Romans 5:7-10
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

When we were still sinners, Jesus Christ died in our place and delivered mankind from sin and destruction. The blood of Jesus redeems from sin all those who acknowledge and confess Jesus as their Savior, without exception.

Those who have been redeemed from sin begin their life of faith from that moment. The life of faith is a period in which we learn and practice the Word of God.

In the New Testament age, we learn to forgive and love one another according to the commandment of love that Jesus gave. And when we fail to fully keep the commandment of love, we must immediately repent and wash that sin away by the blood of Jesus.

The commandments of Jesus Christ are divided into the commandment to love God and the commandment to love our neighbor.

To love God means to cast away all idols, serve God alone, and give thanks and glory only to God.

To love our neighbor means to forgive our neighbor’s faults, not to do evil to our neighbor, and to do good.

Christians must achieve peace and reconciliation with God and with their neighbors through a life of obedience.

This is not something that can be learned in a short time, but something learned over a long period.

By keeping the Lord’s commandment of love, we must cause the kingdom and righteousness of God to be accomplished on this earth. This is the purpose for which we were redeemed from sin through the blood of Jesus.

Depending on how we live our life of faith on this earth, people will be divided at death into those who go to heaven and those who go to hell.

Today, there are very few Christians who achieve true repentance and receive the salvation of their souls through a life of repentance and obedience. Most church members live only a formal religious life and are going to hell.

Satan constantly tries to tempt and corrupt Christians who have been redeemed from sin by using the things of the world. Therefore, all Christians must reject worldly temptations in the name of Jesus and keep their faith to the end. This is how one saves one’s own soul.

Being redeemed from sin happens in a single moment. However, protecting and saving one’s soul is something that must be done over a long period into the future. Only those who faithfully live a life of repentance and obedience until they leave this world become citizens of heaven.

No one can guarantee the future salvation of his own soul.

This is because it is obtained only by Christians who live a life of repentance and obedience to the end.

Being redeemed from sin means entering the first stage toward the salvation of the soul.

We must not misunderstand redemption from sin as already having received the salvation of the soul.

We must correctly interpret and remember today’s Scripture passage. The expression “we shall be saved” teaches that the salvation of the soul will be accomplished in the future.

Luke 18:8
“I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”

This word means that Jesus foretold that in the future there would be many church members, but very few who enter heaven.

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Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we also should walk in newness of life.

When we believe in Jesus and repent, all our sins are forgiven and we receive new life. This is not obtained by human merit, but is the complete grace of God given freely through the blood of Jesus.

The more sin there is, the greater the forgiveness; and the greater the forgiveness, the more greatly grace is revealed. Then should we commit more sins and repent in order to receive greater grace? Certainly not.

There is a clear purpose for which God forgave our sins and gave us new life. If a person loses that purpose, he will eventually drift away from the Lord.

Those who have received new life must live in the Word of Jesus. Only when we keep the Word of Jesus do we abide in Jesus. This is the life of keeping the commandment of love.

The commandment of love means that Christians forgive and love one another. Those who believe in Jesus must understand others with a broad heart, look after those weaker than themselves, and help them. This is the life that accomplishes the kingdom and righteousness of God, and it is the way to remain under God’s protection.

For God’s people to practice falsehood and evil and to pursue only the profit of the flesh is to betray the grace of Jesus.

If someone who has received new life by the grace of Jesus lives wickedly again and does not repent, he will surely be rejected by the Lord. This is because he has abandoned the covenant with God.

If someone who once repented and received freedom from sin sins again and does not repent, he has fallen back into being a servant of Satan.

The new life he received by the grace of Jesus has been cut off from him.

Judas Iscariot was like this, and so was King Saul. Many of the Israelites who were freed from slavery in Egypt were also like this.

They believed in God and experienced God’s grace, but because they sinned on the path of faith and did not repent, they ultimately received God’s judgment.

A person who has once repented and received new life has the responsibility to keep it to the end.

The Calvinist doctrine that once a person is saved, he is eternally saved is never in accordance with the Bible.

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Romans 6:12-16
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lusts. And do not present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

The moment anyone acknowledges and confesses Jesus as Savior, he receives forgiveness of all sins by the blood of Jesus and becomes a child of God. The old self dies, and he is born again into new life in Jesus. This is what it means to be redeemed from sin.

That the blood of Jesus has forgiven our sins does not mean that we may live however we please. Until now, we lived as slaves of sin under Satan’s rule, but now we are to live as slaves of righteousness in Jesus Christ.

To abide in Jesus means to live according to the Word of Jesus. Forgiving our neighbor’s faults, abandoning an evil life, and pursuing a good life is what it means to abide in the Word of Jesus. This is to resemble the heart of Jesus and to keep the commandment of love.

Christians must always examine themselves, acknowledge their shortcomings, and repent. Before the Word of the Lord, they must cast away proud thoughts and have humble hearts. To place human thoughts above the Word of God is pride.

The way to overcome sin is to repent of sin, receive the Holy Spirit, and obey the Word of the Lord through the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit. Those who always strive to repent and obey live under the Lord’s protection, so sin cannot rule over them.

Those who live under the Lord’s grace repent immediately when they sin. Therefore Satan cannot find an opportunity to attack them. Even the strict law cannot judge them. This is because before the judgment of the law comes, they repent and wash their sins clean by the blood of Jesus.

If a child of God gives his body to sin and does not repent, he becomes a slave of sin and Satan. But if we present our bodies to obedience and repentance, we become citizens of heaven.

The life of faith does not end by believing in Jesus once. After confessing Jesus as Savior, true life of faith begins. Until the end of the world, we must keep the commandment of love of Jesus and repent whenever we sin; then we will gain the final victory and become citizens of heaven.

