Allegory of Law and Grace
Lucas Cranach, 1529
My dear friends,
In Romans 6:1-11, The Apostle Paul invites us into one of the deepest mysteries of the spiritual life: the transformation of the heart. The Bodhisattva path teaches that suffering arises from self-clinging, while freedom arises through awakening to boundless compassion and wisdom. In this passage, Paul describes a similar transformation through participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. Rather than merely describing events of the past, he points toward an inner process through which the old patterns of selfishness die away and a new life of love is born.
By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?
- Romans 6:1-2
Grace is medicine for the healing of the soul. When we encounter God's love, we receive an invitation to grow beyond the habits that cause harm to ourselves and others. The Bodhisattva likewise receives the teachings and blessings of the path as conditions for transformation. Gratitude naturally expresses itself through ethical conduct, compassion, and sincere effort. Paul's question reminds us that spiritual practice bears fruit when it changes the way we live and relate to all beings.
Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death,
so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father,
so we also might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his,
we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
- Romans 6:3-5
Baptism symbolizes a sacred passage from an old way of being into a new one. On the Bodhisattva path, practitioners repeatedly contemplate impermanence and death in order to loosen attachment to a fixed identity. In a similar way, Paul teaches that we enter Christ's death so that we may enter Christ's life. The old self-centered orientation is buried, and a life dedicated to God emerges. Resurrection can be understood as the flowering of awakened love, a heart increasingly moved by compassion, generosity, and wisdom.
so that the body of sin might be destroyed, so we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
For whoever has died is freed from sin.
- Romans 6:6-7
The "old self" may be understood as the network of habits built upon grasping, aversion, and ignorance. Jesus reveals complete trust in God even amid suffering, offering a model of freedom from self-centered concern. As disciples follow him, they gradually surrender the tendency to place themselves at the center of experience. The crucifixion of the old self is therefore an ongoing practice of relinquishing pride, resentment, fear, and possessiveness so that the life of compassionate service may shine more clearly.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again;
death no longer has dominion over him.
The death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
- Romans 6:8-11
When wisdom matures, fear begins to lose its power. Paul proclaims that death no longer rules over Christ. The Bodhisattva path similarly teaches that insight into reality frees the heart from being dominated by anxiety and self-protection. To be alive to God is to participate in a life larger than personal gain or loss. Each day we may train ourselves to remember that our deepest purpose is to embody love, relieve suffering, and contribute to the awakening and well-being of all beings.
Paul's teaching calls us to a daily practice of dying and rising. We die to self-cherishing and awaken to compassionate concern for others. We die to harmful habits and rise into newness of life. We die to fear and awaken to trust. In this way, the death and resurrection of Christ become a living reality within the heart. May we continually allow the old patterns that obscure love to fall away, and may the mind of Christ, like the Bodhisattva's awakening mind of compassion and wisdom, grow ever stronger within us for the benefit of all beings.