Now we come to the second element of the structure of God’s gospel, the life of Christ.
Romans 5:10 says, “For if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled.” This is a key word of the book of Romans concerning God’s dynamic salvation. Being reconciled to God through the death of His Son is by the judicial redemption of Christ. If we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, will we be edified, taught, or perfected? No—much more we will be saved, not saved in the knowledge of the Bible, but saved in His life. Two crucial things are mentioned in this verse: the death of Christ and His life. We were reconciled through the death of Christ judicially. Now we are to be saved in the life of Christ organically.
We should not say that the death of Christ saves us. If we say this, we have not gotten into the crystallization of Romans 5:10. Christ’s death, at the most, redeems us, reconciles us to God. Reconciliation is a part of the complete, eternal redemption of God judicially. After that we need something organic in God’s dynamic salvation, and this organic thing is the saving in the life of Christ. Saving is an organic matter.
Now I would like to point out eight major and crucial verses which use the word life in the book of Romans. Romans 5:10 tells us that we are to be saved in the life of Christ. Verse 17 says that those who receive the abundance of grace and the abundance of the gift of righteousness will reign in life. And verse 18 says, “Through one righteous act unto justification of life to all men.” Then verse 21 says, “In order that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The righteousness here is objective righteousness. Objective righteousness is judicially given to us. But subjective righteousness is organically lived out of us. Here it says that the grace given to us will reign, not in, but unto eternal life. These are the four crucial usages of the word life in Romans 5.
In God’s New Testament economy the infinite grace of God provides initially the believers in Christ with God’s free justification (Rom. 3:24), and this free justification of God is of life for the believers to have life (5:18). Then the abounding grace of God in its fullness (John 1:16) further affords the believers the capacity:
1) To reign in this age over the tribulations (Rom. 5:2-3a), the law of the indwelling sin (8:2; 7:17, 20), the usurping Satan (16:20), the charming ages of Satan’s world (12:2; John 12:21), and the environmental troubles with the opponents of the believers (Rom. 8:31-39).
2) To rule in the coming age with Christ as His co-kings over the nations for one thousand years (Rev. 20:4, 6).
3) To reign over the restored nations (Rev. 21:24) in eternity (22:1-5) in the new heaven and new earth (21:1) unto the eternal life (Rom. 5:21) in the fullest enjoyment of the divine life in Christ in the divine administration as the top divine blessing in the entire universe.
There are three more crucial verses in chapter eight which speak of life. They are verses 2, 6, and 11. Verse 2 speaks of the law of the Spirit of life. Verse 6 says, “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” The Spirit of life as a law releases us from the bondage of the law of sin and death, and if we set our mind on the spirit, we will receive life and peace. Then verse 11 says, “And if the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Mortal means dying. This means that we are dying ones. Christ as the indwelling Spirit will give life to us in our dying body.
Now we want to point out verse 4 of Romans 6: “We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.” If we walk in newness of life, the Spirit of life as a law will release us, set us free, from the law, the bondage, of sin and death. Then we will also enjoy this life with peace. Such a life will then be continually given to us by being dispensed into all the parts of our being through the indwelling Spirit. The eight verses mentioned above are so rich that each one needs a conference. I would encourage you to memorize them so that you are able to recite them.
Romans 5:10 unveils to us that the full salvation of God is of two sections.
The first is the section of foundation by the redemption of Christ judicially as the initiation of God’s salvation. Of course, any foundation of a building is an initiation, but a building does not stop with its foundation. The foundation is the base and indicates that more building work is required. When we built the meeting hall in Anaheim, we were happy when the foundation was laid, but this also caused us much anxiety because we were wondering how we would complete the rest of the building. We realized that there was much work left to consummate the building.
The second section of God’s full salvation is the section of consummation by the life of Christ organically as the completion of God’s salvation.