LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
From the Individual to the Collective (I)
"So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, that we should live according to the flesh..." (Rom. 8.12).
The book of Romans reveals, through the gospel, from faith to faith, the righteousness of God (Rom. 1.17). But the gospel in Romans goes far beyond the atoning work of Christ. When Paul writes to the Romans, he says that he was ready to announce the gospel also to the brethren who were in Rome.
But how? preach the gospel? Were they no longer brethren? They were already beloved of God (1.7). In chapter 16, Paul greets several brethren, including Priscilla and Aquila, his co-workers, and Apelles, a brother approved in Christ, among others (Rom. 16.10). The gospel, as Paul relates in Romans 1:3-6, is all the grace that is in Christ Jesus, something that starts from the individual and then moves to the collective.
The Lord's church has received clear revelation that the living of the brethren as Christians must pass from the individual to the collective; for, at one point in our Christian life, it is necessary that we enter into Romans 12:1-2. There it is not a sacrifice for sin, but a holocaust. In the law it was necessary, first, to make a sacrifice for sin, and the sacrifice for sin involved the death of an innocent person in the sinner's place. In this sacrifice there was bloodshed and death. This we are taught in Romans chapters 3 to 7 - the sacrifice of the Lamb of God: "For while we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly" (Rom. 5.6).
The Lord Jesus, our Passover Lamb, was sacrificed for us. He shed his blood for the forgiveness of our sins (Rom. 3.21-25), carried us in him and caused us to die with him, so that we might die to sin (Rom. 6.1-7), and gave us life in the resurrection, making us sit with him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2.5-6).
We die to the law for the body of Christ, to live in newness of life. An individual experience with the Lord, of forgiveness, justification, and liberation. But he who predestined, also called, justified and glorified (Rom. 8.30). Predestination, calling and justification are personal, but glorification is collective.
From Romans 9 to 11, Paul pauses to speak of the nation of Israel; but, in chapter 12, he enters into the glorification, the collective experience of the children of God. The sacrifice of which he speaks in Romans 12:1-2, is not for individual sin, but a holocaust, something collective; a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. It is not the sacrifice of someone who is dead in trespasses and sins, but the sacrifice of several who received life from above, and were made holy by the life of the Lord in them (Col. 1.22).