The person who is justified by faith shall live (1:17). That is the theme of the epistle. In chapters 5–8 Paul began to discuss the characteristics of the “new life” (6:4), but not until chapter 12 does he devote himself to the ethical and ecclesiastical shape of it. Justification by faith produces neither moral passivity nor permissiveness. Rather, the indicative of chapters 1–11 leads to the imperative of chapters 12–16. The faith which saves is a faith which can and must be lived, and only the faith which is lived is a faith which saves. The righteousness which comes to us in Christ must become rooted within us in the Spirit. If by justification we were born to a “living hope” (1 Pet. 1:3), then in sanctification we must become a “living sacrifice” (12:1). Being and becoming—these are b…