chistory_bdos1
THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF SALVATION
by Ray Shelton
I. INTRODUCTION
In this paper, we shall examine the Biblical doctrine of salvation. The Gospel of the grace of God will be examined first. We will show that the gospel of God is the gospel of our salvation; it is the good news of what God has done for the salvation of man through Jesus Christ, His Son. We will also show that this gospel is the gospel of the grace of God; that is, this salvation is by the grace of God. Then we will show that this salvation is from death, sin and wrath to life, righteousness and peace with God. In particular we will show how God has delivered man from death, sin and wrath by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We will show that this salvation is primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness and then from wrath to peace with God. Finally, we will examine the Biblical doctrine of the righteousness of God and justification by faith.
The Gospel of God is the good news of what God has done for man through Jesus Christ, His Son. The English word “gospel” (from the AngloSaxon, godspell, “Godstory”) is used in the English New Testament to translate the Greek word euangelion, “good news, good tidings.” The Gospel is good news. But in the New Testament the gospel is not just any item of good news but is always the good news of what God has done for man through Jesus Christ, His Son (Mark 1:1; Rom. 1:1). It is the Gospel of God. These acts of God are historical events and the Gospel is a recital of these historical events. The Gospel is not an abstract and general theological argument, nor is it a system of morals. It is history; that is, a record of certain historical events in which God has acted. Of course, it involves and requires theology to understand it and to state its meaning; it also makes a radical moral demand and implies a system of morals. But the Gospel of God is first of all the story of God’s acts in history. The historical events in which God has acted are those in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The Gospel is therefore a recital of the events in the life of Jesus. He is the content of the Gospel and it is about Him, what He did and Who He is. The Gospel of God is therefore concerning God’s Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord (Rom. 1:1, 3). The crucial events in the life of Jesus are His death (with His burial) and His resurrection (with His appearances). These are the most important elements in the message of the Gospel.
“3For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,
4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (I Cor. 15:3-5).
The resurrection of Jesus is the decisive and key event in His life for the explanation and interpretation of the other events in His life. The meaning of his ministry is found in the resurrection; it is its goal and climax. The true significance of the crucifixion is also to be seen in the light of the resurrection; it shows that the cross was a necessary step in God’s plan of salvation. The Gospel is not only about what Jesus did His work, but it is also about Who He is: His person.
“1Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3the gospel concerning his Son, who came from the seed of David according to the flesh, 4and designated the Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 1:1-4 ERS).
Paul in this passage says that the Gospel of God is about Jesus and Who He is; that is, it is about His person and that there are two sides to the person of Jesus: the human and the spiritual side. The human side is given in Romans 1:3, “according to the flesh”, that is, as a man, Jesus was made or born of the seed of David. He was a descendant (seed) of David, the king; He was in the royal family of David. This means two things:
(1) Jesus was a real man, sharing our common humanity (see I John 4:2-3). And
(2) as a man, being descended from David (Matt. 1:1; Acts 13:22-23; II Tim. 2:8) and a son of David, He was qualified to be the Messiah, the Christ (II Sam. 7:12; Isa. 9:6-7; Jer. 23:5-6; 33:15-22; Ezek. 34:22-24; 37:24-25; Mark 12:35-37; John 7:41-42).
