My first notion in writing this was to make a big deal about living a certain way because we were raised. While it is reasonable in the utmost to behave like Christ Paul did not move toward that. He continued in the vein of grace. See how that 7th verse goes? Doesn’t it tell us why we were raised? It does not say, “so that in the coming ages we could be really good and pay him back for this debt.”
If (since) the scripture guides interpretation then it is reasonable that we follow its lead. Paul wrote that God raised us with Christ to show us more grace. God intended not only to point out but also to demonstrate extremes of grace. It is too big, too high to measure.
Let us go back to that first notion of mine. That notion says, “God did so much for us we need to pay him back. We can do that by being good.” That notion does not really live in my mind as a thought but is more of a response, a reaction. Payback is so impossible that it is not even introduced.
There are others who are little troubled by personal shortcoming and will not react as I do. In The Comedians by Graham Greene, we meet a fellow named Jones as the author puts it, under embarrassing circumstances on board their Haiti bound ship. Brown, the protagonist, heads off to his cabin only to find Jones trying the bribe the steward to switch his cabin for Brown’s. Jones dismissed the whole event by changing the subject and as best one can tell little remembered this inauspicious introduction.
As the world is a conglomeration of sensitive and less sensitive sorts Paul just directs the whole business to God’s grace. We who are more sensitive have issues that need to be swept up into God’s grace just as much as do those who function on the other end of this spectrum. God raised us with Christ that HE might show this grace to us for it is really at his feet where the slights build up.
So, of course, we need to be godly, but the first point is God’s grace not our behavior. Paul is steering completely clear from our having a role in this process. In no manner does this diminish the importance of living like Christ, but payback is the antithesis of grace. God does not pay us back for our sins; neither can we pay him back for his mercy and love expressed to us as grace.
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