AUGUST 22, 2023
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:1-2)
Paul begins this chapter by posing a question about the implications of the statements that ended Chapter 5. There, he wrote that where sin abounded, God’s grace did much more abound. As sin increased, so did God’s grace abound to cover the sin of all those who trusted in Christ’s death to cover their sin. Men literally could not out-sin the grace of God.
What does that mean for those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Christ? What are Christians supposed to do about sin now that we are Christians? Paul here asks if we should then keep sinning so that God’s grace can just keep increasing. This seems to have been a common criticism of Paul’s teaching, as he often refutes it in his writings. It’s a frequent charge against the Gospel of Grace even today, suggesting that the gospel is really just a license to sin.
He answers this charge with, “By no means!” As a teaching tool, Paul often asks ridiculous questions and responds with the same Greek phrase, “mē genoito.” In short, Christians should not keep sinning to increase the grace of God. In fact, Christians should not keep sinning willfully and intentionally at all. Elsewhere in Scripture, we’re given more details on why a life of persistent, willful sin is inconsistent with those who have truly been saved. He writes in Galatians, “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.” (Gal. 5:24). In verses 19-23, Paul outlines how Christians should be living, as well as the sin we must forsake. If we are indeed Christ’s, having salvation in and through Him, as well as His will written on our hearts, we can no longer continue in sin. We must give up this disreputable behavior, repent, ask for forgiveness, and run to God. We can no longer live to sin.
Paul responds to this question with another question: How can people who died to sin still live in it? This raises a whole new aspect of Paul’s gospel message. As he will show in upcoming verses, all people who come to God in faith, believing in Christ’s death in their place on the cross to pay for their sin, are said to have “died with Christ” in a sense. More specifically, we are said to have died to sin through faith in Christ.
Paul will expand this thought, but the idea is this: Those who are not in Christ live under the rule of sin. They cannot avoid sinning. However, Christ’s death on the cross to pay for our sins broke sin’s rule over our lives. We now have the power, in Christ, to stop sinning. We have not lost our desire to sin, but, thank God, sin no longer has dominion over us.
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