The spiritual side of Jesus is given in Romans 1:4. As a spiritual being (“according to the spirit of holiness”), Jesus was declared (“designated”) to be the Son of God in power by the resurrection of the dead. Jesus as a holy spiritual being is intimately and uniquely related to God the Father (Matt. 11:27; John 5:19-23; 10:29-38). He is the Son of God (Mark 1:11; from Psa. 2:7 and also Isa. 42:1; Mark 9:7; 14:36; 61-62; John 1:18; 3:16-18; 35-36). Before His resurrection He was the Son of God in weakness and lowliness (Phil. 2:2-8). Now since His resurrection, He is the Son of God in a new sense: He is the Son of God “in power” (see II Cor. 13:4; Phil. 2:9-11; Eph. 1:19-21). The source (ek) of the designation of Christ as the Son of God in power is the resurrection of the dead. This refers, not to Christ’s resurrection from among those who are dead, but to the resurrection of those who are dead (Note that nekron of Rom. 1:4 is in the genitive case. Compare with I Cor. 15:12, 20-21.). The resurrection of Jesus shows Who He is. But that is not what Paul is talking about here in Romans 1:4; he is here talking about that which now shows Jesus to be the Son of God in power and that is the resurrection of those who are dead. And this resurrection is not just physical resurrection of the dead in the future but is a present spiritual resurrection of the dead (John 5:24-29; 11:25-26; Rom. 6:5, 8; Eph. 2:4-6; Col. 3:1). When the Word of God [the Gospel] (I Pet. 1:23-25) is preached, God raises the spiritual dead; He makes them alive. This is the new birth – a birth from death to life. Jesus Christ is shown to be the Son of God in power by this resurrection of the dead, both spiritual and physical, both now and in the future.
The Gospel of God is not only tells about Who Jesus is but also tells us about what He did – His work. The works of Jesus is inseparately connected with the events of His life. What did God accomplish through these events in the life of Jesus? What did God do for man through Him? The answer in one word is “salvation”. In these events, God accomplished the salvation of man. The Gospel as the record and proclamation of what God has done for man is the good news of salvation (Eph. 1:1-3). But the Gospel is not only about salvation but it is also the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation because it is about Jesus Christ, who is the power of God (I Cor. 1:24) and the Son of God in power (Rom. 1:4). The Gospel receives its power from Christ and God who acted in power through Christ. The Gospel is not only about the power of God, but it is the power of God. Whenever the Gospel is preached, God exerts His power. The Gospel is not only the presentation of facts or ideas, but is the operation of God’s power. When the Gospel is preached, something happens (I Thess. 1:5; I Cor. 2:4-5; 4:19-20). The purpose and result of the operation of this power of God is salvation (Rom. 1:16). Whenever the Gospel is proclaimed, God exerts His power for the salvation of men.
The gospel of our salvation is the gospel of the grace of God (Acts 20:24). The grace of God is God’s love in action (Eph. 2:4-5). God’s grace is more than His favor; it is His love acting to do something for us. “God is love” (I John 4:8, 16). This is not just an attribute of God but is the very being of God; it is what God is in Himself. Before God ever created anything outside of Himself and thus created beings for Him to love outside of Himself, love existed in God. Since love is the choice of a person to do for another person that which is good for him, a person cannot love without another person to love. So love involves a relationship to another person. And since God has made Himself known as three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, there is another person in God for Him to love. These three persons of the Godhead love each other (John 3:3-5; 5:20; 15:9-10; 17:23-26; 14:31). And God is love in Himself because these three love each other. God created beings outside of Himself to love not because He needed objects for His love (these already existed within Himself) but because of the abundance of His love that existed within Himself. Love is creative and this is true in the supreme sense of God Himself. Creation and salvation are the overflow of the love of this triune personal God of love.
This personal God of love is the source of salvation. “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9, KJV, See also Genesis 49:18; Exodus 14:13; I Sam. 2:1; I Chron. 16:23; II Chron. 20:17; Psa. 3:8; 9:14; 13:5; etc.). And this is so because God is a God of love (Psa. 13:5; 85:7; 86:13; 98:3; 119:41). God provided salvation because He is love.
“9In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. 10In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
(I John 4:9-10 ERS)
The love of God, then, is the source of our salvation. Because God loves us, He has acted to save us. And since the grace of God is God’s love in action, salvation is by grace. The grace of God brings salvation (Titus 2:11 KJV). “By grace are you saved” (Eph. 2:5). What is salvation? Salvation is deliverance, deliverance from something bad to something good. Salvation is first of all deliverance from death to life. And then it is deliverance from sin to righteousness, and then from wrath to peace with God.
