Matthew 8:1-13
8: When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him. 2 And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” 3 And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 4 And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”
5 When he entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.
Reflection
We have already seen with Rahab and Ruth (Matt. 1:5) and the Wise Men from the east (2:1–2, 10–11) that the kingdom of God is not limited by social and ethnic boundaries (see also 12:18, 21, 38–42; and 15:28). Here again we see that Jesus gives his blessing to all nations as he heals the servant of the Roman centurion. This centurion was a commanding officer within the pagan army that occupied Judea, but he was warmly welcomed into the kingdom of God. Entry into the kingdom does not occur through our ethnicity, but through faith in Jesus (8:10).
Romans 6:1-14
6: What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Reflection
God’s glorious good news can be twisted. In Romans 6:1–14 Paul deals with the first of three possible distortions of the gospel he has been explaining (for the other two, see 6:15–7:6 and 7:7–25). Paul explains that the gospel is supposed to produce a transformed life of obedience. Just because God freely extends his grace and forgiveness, that does not mean we can “continue in sin that grace may abound” (6:1–2). It would be unthinkable to purposely sin in hopes of giving God more opportunity to display his grace.
Paul uses baptism to explain his point. Christian baptism is a symbol of our unity with Christ in his death (v. 3); when he was crucified, Christians were, in some sense, included in that death (see Gal. 2:20). We “died with Christ” (Rom. 6:8). Likewise, our unity with Jesus means we have already, in some sense, been resurrected with Jesus and enjoy the benefits of his new life (see also 8:10; Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1). We have already started tasting the new life that God has created in us (Rom. 6:4). Because we are united to Christ through faith, his death and resurrection brings change into our lives now, in this present life. God desires that his people no longer be “enslaved to sin” (v. 6). Jesus’ death has broken sin’s stranglehold on us (v. 7), and his resurrection not only ensures our future physical resurrection from the dead (v. 8) but also enables us to now “walk in newness of life” (v. 4). Therefore, rather than continuing to recklessly feed our sinful desires, we can “present” ourselves and every part of our bodies to God. Eyes, ears, hands, feet, voices, minds— our entire bodies have become tools “for righteousness” (v. 13).
Psalm 11:7
7 For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
Though we must never trust in our righteousness as the basis of our salvation, we are nevertheless called to live a righteous life as a demonstration of the profound change Christ has made in our lives. Ask God to help you keep your confidence in the finished work of Christ and to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4) today as a result.