Alive to God
Romans 6:1-11[1]
Reading Paul’s letters in the New Testament
can be an exercise in frustration. Perhaps, hearing a sermon on a passage from
Paul’s letters can be an exercise in frustration! Of course, many of our
favorite “memory verses” come from Paul. Verses like “Nothing in all creation
can separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Rom 8:39, CEV).
Or, “the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant
guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7, Phillips).
These are wonderful verses. And we keep them close, because they bring a great
deal of comfort and assurance. But when you really try to dig in and understand
the meat of Paul’s letters, they can get really confusing really fast. I’m saying
that as a person with PhD in New Testament studies and someone who has spent forty
plus years trying to dig in to the meat of Paul’s letters! It helps to read a
version that is more than a translation, but also attempts to “translate” Paul
into language we can understand. I think that’s why Charlie Noren always liked
to read from The Message version when he served as liturgist!
One of the reasons why Paul’s letters are so
difficult to understand is because he’s trying to explain our salvation in
depth. He lays out the groundwork for our salvation in what God has done for us
in Jesus Christ. He calls all people, Jewish and Gentile alike, to respond to
the Gospel with faith. And he talks in some detail about what it looks like to
live the life of faith. But in doing so, he uses language and figures of speech
that are not only 2000 years old, but also are steeped in the metaphors and
thought world of the Hebrew Bible. I’m probably stating the obvious when I say
that language is quite foreign to most of us. Anyone who’s made a serious
effort to read the Old Testament might agree with that evaluation.
One of the problems we have understanding
Paul’s letters is that through the history of the church, two very different
views about how salvation works have emerged. One view insists that there’s
nothing we can for our salvation. Our faith and the way it changes how we live
is an act of God. Only God in Jesus Christ, working in our lives through his
Spirit can create the kind of faith that leads us to live for God and for one
another in the way that God wants us to. The other view insists that we have to
do everything for our salvation! In order for what God has done for us and in
us to truly make a difference in our lives, it has to be met with the
willingness to change our attitudes and our actions, to open ourselves to what
God wants to do in and through us, and to set aside all that gets in the way of
our growth in faith. One view emphasizes that our salvation is the work of God
from start to finish. The other view emphasizes that our salvation is something
we have to work out in our own lives.
Part of what makes this question so
challenging is that both of these views are true. As with many aspects of our
faith we have to hold them together in balance. But as is the case so often,
holding these two perspectives in tension takes skill and practice.
Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to fall off on one side or the other. Some
will insist that there’s nothing they can possibly do to save themselves
because it’s the work of God. And that’s true, but it doesn’t go far enough by
itself. Others will insist that the only way to experience salvation is to put
faith into practice. For them, salvation is all about what they do for
themselves. Again, there is some truth to that, but downplaying the role of God
in this life change strips it of its power.
From my years of ministry and interacting with
people, I would say that of the two, the bigger obstacle to faith these days is
the notion that I can “do it myself.” We hear it in those who seem to have
their sights fixed on the idea that “I have to be good enough to make it to
heaven.” For some people this is official church teaching. If you want to “make
it to heaven,” you have to check off certain “boxes.” For others, it’s simply the
message they’ve always heard. For whatever reason, if you really get down to
what people believe about all this, they tend to think that their “salvation”
is something they do for themselves. Because of that, they may throw themselves
into the obligations they think will enable them to “make it to heaven.”
Of course, we’re all taking something for
granted here: that the life of Jesus, a Jewish man who lived in a faraway land
so long ago can really make a difference in our lives today. We take it for granted
because we’ve experienced throughout our lives. But not everybody does. To some
extent, we have to reckon with the fact that what Jesus did for us will always
be something that has taken place “outside us.” Besides the fact that it took
place long ago and far away, it’s not something we’ve done for ourselves. It
will always be something someone else did. When push comes to shove, most of us
aren’t comfortable relying on what anyone else does for us. But the mystery of
the gospel is that what Jesus did was also “for us” and therefore it is
something that can make a change “within us.”[2] These are common phrases in Paul’s letters. In our reading for today he calls
attention to the mystery this way, “if we died with Christ, we have faith that
we will also live with him” (Rom.
6:8, CEB). And he says, “just as Christ was
raised from the dead …, we too can walk in newness of
life” (Rom. 6:4, CEB). The mystery of the Gospel is that what God did in
and through Jesus can and does make a difference in our lives today. What he
did makes it possible for us to be “alive to God” just as Jesus
is alive to God.
How do we let this really sink in and take
root in our own lives so that we trust the promise of salvation? How do we get
past those notions that somehow, some way we all have to “be good enough to
make it to heaven?” I think that somehow we need to find a way to believe that
changing how we live is a real possibility for us. This is where Paul’s
teaching about the Cross and the Resurrection, as challenging as it can be to
understand, can help us. The Cross and the Resurrection together represent a
divine act that in a manner of speaking “interrupts” the normal “way things
work” in this life and opens up for us the real possibility of living a life
that is truly “alive to God.” The forgiveness we have through the Cross gives
us the freedom to turn from old ways. The Resurrection points us to the new
life as something that can be just as real for us today as it is for the risen
Lord Jesus Christ.
The two sides of what we call “salvation”
always go together. What do we have to do to make it to heaven? “Nothing!” And,
“Everything!” They go together. Do people ever really change in this life? We tend
to think not, but Paul says the answer is “Yes!” and it’s because of what Jesus
did for us. His death on the cross breaks the grip of old ways on our lives.
His resurrection opens up the very real possibility of living a whole new life,
“just as Christ was raised from the dead.” Our salvation is all about what God
does for us.[3] That’s always the foundation for our salvation. But the New Testament teaches
that we also have to “work out” our own salvation.[4] For
the change of life that the Bible calls “salvation” to be effective, we have to
both open ourselves to what God wants to do in our lives, and we have to take
steps to “work the program,” so to speak. We have to hold the two in balance.[5] Being
set right with God through the forgiveness accomplished by Jesus on the Cross
works hand-in-hand with his Resurrection to create the opportunity to live a
life that is truly “alive to God.”
[1] ©
2026 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by Rev. Alan Brehm, PhD on 6/21/2026 for
Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.4:18-21, where he discusses the idea
that what Jesus does extra nos (“outside us”) is also pro nobis (“for
us”) and therefore effective in nobis (“in us”).
[3] Cf. Karl Barth, The Epistle to the Romans, 1933, 207: “Grace is the
power of the resurrection … . Grace is the existence begotten of God, the new
man created and redeemed by God … .”
[4] Cf.
Barth, Romans, 221: “Grace means that God reckons men’s whole existence
to be His and claims it for Himself. … Grace seizes visible life and demands
that it be presented to righteousness.” Cf. also, ibid., 222: “Grace
means: thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven … .”
[5] Cf. Barth, Dogmatics, 4.4:22, where he discusses this balance between
what God does for our salvation and what we do: “the omnicausality of God must
not be construed as His sole causality. The divine change in whose
accomplishment a man becomes a Christian is an event of true intercourse
between God and man. If it undoubtedly has its origin in God’s initiative, no
less indisputably man is not ignored or passed over in it.” He adds that it is
also one’s own “decision and act” (ibid., 23).
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