“4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” (Eph. 2:4-5)
In this passage, Eph. 2:4-5, salvation is presented as deliverance from death to life. When we were dead in trespasses and sins, God has “made us alive together with Christ.” Christ died to save us from death. If there is any one word that can characterize or describe our world, it is the word “death.” Death casts a pall of gloom over all of our lives. It is the end of all plans, the frustration of all hopes. Death has a finality about it that no human power can overcome. Man by his science and medicine tries to prevent it. But against its inevitable arrival no human power can prevail. “It is appointed unto man once to die” (Heb. 9:27). Death has power, and through the fear of death man is subject to lifelong bondage (Heb. 2:14-15). Death is not just an event which comes upon us and puts an end to life. Death is a power, a ruler. Death is a tyrant who does not ask man whether he will serve him, but claims everyone with absolute authority. We may choose to be or not be the slaves of sin; but there is no choice as to the reign of death. From birth, we are subjects of King Death. Ever since Adam’s horrible choice in the garden, death has reigned over man. The Apostle Paul says,
“because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man” (Rom. 5:17).
“Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, …” (Rom. 5:12).
Death is a sovereign who rules over all men. Such is the common lot of all men since Adam. Death is more than just the end of life, the dissolution of the body, the cessation of physiological functions of this organism. Physical death is the separation of man’s spirit from his body. In this state of physical death, he awaits the judgment (Heb. 9:27). But death is more than the physical separation of man’s spirit from his body. It is also the separation, the alienation of man from God; this is spiritual death. It is the opposite of spiritual life which is fellowship and communion with God. Spiritual life is knowing God personally as a living reality (John 17:3); spiritual death is the absence of this life. In this state, man thinks that God doesn’t exist, that God is dead. But it is not God that is dead; it is man himself that is dead. Spiritual death not only affects the relationship of man to God, but also the relationship of man to his fellowman. Man is separated and alienated from his fellowman.
“14…He who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (I John 3:14-15).
Spiritual death is spiritual isolation from man as well as from God. Spiritual death is the present reign of death over man. King Death separates man from God. The reign of King Death is not only exercised in the inevitable physical death of man; King Death rules every moment of man’s existence before the event of physical death. Spiritual death is the present reign of death which separates, alienates and isolates man from God. Just as man does not choose physical death, that is, whether he is going to die inevitably or not, he does not choose spiritual death. Man is born into this world already spiritually dead. He is automatically under the reign of death. He has no choice about it. According to Romans 5:12, we receive death from our first parents, Adam and Eve. When they sinned, they died spiritually as well as physically. God said, when he gave them the command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, that in the day that they ate of it they would surely die (or literally, “dying, you will die”, Gen. 2:17). Since they did not die physically on that day, they must have died spiritually on that day. And this is clearly what happened because they hid themselves from the presence of God (Gen. 3:8). Their fellowship or communion with God was broken and this is spiritual death. Later, after they were driven out of the garden away from the tree of life, lest they eat of it and live forever (Gen. 3:22-24), they eventually died physically (Gen. 5:5). And this death, both spiritual and physical, was passed onto the whole race of Adam’s descendants, you and me. Unless a man has been delivered from spiritual death, after physical death and the judgment, he will be eternally separated from God. This death is eternal death, the second death (Rev. 20:14; 21:6-8; Matt. 7:21-23). But God has done something about this reign of death over the human race. In His love for us, He sent His Son to enter into our death so that He might deliver us from the reign of death. On the cross, Jesus died not only physically but spiritually.
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46)
He was forsaken for us; He died for us. “He tasted death for every man” (Heb. 2:9). But God raised Him from the dead. That is why He died; Jesus died so that He might be raised from the dead. He entered into our death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with Him (Eph. 2:5). Christ’s death was our death, and His resurrection is our resurrection. We who have received Him are made alive with Him and in Him; we have passed from death into life (John 5:24); we have been raised from the dead spiritually (John 5:25). God has done for us what we could not do for ourselves; He has made us who were dead spiritually alive. Jesus Christ acted as our representative, on our behalf and for our sakes.
“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for [huper, “on the behalf of”] all, therefore all died”
(II Cor. 5:14 NAS);
that is, in Christ, who represents all. Adam, acting as a representative, brought the old creation under the reign of death. But Christ, acting as our representative, brought a new creation in which those
“who have received the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life.” (Rom. 5:17).
