Tension Between the Ages

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. ~ Romans 6:15-23

Paul is continuing to build the argument that he has been working on through several of these chapters. Ultimately, that argument will be that Christians have it better! In the first half of chapter six, Paul focused on the freedom that Christians enjoy. In this half of the chapter, he shifts gears and explores how Christians have it better through this idea of slavery.

Like he often does, Paul is exploring this idea by working within a dual-option reality. He sets up these two options as the two main options available to everyone. Either you are a slave to sin or you are a slave to righteousness. Speaking to Christians, Paul is assuming that the reader has *chosen* to be a slave to righteousness, even if they might not have heard it in these terms before.

There is one major concept that we need to know in order to fully appreciate what Paul is doing in this section. For us — 21st century Americans — we can have a hard time thinking of ourselves in terms of slavery, especially 1st century notions of slavery. So, let me back up a little bit and build in some context.

In the first century, most Jews held firmly to a concept some scholars call “apocalyptic thinking.” For them, history is divided into two ages: “the present age” and “the age to come.” The present age is dominated by sin, Gentiles, and Satan. The age to come will be marked by God vindicating himself and his people, banishing evil, and establishing his eternal kingdom.

We find this sort of language all over Paul’s writing:
– Ephesians: Paul contrasts “the present age” with “the one to come”
 – Corinthians: Paul refers to “the rulers of this age” and “the god of this age”
 – Galatians: Paul says we are living in “the present evil age.”

But the coming of Jesus has changed all of that! Through Christ’s death and resurrection, the “new age” has been inaugurated. God’s “new kingdom” has arrived. YET – this present evil age hasn’t come to an end, and the new age isn’t yet present in its full and final form. Evil and sin still exist, and believers have not yet been made perfect. We give our lives to God and align ourselves with the new age, but we still live in a world dominated by the old age and we feel the effects and contamination of sin in our lives.

So, how should we read these passage that seem to setup a choice between two options? It is a tension that Paul himself is navigating in these verses. Paul goes back and forth between verses that indicate God has accomplished our break with sin:
– v2: We are dead to sin
 – v6: our old self was crucified with Jesus
 – v11: we are dead to sin but alive to God
 – v13: we’ve been brought from death to life
 – v14: sin shall not be your master
 – v18: we are set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness
 – v22: we are set free from sin and have become slaves to God

Yet Paul also sprinkles in statements that command us to stay away from “old age” thinking:
 – v12: Do not let sin reign
 – v13: do not offer the parts of your body to sin… offer yourselves to God
 – v19: offer the parts of your body in slavery to righteousness

So, which is it? Has God conquered? Or do we need to still be wary of sin in our lives? 

I think one of the keys to navigating this tension well is to realize that it is God who takes the initiative. Through grace, God acts to help his people, and then He asks for them to respond. Paul never calls on people to “wage a war against sin and hope that God will take their side and win the war for them.” That sounds ridiculous. But often, it’s what we actually tend to do. We have to remember that we are living in the middle of this tension between what God has already done and what we are supposed to do. 

We are pretty good at avoiding “legalism” because we’ve had that one drilled into us for quite some time. But there is a soft version of legalism that sneaks under our radar. It looks like this: we can obey God or even make Him happy on our own. We chide ourselves on how we failed yet again to live up to our idea of what God wants. Instead, we should be embracing God’s grace again today because He freely gives it! 

When we embrace God’s grace and live our lives out of that mindset – then we truly become God’s children. Everything we do should be rooted in God’s grace. In fact, everything we do should serve to CHANNEL God’s grace toward everyone around us!

Before we swing too far to one side, though. Remember that we are working through this tension of new age and old age being present together. Leaning totally on the Grace end of the spectrum can start to look like some sort of “magical Christianity” where we don’t really have to put anything into it. “Let go and Let God” is the rallying cry of those who end up too far this direction. Don’t go so far toward Grace that you forget that God HAS commanded us to be a certain way and to act in certain ways.

You live in both ages, so you need to bake both kinds of mindsets into your faith walk. Paul will spend chapters 7 and 8 hashing it out further, but for now I think it is enough to notice that Paul agrees with James: Faith without works is dead. Live into the Grace of God and channel that Grace to everyone around you — but honor that gift of Grace by living a life that is obedient to God’s calling.

May God bless you as you seek to serve Him this week.

~ Clay