Romans 6.1b-11 (NRSVA)
The arguments which Paul sets out in his letter to the church in Rome became - much later - the foundations on which the Protestant interpretation of Christianity was constructed. They were also deeply influential for early Methodism. It was while he was listening to Martin Luther’s explanation of Paul’s Letter to the Romans that John Wesley found his heart strangely warmed by a new understanding of what being a disciple of Jesus really means.
Paul’s predicament was that he was eager to visit the new and influential church in Rome but most of the Christians there didn’t know him personally, and what they had heard about him had left them feeling deeply uneasy. Paul found himself compelled, therefore, to set out the truth about what he believed, in contrast to the stories that were circulating about his teaching.
Chief among these seems to have been the idea that human beings are irredeemably flawed by a deeply ingrained self-centredness and can only trust in God’s grace for forgiveness instead of striving to lead a holy life on their own merits. This much is true. Paul did believe this. But his opponents went on to misrepresent him by reporting that he didn’t believe it was even worth trying to lead a righteous way of life.
‘God forbid!’ says Paul, an expression which - then as now - really meant ‘By no means!’ or ‘No way!’ His true position was that Jesus’ death on the cross saves us from self-centredness by allowing us to leave our old self behind and rise to a new kind of life with him. By grace - the free and unmerited new start that we receive through his death - we are given the opportunity to be reborn. Baptism, says Paul, is the moment when Christians commit to dying with Christ in order to rise again to newness of life with him.
This led some would be disciples, the Emperor Constantine is a striking example, to postpone their baptism to the last possible moment in case they fell back into sin again. They made the mistake of seeing discipleship as a one-way progression, like the route now laid out around a shop to protect us from infection with the Coronavirus. Instead it’s a journey with the potential for ups and downs. We can all too easily fall back into our own self-centred ways and then we’ll need to renew our baptism vows.
That’s how the misunderstanding about Paul’s teaching arose. It’s one thing to say that if things go wrong we can try again. It’s entirely different, to say, as Paul’s opponents believed he was teaching, that we don’t need to try in the first place because we shall inevitably fail.
John Wesley believed it is possible for someone to become perfect in faith, although he admitted it wasn’t very common. However, for those of us who fall short, the obligation to strive for perfection in Christ remains.
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