hallelujah and Amen in our mouths, living as if nothing to do with the contradictions of human life in this world. On the other hand, there are those who are unconditionally inclined to worldly values. They live only in a way of fighting the world, like those who never knew that our sins were forgiven by the cross of Jesus. If the life of a person belonging to the former is 'external', the life of a person belonging to the latter is 'secondary'. If these two worlds do not maintain constant tension in the existence of Christianity, the identity of the Christian faith is undermined.
death and life
To describe this tension in one word, it is a dialectic of death and life. A Christian continues to die on the one hand, but continues to live on the other. Death and life are simultaneous events in us. The reason we have to die is that only when we die does sin no longer have dominion over us, and the reason we have to live is because death is not the goal, but life is the goal.
However, if we look only at the reality of this world we experience, we cannot sustain life and death at the same time. When no one in this world dies, it is enough to say that he is dead and alive at the same time doesn't make sense. If he's still alive, he's not dead, and it doesn't make sense to say he's alive and dead at the same time. Humans can never cross the border between death and life. This is possible only with Jesus Christ. No, in him it has already become a reality. Paul states this fact this way: “Christ broke the power of sin by dying once, and by rising from the dead he lives for God. In the same way, consider that you too must die with Christ Jesus, so that you may escape the power of sin and live with him for God’s sake” (verses 10, 11).
Is it possible that death and life become one in us? Is it possible, as Paul advises, to live as a dead person to sin and to live as a resurrected person to God? If there are people who think that this is just about coming to church and living a good life of faith, they are not yet familiar with the depth of Christian faith. The Christian faith does not call for a higher standard of living, but for entering into the tensions and dynamism of death and life. It is correct to look at it as an ‘attitude’ rather than a ‘state’. Let's think about this a little more deeply, shall we?
The Christian life is, first of all, a daily repetition of death. It is important here that we face death spiritually, not just habitually practicing dying. That is why Paul once confessed, “I die every day” (1 Corinthians 15:31). The Christian death here is meaningful not only because of the futility of human life, as existentialist philosophers think, but because it is linked to the death of Christ Jesus. Let's ask again. What does it mean that we die every day, every moment?
When we die, we fall into a world where we can no longer extend our earthly pursuit of self-fulfillment. So, doesn't the death that Christians have to experience every day means that they completely eliminate their desire for achievement? Think carefully. Sin among men occurs when the self-fulfillment intention is too strong. They do not hesitate to run a business by paying bribes to achieve business faster than others, or to speculate on real estate in order to make money even a little faster than others. This is not to say that all the passions for life we pursue in this world are sinful. It is clear, however, that such passions are often the result of sin. If we deny ourselves through the cross of Jesus Christ every day, we die. When we die in this way, we are freed from sin. Those who have completely broken their will and are captivated only by Jesus Christ are no longer subject to sin. Because, as mentioned earlier, the dead are freed from sin.
Perhaps you wonder if this can actually happen to us. Such a question is understandable. Even though we think that we died with Jesus Christ, we live with a body, and we are still subject to sin in this world. It seems that we have only one choice before we die. It is necessary to make the choice that every day life should be a 'baptism' event. This means that we are baptized every day.
You've all been baptized. We cannot help but be spiritually tense only on the day of our baptism. If baptism is a serious affirmation of the fact that we die with Jesus Christ and that we live again with him, it means that we Christians must live if we keep this fact in our hearts every day. In the life of a person who is constantly reconfirming the meaning of sin and the cross, life and resurrection in his life, death freed from the dominion of sin and life that is the rule of God have become one. Such a person is dead but alive, and alive and dead at the same time. The Christian life is the mystery of life that unites death and life in the cross and resurrection of Christ. *