Good infection (aka, the Walking Living)

I’d love to take the credit for the phrase “good infection,” but I must give credit to C.S. Lewis.

I can’t even remember how he used it, but I did read Mere Christianity, and somehow, that term must have floated back up to my head as I was writing yesterday’s blog.

Yesterday, we talked about “bad infection.” That through Adam, we all have been infected with sin. We’re not sinners because we sin, we sin because we are sinners.

Fortunately, there is also a “good infection” that comes through Jesus Christ. Paul writes,

But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men.

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:15-19)

In other words, so many have died because of the bad infection of sin they received from Adam.

But through the good infection of grace and righteousness we have received from Jesus, we receive life.

And just as we were condemned through this bad infection we received from Adam, we have now been justified through the good infection we received from Jesus.

More, through this good infection, we become something totally different. And thankfully, we don’t become zombies.

Rather, we become someone with a totally new nature, a righteous nature. And we become righteous not because we do righteous acts. Rather we start to do righteous things because we actually are already made righteous in Christ.

We’ll see this later in 2 Corinthians 5:17 where Paul writes,

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Maybe I should have named this post, “The Walking Living.” Because that’s what we become in Christ. People who are truly alive.

(In fact, I think I’ll rename this post right now. Hold on a bit…Great! Done!) 🙂

So let us pass on this “good infection” we have received in Christ, that they might become the “Walking Living” too.