Human doctrine says that salvation once received is eternal salvation. But this does not agree with the Word of the Bible.

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Romans 6:17-20
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness leading to lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

All human beings are originally slaves of sin. Everyone born as a descendant of Adam is born a sinner. But when anyone believes in God and repents of sin, he is set free from sin and becomes a child of God. This is the gospel that Jesus Christ preached, and it is the truth the Bible teaches us.

When people did not know Jesus, they all gave themselves over to uncleanness and lawlessness and walked the path of destruction. But those who accept the teaching of Jesus Christ are redeemed from sin and proceed on the path of life. The moment a person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, all the sins he has committed up to that point are forgiven, and he lives in new life. Those who had lived as slaves of Satan and sin become children of God by the grace of Christ.

Those who have become children of God must now live according to the Word of God. They must always forgive their neighbors, do good, and make peace with one another. Christians must never return to their former way of life. When they lived as unbelievers, they always followed the desires of the flesh, deceived and hated others in order to gain more of the things of the world, and lived proudly. But even after being born again into new life in Christ, those who still live according to worldly greed and do not repent will return to the path of destruction.

Romans 6:21-23
What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We believed in Jesus and were set free from sin. Therefore, we must never again become slaves of sin. Now that we have become servants of God, we must not bear the evil fruit of Satan, but bear holy fruit. To live wickedly after believing in Jesus and not repent is the path to destruction. But a life of striving to do good and repenting whenever we sin is a life that moves toward eternal life.

The wages of sin is always death. But living a life of obedience and repentance while relying on Christ is faith that leads to eternal life.

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Romans 7:1-4
Brothers, I speak to those who know the law. Do you not know that the law has dominion over a man only as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. Therefore, if while her husband lives she goes to another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress though she goes to another man. Therefore, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.

When a husband dies, his wife is released from the law of her husband, so she is not condemned even if she marries another man. But if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she becomes an adulteress. Through this illustration, Paul explains the relationship between the law and Christians.

God’s law is the absolute standard that distinguishes righteousness from sin, and it is the standard by which sin is judged. Since all human beings are sinners, they are under the judgment of God.

In order to save mankind from this despair, Jesus bore the sins of human beings in their place and died on the cross. The blood of Jesus Christ atoned for the sins of mankind.

Whoever believes in Jesus is set free from sin and receives new life. The moment a person believes in Jesus, he is released from the power of the law and death that had bound him until then.

When Jesus was nailed to the cross, He bore the sins of mankind and died; therefore, the sins of mankind were already judged in Him. The law judges sin, but it does not judge again the sin that has already been judged.

Those who were dead under the law have now received new life. Therefore, they are no longer under the curse of the law, but under the grace of Jesus Christ.

All Christians have been released from past sins and judgment and now live under the law of love of Jesus. This is a newly born life living within a new order.

Now Christians must live according to the law of love of Christ. They are no longer those who live under the Old Testament system of the law, but those who live under the commandment of love of Jesus.

Therefore, whenever they sin, they must repent. When they repent, the blood of Jesus cleanses their sins and protects their life.

Those who do not bear the fruit of love and do not repent are not abiding in Christ, nor are they remaining under the grace and protection of the Lord.

All Christians are those who have received freedom from the curse of the law and entered the kingdom of love. Those who were once enemies of the Lord have now become children of the Lord. Therefore, all Christians must live within the order of the Lord’s love. Those who break the order of love and do not repent are leaving the way of salvation by themselves.

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Romans 7:9-15
Before I understood the law, I was alive. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The commandment that was meant to lead to life turned out to bring death to me. For sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and killed me through it. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good. Then did that which is good become death to me? Certainly not. Rather, sin, in order that it might be revealed as sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For I do not understand what I am doing. For what I want to do, I do not do; but what I hate, that I do.

When people did not know the law of God, they considered themselves righteous. However, when they examine themselves before God’s commandments, everyone is revealed to be a sinner.

The commandment is good and righteous. Those who keep God’s commandments shall live, but those who fail to keep them will be judged and die.

However, there is no one in the world who keeps God’s commandments perfectly. Therefore, all people are revealed as sinners before the commandment and are placed under judgment.

The holy law, originally given to lead people to life, has instead come to declare death to human beings who are under sin.

Those who live according to the desires of the flesh violate the law of God, and in the end they will receive God’s judgment and perish.

When there was no written law, the fallen human conscience judged sin. However, the fallen human conscience has already become distorted, narrow, and darkened, so it cannot judge sin rightly. Only the law of God judges all things with righteousness and justice.

In the end, before God’s righteous and just law, all people are revealed as sinners deserving judgment.

Even the Israelites, who knew the law of God, were led by the strong desires of the flesh and committed the sins they did not want to commit.

How, then, can human beings in such despair have the hope of salvation?

Romans 7:21-24
Therefore I find this law: when I want to do good, evil is present with me. For in my inner being I delight in the law of God, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Unbelievers do not even know that destruction is coming upon them. But even God’s people, though they know the law of God, cannot keep it perfectly by their own strength; therefore, they too cannot escape judgment.

Therefore, the only way of salvation left for humankind is to believe in Jesus Christ and repent of sin. Even if a person says he believes in God, by human ability alone he cannot keep all of God’s commandments.

A person can be saved only when he recognizes his sins, repents, and has his sins washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The law reveals sin, and the commandment clearly shows the helplessness of human beings. But Jesus Christ saves sinners. Therefore, all people must not rely on their own righteousness, but must come to Jesus, repent, and be washed by His blood. This alone is the only way to be delivered from the body of death and to enter eternal life.