Yesterday, I said I would cover the other Greek words for “redeem” or “redemption” in the New Testament, but yesterday was a really long post. I can’t do that again today, so I am just going to provide something to think about.

Romans 2:6-7 says:

… [God] will pay back to everyone according to their works :to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life …

Everyone, including me, agrees that the problem with this verse is in the next chapter. God has consigned Jew and Gentile alike under sin, “For all have sinned and fall short of the kingdom of God.”

I have been told that because we have all sinned, God found a different plan for eternal life. Rather than rewarding eternal life to those who patiently continued to do good, he would pay for their sins by the blood of Jesus, and he would reward eternal life to those who believe in Jesus. In my experience, most of the time that has meant believing Jesus died for their sins.

Of course, proper faith is not believing that Jesus died for our sins, but believing that Jesus is Lord because God raised him from the dead (Rom. 10:9-10; compare also the apostles’ sermons in Acts, which I wrote about in a booklet called Apostles’ Gospel.) John 20:31, too, tells us that John’s Gospel was written so that we would believe that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah, King) and Son of God.

God had a better idea than scrapping the plan to reward the righteous. He would send his Son to rescue humans from the dominion of sin and the devil, equip them with the Holy Spirit, and empower them to overcome the flesh by his good favor (grace). Galatians 6:7-9 makes it clear that God has and always will reward those who live righteously. It even includes a warning not to be deceived about that.

Don’t be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.

Can you see how much this is like Romans 2:5-8? He has given us his Spirit, but the flesh and Spirit (spirit?) war with each other (Gal. 5:17). If we walk by the Holy Spirit, we will overcome the flesh (Gal. 5:16). Paul calls it “putting to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit” in Romans 8:13.

If we sow to the Spirit, we will receive eternal life. If we sow to the flesh, we will perish (“reap corruption”). In verse 9, he adds that if you know this is true, then you should “not be weary in doing good.” That certainly means the same thing as “perseverance in doing good,” the wording Paul uses in Romans 2:7.

In Galatians 6:7-9, Paul is simply telling us that the solution to Romans 3 is to sow to the Holy Spirit, whom we received by confessing Jesus as Lord and believing that God raised him from the dead. If we do sow, we will reap eternal life … and we will be able to do good without growing weary.

This is why Paul says in Romans 8:12-13, as he wraps up his discussion on how not to live out Romans 3 or Romans 7: “Brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh, you must die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, then you will live.”

Jesus died so that we would be righteous people, patiently continuing to do good. Lots of verses say this. The most recent addition to my list is 1 Peter 2:24:

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.

The clearest, though, is Titus 2:11-14 because it covers the purpose of God’s favor (grace) as well:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.

It seems important to me that the next verse says, “Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you.”

Part 3 has been written. I will link all the parts at the beginning of Part 1.