Through Jesus Christ Your Lord - Always
Every person is wrong because of sin and needs to be made right. Every person needs to be delivered from wrongdoing and identified entirely by the righteousness of God. This happens completely through Jesus Christ, and it becomes real for the person who trusts in Him completely. This is the message of Romans 1-5.So what follows? The message of Romans 6-8 teaches how a person who has trusted in Christ for salvation can experience the righteousness of God in practical ways. It teaches how the righteousness of God on his record can translate into righteous conduct. As a justified person learns how to conduct himself in ways that are genuinely just, he needs to remember something very important. No matter how far he progresses in righteous behavior according to the principles presented in Romans 6-8, the righteousness continues to be from Jesus Christ.
No matter how far he progresses in righteous behavior according to the principles presented in Romans 6-8, the righteousness continues to be from Jesus Christ.
All righteousness is Jesus Christ and comes from Jesus Christ. The more you grow in Christlikeness, the more that the goodness of Christ marks your personal reputation in this world. And the more that this happens, the more easily you may begin to own His righteousness, to take personal credit for it, and to stop recognizing Him as the source. Perhaps that is why Paul ends each of these three chapters in a very similar way.
- For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 6:23).
- I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom. 7:25).
- For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38).
No matter which angle or aspect of Christian living you consider, and no matter what good and right changes occur in your Christian development - remember this very important fact: it is always through Jesus Christ your Lord.
