Living as the Saints Live

Sometimes we think that once we are baptized that our salvation is secured.  This is not the case.  In Romans, and other places in the scriptures, we learn that we must continue to be righteous every day and endure to the end.

Paul teaches about several things that will help lead us to salvation in his epistle to the Romans

·         Romans 12:1-  Sanctify our bodies to serve the Lord

·         Romans 12:2-  Become spiritually reborn and cast off the world

·         Romans 12:9 –Hate evil and love good

·         Romans 12:13 – Practice hospitality

·         Romans 12:16- Be humble and beware of pride

·         Romans 12:21- Overcome evil with good

·         Romans 13:1 –Subject ourselves to God

·         Romans 13:3- Not be afraid

·         Romans 13:8 –Love one another

·         Romans 13:9 – Keep the commandments

Paul also cautioned against judging.  After all, it is Christ who will judge us.  We will also be judged for the judgments we make of other people.   Also, people may have different opinions and practices, but we are all alike under Christ.  He does not esteem us differently.  In Doctrine and Covenants this is further explained as God being our Heavenly Father who loves all his children equally.

With Christ came a new way of life, as well as a new name for his people. This name is ‘saints’. 

Baptism lessons from Romans 6

Before baptism can occur, we must be dead unto sin.

Christ’s burial and resurrection symbolizes baptism.  Just as Christ was able to overcome physical death and live again, through baptism we overcome spiritual death and our renewed with our sins forgiven. This is why we are baptized by immersion as opposed to other methods like sprinkling.  For us to be fully renewed and cleansed, we need to be completely immersed, or buried in the water.   In Paul’s epistle to the Romans, he counsels that for the people to maintain the ‘newness of life’ obtained through baptism, they need to continually cast off sin and follow the counsels of God.  Ideally, the ‘natural man’ part of us would die at baptism.

After baptism, we should strive to be the servants of God.  We know that we are serving God when we are being obedient to his commandments.   We are servants of sin when our lives are free from righteousness and we are disobedient.  When we are righteous, are lives are free from sin.   That is the true source of freedom. 

Forgiveness

      One of the greatest doctrines of the New Testament is that of forgiveness. No longer was the law 'eye for eye', or 'tooth for tooth'.  Now it is 'turn the other cheek', and 'judge not that ye be not judged'.
 
      The people of Corinth were told that 'if any have caused grief', that they should not condemn them, but comfort and forgive them, and confirm our love toward them.  This goes against many people's initial reaction to someone who has caused harm.  We need to remember that it is Christ who wants us to forgive, and Satan  who wants us to hold unto anger.

       When we forgive others, we are promised that we will be forgiven as well, perhaps not always by our fellow men, but our Father in Heaven.  Satan also will not be able to use anger to control us if we are not angry with someone else.


        When we don't forgive others, we have no right to ask that our sins be forgiven. In fact, we face a greater condemnation than those who had originally sinned against us.  One of the reasons that I think this is, is because if we absolutely refuse to forgive someone we see ourselves as a better person than them.  We are also saying that the Atonement is not enough to cover their sins.


2 Corinthians 2; Matthew 6; Doctrine and Covenants 64