“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Cor. 15:21-23).
“Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.”
(II Cor. 5:17).Jesus said, “Because I live ye shall live also.” (John 14:19).
Acting through our representative, God has reconciled us to Himself in and through Christ; that is, God has brought us into fellowship with Himself.
“18But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ … 19to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” (II Cor. 5:18-19 KJV; see also Rom. 5:10-11; I Cor. 1:9; I John 1:2-3).
Reconciliation is salvation from death to life. Salvation may be viewed in three different ways.
(1) First, from the point of view of family, it is the new birth. We have been born into God’s family; we are now children of God (John 1:12-13).
(2) Second, from the point of view of creation, salvation is new creation. We are now new creatures in Christ (II Cor. 5:17).
(3) Finally, from the point of view of reconciliation, salvation is resurrection from the dead. We who were dead are now alive in Christ (Eph. 2:5). Because He lives, we are now alive (John 14:19).
Life is not a “thing,” but it is a person — Jesus. Jesus, God’s Son, is the life (John 14:6). And to know Him personally is to have eternal life. Jesus prayed,
“This is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3).
To know Him personally is to have Him. And
“he that has the Son has life and he that has not the Son has not life.” (I John 5:12).
If you have God’s Son, you are alive to God; you have eternal life; you have been raised from the dead spiritually; you have entered into fellowship with God; you are reconciled to God; you are saved. Salvation is first of all from death to life.
But salvation is not only deliverance from death to life but also from sin to righteousness. And salvation is from sin to righteousness because it is from death to life. All men have sinned because they are spiritually dead. This is what the Apostle Paul says in the last clause of Romans 5:12, which clause is incorrectly translated in our English translations. In the Greek, there is a relative pronoun which has not been translated. If it were translated, the whole clause in English would read, “because of which all sinned.” In the Greek, it is clear that the antecedent of the relative pronoun “which” is the word “death” in the preceding clause. (The antecedent of a relative pronoun is the word to which the pronoun refers.) The last clause would then be equivalent to “because of death all sinned” and would mean that all men sinned because of death.
But how is this possible? How can men sin because of death? Let me explain how this is possible by referring to another passage in the writings of the Apostle Paul, Galatians 4:8. In this passage, Paul is reminding the Galatian Christians of their condition before they became Christians.
“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to beings that by nature are no gods.”
Not to “know God” personally as a living reality is to be spiritually dead. And a man is “in bondage to beings that are no gods” when he chooses them as his gods. He is in bondage to them because he does not personally know the only true God, that is, because he is spiritually dead.
Let me put it another way. Every man must have a god. Man, by the very structure of his freedom, must choose something to be the ultimate criterion of all his decisions. This is because every choice a man makes is made with reference to some criterion. That is, behind every decision as to what a man will do or think there is a reason, a criterion of decision. And the ultimate reason for any decision, practical or theoretical, must be given in terms of some particular criterion, an ultimate reference or orientation point beyond the self or person making the decision. This ultimate criterion is that person’s god. In this sense, every man must have a god. Every man, if he hasn’t already, must choose something as his god. Now if he doesn’t know the true God personally as a living reality, that is, if he is spiritually dead, and since he must have a god, he will choose a false god. He will choose some part or aspect of reality as his god, deifying it.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator ….” (Rom. 1:25).
