Romans 6--New Reign, New Environment

In Boston, they don’t know what a hoagie is!?!? Anyone who has travelled there has experienced the accent, slang and even the characteristics that are uniquely Bostonian. Environment does a lot to shape our behavior. I know that if I stayed there it would not be long before I was speaking and acting like a local. Our environment creates a unique kind of pressure on us that shapes us even when we don’t realize it.

What does Romans teach us about environment? Flashing back to chapter five we read that because of our faith, Christ brought us to a place of undeserved privilege. Yet we are told that we will experience problems and trials. Now we move into chapter six and find that we are no longer under the law since Christ paid our debt through his death and resurrection. Yet, we still confront sinful desires and constant temptations. We continue to live in this tension of two worlds. Christ’s coming and resurrection has brought his kingdom to Earth, but only in part. We do live in the reality of his love and faith and hope. But, we also still live in this broken, sinful world. We are strangers in a foreign world where sin and Satan attack. There is duality to this place we temporarily live. Just like Boston has an environment that can shape us, the Kingdom has its own environment that will shape us if we will allow it to.

Paul shows us in chapter six that while there is tension between these two environments, we have moved from the realm of sin and death and the reign of the first Adam to the realm of peace, hope and love—the reign of the second Adam. Though we are free under the grace-filled reign of Christ, we still can choose to re-enslave ourselves under the principles of the former regime. In Christ, our workplace and community is a mission field and garden that we can develop for the glory of God. Or, we can allow the cut throat corporate environment to re-enslave us to the principles of the reign of sin and death? Are we experiencing the freedom to love people or are we enslaved to the busyness of this world? Do we enslave ourselves to our own desires or do we embrace the freedom which God has called us? We live in the constant tension of two worlds. We can practice this freedom with every decision we make and develop lives of holiness as strangers in a foreign place. As we embrace this new heavenly environment, its characteristics will soon create the kind of pressure upon us that will shape us for eternal life.

Posted by Jim