Week 13 - Thursday

Can We Continue to Sin?

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be!

(Romans 6:1-2a)

Chapter 6 of Romans begins a new section of teaching for Paul. In Chapters 1-5, Paul dealt primarily with the sinfulness of all mankind and the salvation that God offers through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul went into great detail establishing that not only is every person guilty of sin, but they are also condemned by God because of it. Unless they are forgiven by God, each and every person is doomed to spend spend forever in hell because of their sin. Even though all people are sinners and reject God, God chose to save us from our sins. God even had His own Son, Jesus Christ, die on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. Now, because of the sacrifice that Jesus made, whenever a person turns from their sin and receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, their sins are forgiven. God forgives all of their sins because Jesus already paid the penalty for all of them. They are no longer under God's condemnation. As wonderful as that might be, it is only the beginning of what happens to someone when they are saved. God doesn't just forgive a person's sins when He saves them, He also changes their heart. Starting in Chapter 6 and continuing through Chapter 8, Paul describes the kind of changes that happen to those who have received Jesus Christ.

Paul ended chapter 5 of Romans by stating "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more". Because of the criticism he knew it would bring, Paul begins chapter 6 defending this statement. The Jewish religious leaders were legalists and they strongly objected to Paul's teaching that salvation was by grace, through faith alone. Legalism says that obedience to certain laws and ceremonies is necessary for salvation. Because the Jews could not accept that a person could possibly be saved solely on the basis of God's grace, they accused Paul of teaching against the law of God by saying that it was okay to sin. Paul's answer to their accusation is, "May it never be!", or in the Greek "Me genito". This is the strongest possible objection in New Testament Greek. The exclamation mark in our English translation was added to indicate the intensity of it. It is as if Paul were saying, “No, no, no, a thousand times no.”

Paul also knew there would be people who would misinterpret his teaching in another way. They would conclude that since sin caused God's grace to increase, it was alright to sin because it gave God an opportunity to be glorified by showing His mercy in forgiving you. This kind of thinking is called libertinism. Libertinism says that since salvation is by God's grace, and God is glorified by forgiving our sins, we have the freedom or liberty to sin. The Bible clearly teaches that this is wrong. (Jude 1:4) It is not possible that our sins could please God in any way. Paul feels so strongly about this that in Romans 3:8 he says those who think this way deserve to be condemned.

Even though they are exact opposites of each other, libertinism and legalism are equally wrong views on godliness. For just about everything, there are equally undesirable results at opposite extremes. Temperatures can be either too hot or too cold. An outside temperatures of 120 degrees can be just as dangerous as 40 below. Cars driven too fast or cars driven too slow, are both traffic hazards. Almost every principle of God's word can be violated at either extreme also, either by taking too much liberty or by being too legalistic. In his teachings Paul is very careful to avoid both of these extremes as he gives us the correct perspective on godly living.

It's true that no sin is too great for God to forgive. Not even the total sins of all mankind. It's also true that God is glorified in forgiving us. But our sins do not please God. In fact the opposite is true. Ours sins dishonor God. When unsaved people see Christian's sinning they are likely to think either one of two things. First, they may think that if Christan's are doing it, it must be okay for them to do too. Second, they might think that God doesn't even exist because of how sinful the people who claim to believe in Him behave. Just our gratitude alone toward God, for saving us, should give us plenty of reason not to sin. Why would we ever want to bring dishonor to God after He has shown so much love and mercy to us. God's grace does not give us the freedom to sin. God's grace is meant to motivate us not to sin.

Readings for today: Gal 2:16-17; Rom. 2:23-24; 2 Cor. 5:15; Rom. 2:4