The choice of a false god and consequent personal allegiance and devotion to it is what the Bible calls idolatry. An idol does not have to be an image of wood, stone or metal. It may be money, wealth, power, pleasure, education, the family, the state, democracy, reason, experience, science, the moral law, etc. An idol is a false god, and a false god may be anything that takes the place of the true God, anything a man chooses as his ultimate criterion of decision, exalting it as God in the place of the true God. It is any substitute or replacement for the true God in a man’s life. Since a false god usurps the place of the true God in a man’s life, idolatry is the basic sin. This sin is directly against God; it is a direct insult to the true God and an affront to His divine majesty. No more serious sin could be imagined than this one. Since it is the most serious sin, it is therefore the most basic. This is the main reason that idolatry is the first sin prohibited by the Ten Commandments. “Thou shalt have no other gods besides me” (Exodus 20:3). Idolatry is also the basic sin because this sin leads to other sins. It leads to other sins since a person’s god, being his ultimate criterion of decision, ultimately controls the direction and character of a man’s decisions. The wrong choice of a false god will lead to other wrong choices. That is, the idol that a man sets up in his heart (Ezek. 14:35) will affect the character and quality of his whole life. In other words, if in his heart a man clings to a false god, his actions and speech will show it. In this way also, idolatry is the basic sin.
Now we can understand how death leads to sin. If a man is spiritually dead, separated from God, and since he must choose a god, he will usually choose a false god. If a man does not know the true God, the true God will not be a living reality to him. And lacking this personal knowledge of the true God as a living reality, man does not have the adequate reason for choosing the true God as his ultimate criterion of decision. God Himself is the only adequate reason for choosing Him. He cannot be chosen for any other reason than Himself. For then He would not be God but rather that reason for which He is chosen would be god. Only a living encounter with the true and living God can produce the situation in which God Himself may be chosen. If God Himself is the only adequate condition for the choice of Himself, then apart from a personal revelation of God Himself, man will usually choose as his god that which seems like god to him from among the creation around him or from the creations of his own hands or mind. Man does not necessarily have to sin, but he usually will. Spiritual death is not the necessary cause but the basis or condition for his choice of a false god. (The Greek word translated “because” in the last clause of Romans 5:12 means “on the basis of” or “on the condition of”.)
Man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead because he did not choose this state. He was born spiritually dead. He inherited spiritual death from Adam just as he inherited physical death. But he is responsible for the god he chooses. The true God has not left man without a knowledge about himself (Rom. 1:19-20). This knowledge about God leaves man without excuse for his idolatry. But it does not save him because it is knowledge about the true God and not a personal knowledge of the true God. But even though a man is not responsible for becoming spiritually dead, he is responsible for remaining in the state of spiritual death when deliverance is offered to him in the person of Jesus Christ. If he refuses the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus, he must reap the harvest and receive the results of his decision, eternal death.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23).
If a man refuses the gift of spiritual and eternal life in Christ Jesus and continues to put his trust in a false god, remaining in spiritual death, then after he dies physically, at the last judgment he will receive the result of his decision, eternal death, separation from God for eternity.
Now we can understand why man needs to be saved. As we have seen, man is not responsible for the spiritual death nor for the physical death that he has received from Adam; they are not the result of a man’s own personal sins. On the contrary, a man’s personal sins are a result of spiritual death. That is why he needs to be saved. Man is dead spiritually and dying physically. He needs life; he needs to be made alive; he needs to be raised from the dead. And if he receives life, if he is made alive to God, death which leads to sin will be removed. And if he receives life which leads to righteousness, man can be saved from sin to righteousness. Thus salvation must be understood to be primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness. Now this salvation (primarily from death to life and secondarily from sin to righteousness) is exactly what God accomplished through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus entered into our spiritual death in order that as He was raised from the dead, we might be made alive with and in Him (Eph. 2:5). And by saving us from spiritual death, Christ saves us from sin. It is by taking away the spiritual death which leads to our sin that God takes away our sin. Jesus died for our sins – literally – to take them away (John 1:29). What the Old Testament sacrifices could not do (Heb. 10:1-4), the death of Christ has done. The blood of Jesus (His death) cleanses us from our sins (I John 1:7). We are delivered from sin itself, not just from its consequences. We were saved from our trust in false gods when we put our trust in Jesus Christ and the true God who sent Him. Did we not “turn from idols to serve the living and true God?” (I Thess. 1:9) When we were spiritually dead we trusted in and served those things that were not God: money, power, sex, education, popularity, pleasure, etc. But when we turned to the risen Christ, we entered into life, leaving behind those false gods. The risen Jesus Christ is now our Lord and our God (John 20:28).
