WHAT ABOUT SIN? - 5

SHALL WE CONTINUE IN SIN THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND – WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

In order to understand why this question was raised by the Apostle Paul, we need to look at what he had just taught in the previous chapter on sin.

Now he said in Romans 5:20-21, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MUCH MORE ABOUND: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Earlier in the book of Romans, Paul was teaching men their need of God’s grace and how God used the Law, which is the Ten Commandments, to show men this need. Romans 3:19-20 reads, “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: FOR BY THE LAW IS THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN”

It is obvious that the Law revealed to man that he is a sinner. I have taught this extensively in the last edition of the #Basileia tagged “Grace”. Now Romans 5:20 goes a step further and teaches us that the Law did not only revealed that men were sinners; it also revealed that their sin was an offence against God.

However, before God gave the Law to his people, there was sin in the world, but men had no idea that they were sinning against a holy God and His holy standards of righteousness. Once the Law entered, they knew the awfulness of sin and how guilty they were in God’s sight by breaking His commandments. It is in that sense that “sin abounded.” Did you get that? Sin abounded by the help us the law.

But then God also revealed His grace to men through the gospel. Paul again the book of Romans said, “But now the righteousness of God without law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe.” Verse 24 adds, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” So, even though the Law revealed the ugliness of man’s sin against God, the gospel of grace reveals God’s way of justifying the sinner through Christ’s death on the cross. This proved that God’s grace was greater than all of man’s sin, just as we saw in Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”

So it is in this light that we say that there is no sin that is greater than the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Now suppose sin can be weighed, and If for example you have 100 kg of sin, there is more than 100 kg of grace available, if you say that your own is 2 billion kg, again there is more than 2 billion kg of grace available. And this grace abounds upon us daily as sons and daughters of God. This is what we call Justification by faith.

However, because of this truth, Apostle Paul knew that there would be some people who would use that as an excuse to sin. Man will still be man. For example, anyone who wants to use grace as a license to sin will say, “If our sin allows God to display His grace, then why not CONTINUE IN SIN THAT GRACE MAY ABOUND?”

Paul then meets that argument head-on by stating in Romans 6:2, “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?”

Note that he said “continue in sin” not “continue to sin”. So he actually refers to our return to the dominion and dictates of sin which has been done away with Christ.

Paul is teaching us clearly and emphatically that grace was never meant to encourage one to keep living in sin (obeying sin); instead grace has put us in a position where we have “died to sin.” What does that mean? It means that the moment you believe on Jesus Christ as your Savior God sees you as identified completely with Jesus Christ. Verse 6 goes on to explain that: “Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him, that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin”. You see that?

So, in Christ’s death, WE HAVE DIED! When it says, “our old man,” it is referring to the person we were before we trusted Christ, the person who was born into a sinful race and who sinned willfully in rebellion against God. God judged “that person” in the death of His Son so that “the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin.”

Again we come to our previous assertion, SIN IS DEAD!

What does this mean? It means that our death with Christ gives us the power to cancel sin’s power and the one who understands that, would NEVER ask the question, “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

Amen.