While Paul’s description of himself and his readers as formerly enemies and ungodly, etc., certainly described the biography of that first generation of Christians, many in our congregations may not feel that the words apply equally well to them. Paul, after all, was an adult convert, and had actively engaged in the persecution of Christians and rejection of Christ. Many of the believers in Rome had been pagans—idol worshipers—before coming to faith in Christ. Of them, certainly, it is fair and accurate to say that Christ died for them while they were still “that kind” of sinners. But is the situation really that bad with a lifelong Christian today, someone who was brought to the faith as an infant in Baptism and has lived as a believer ever since? It is important that the preacher not portray the experience of Christians in a way that does not really correspond to all Christians. Without sensationalism or exaggeration, the preacher needs to confront the present reality of sin and enmity toward God that haunts even the hearts of lifelong believers. The saving death of Christ is not something that we only needed for a single past experience of conversion. Rather, Christ’s death once and for all is still the very power that overcomes our pathetic spiritual weakness, the sin that so easily entangles us, and the awful hostility toward God that can and does lurk inside us and sometimes springs forth even against our will (a reality that is explored in much more detail in Romans 7). William W. Schumacher
Proper 7 • Romans 6:12-23 • June 22, 2008
Introduction to the Sixth-Eighth Sundays after Pentecost As I began to prepare homiletical helps for Propers 7-9, I realized that the three sequential texts comprise the central portion of a larger section of Romans normally identified as Romans 6:1-8:39. This section transitions from the previous section, Romans 5:12-21, which contrasts Adam’s disobedience and its destructive impact on humanity with Jesus’ obedience and the resulting gift of grace and righteousness. The section immediately preceding Proper 7, Romans 6:1-11, rejects the idea that because of the grace we received through Jesus we are free to sin boldly so that grace might abound. Paul instead describes the connection that Christians have to Jesus through their Baptism. The Christian has been baptized into Jesus’ death, set free from the dominion of sin, and given a new life in Christ. Paul exhorts the readers to consider themselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. The Epistle’s focus on the justifying work of Jesus now turns to new life in Jesus and what it means to walk in the newness of this life. The encouragement to walk in the new life that we have received through Jesus, and the difficulties Concordia Journal/January-April 2008
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