The death and resurrection of Jesus was the means by which God removed death – the barrier to knowing the true God personally and knowing His love. Now God can reveal Himself to us in the preaching of the gospel, making us spiritually alive to Himself when we by faith receive Jesus Christ who is life (John 14:6; I John 5:12). To be spiritually alive is to know God personally, and to know God personally is to trust Him. For “God is love” (I John 4:8, 16) and love begets trust. The trust in God that God’s love invokes in us is righteousness: “the righteousness of faith” (Rom. 4:5, 9); faith relates us rightly to God. Just as trust in a false god is sin, so trust in the true God is righteousness (Rom. 4:3-5). Righteousness is not a quality that we possess, neither merit that we have earned or have imputed to our account, but it is a right relationship to God; faith in the true God relates us rightly to Him. And just as sin flows from death, so righteousness flows from life (Gal. 3:21). Thus by taking away death, God takes away sin. By making us alive to Himself, God sets us right with Himself through faith. Life produces righteousness just as death produced sin. God not only acted in Jesus Christ to reconcile us to Himself, that is, to deliver us from death to life, but also to redeem us from sin.
“In Whom [Christ] we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:7; see also Col. 1:14).
The redemption that is in Christ (Rom. 3:24) is deliverance from sin by the payment of a price (“a ransom”) which is the blood of Christ, that is, His sacrificial death. The price is the means by which the redemption is accomplished.
“Knowing that ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with the precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ”
(I Pet. 1:18, 19; see also Heb. 9:14-15).
According to English translation of Eph. 1:7 and Col. 1:14, redemption is equivalent to forgiveness of sins. But the basic meaning of the Greek word, translated here “to forgive”, is “to send off or away.” Hence to forgive one’s sins is to send them away. Jesus was manifested in order to take away sins (I John 3:5). He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).
Salvation is not just forgiveness; it is basically deliverance from death; it is the resurrection of the dead. Forgiveness of sins is not enough; man needs to be made alive to God because he is spiritually dead. And he is dead not because of his own sins but the sin of another, Adam. So the forgiveness of a man’s sins does not take away spiritual death because the spiritual death was not caused by that man’s sins. Removing his sins does not remove the spiritual death. But the removing of spiritual death removes his sins. Salvation as resurrection from the dead is also salvation from sin and thus is also the forgiveness of sins. Thus to be alive to God means that sins are forgiven.
This redemption from sin was accomplished by the death of Jesus Christ because His death is also the means by which we were delivered from death, the cause of sin. Since spiritual death leads to sin (Rom. 5:12d), sin reigns in the sphere of death’s reign (Rom. 5:21). And since Christ’s death is the end of the reign of death for those who died with Christ, it is also the end of the reign of sin over them. They are no longer slaves of sin, serving false gods. Sin is a slave master (Rom. 6:16-18) and this slave master is the false god in which the sinner trusts. We were all slaves of sin once, serving our false gods when we were spiritually dead, alienated and separated from the true God, not knowing Him personally. But we were set free from this slavery to sin through the death of Christ. For when Christ died for us, He died to sin (Rom. 6:10a) as a slave master. Sin no longer has dominion or lordship over Him. For he who has died is freed from sin (Rom. 6:7). That is, when a slaves dies, he is no longer in slavery, death frees him from slavery. Since Christ died for all, then all have died (II Cor. 5:14). His death is our death. Since we have died with Him and He has died to sin, then we have died to sin. We are freed from the slavery of sin and are no longer enslaved to it (Rom. 6:6-7). But now Christ is alive, having been raised from the dead, and we are alive to God in Him. His resurrection is our resurrection. “But the life He lives He lives to God.” (Rom. 6:10b). This is the life of righteousness. And so we who are now alive to God in Him are to live to righteousness. For just as death leads to sin, so life leads to righteousness.
“And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (I Pet. 2:24).
Having been redeemed from the slavery of sin through the death of Christ, we who are now alive in Him have become slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6:17-18). Redemption is salvation from sin to righteousness.
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