Should We Sin that Grace Might Abound?
Romans 6:1-11
The problem of sin in the Christian life has been the source of much unrest of soul. We realize from the beginning of the 5th chapter of Romans that the believer “is” at peace with the Lord Jesus Christ. We look at our sins and failures and treat this fact as if it said: “Because we have been justified by faith, we “should” have peace with our Lord Jesus Christ, but we don’t, at least not yet.” The 5th chapter of Romans seems so lofty, an idealized portrait of the perfect Christian understanding. But all too often, we find ourselves sinning. Was Paul some kind of superhero and we superzeroes? Sin makes us doubt of the reality of our relationship with Jesus.
Paul had just lifted us into the stratosphere when he says: “Where sin abounded, grace superabounded.” God’s grace in Jesus Christ is indeed the foundation of our hope. This grace is made effective by our faith in Jesus Christ who dies for us, even though we did not deserve it. It is the superlative form of grace. In a way, we cannot attain to any greater grace. We already have this grace. So when Paul says that grace “superabounded,” we already have all the grace we will ever need. There is no need for a greater grace. The whole idea that we should look for more grace is a misunderstanding of our present reality. But what we can do is come to a greater understanding of the superlative grace we already have. This is “growing in grace.”
Paul ends chapter 5 with the words that this “grace rules in us unto righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The Greek verb “rules” is not a future tense verb. In fact, it is in the simple past tense, the implications of which are applied to the believer. The rule of righteous grace through Jesus Christ is rooted in the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. It is this act of grace though which we attain unto eternal life.
Grace is a gift that can be misunderstood and even abused. Some think grace will abound more by doing righteous acts and keeping the Law. Paul deals with this abuse elsewhere. The term for such a thought is “legalism.” Since grace is totally undeserved and is not a result of our works, there is nothing we can do to add to this grace.
Another abuse of grace is called “antinomianism.” This is the opposite extreme, and this is what Paul addresses here in Romans 6. Antinomianism states that since we are saved by grace, how we conduct our lives does not matter. An extreme form of this is that since sin is what led to grace, sinning even more would mean even more grace. “Should we continue in sin that grace might abound.” Paul realizes that this is the argument of the legalists against Paul’s conception of grace. Would it not indeed be offensive to God that anyone should continue committing sinful acts? Paul realizes that someone could misapply what he has just said. But the answer to antinomianism is not legalism. Paul cannot vacillate between these two contrasting ideas, both of which are wrong. He denies this charge in the most vehement denial. The Greek is translated “God forbid!” or “absolutely not.” The literal translation is “May this not happen!” It is hard to translate the Greek verb which is in the optative case, but there is a sense of revulsion in it when used with the word “Not.” It is a nauseating thought to Paul. Paul always upholds the Law as the true expression of God’s will. He cannot deny that the Scripture is absolutely God-breathed. This includes the Law that God gave to Moses.
Paul has to strongly affirm the Scripture without falling into the trap of legalism. Paul’s answer to this horrifying idea that anyone should sin against God willfully in the hopes that God will provide more grace. It is bad enough to think that God’s grace can be earned and increased by good works. But it is repugnant that anyone should think that sinning earns grace. Both legalism and antinomianism are a form of works righteousness, either good works righteousness or bad works righteousness. The idea of works is entirely antithetical to grace.
What Paul goes on to do is to ground grace which leads to righteousness as the work of the only One who is righteous. Grace is not grounded in what we have done for God but in what God has done for us. It is what Christ Jesus has done. This is what we believe. What Christ has done has implications for our conduct. The reality is that we died to sin. There is no longer any basis for sinning. Dead people cannot sin. Paul goes on to apply the symbol of baptism to reinforce this truth. Baptism is our obedient response to faith in Jesus Christ. Paul stresses the “obedience of faith” in Romans. Even though this term only appears at the beginning and end of Romans, it is a central theme of Romans. The technical term used by theologians for this is inclusio. By putting something at the beginning and end of the book gives greater emphasis to the theme and makes everything in between as commentary. Another inclusio appears in the Book of Revelation with the word “grace.” It appears only twice in the book. The rest of the book contains dreadful judgments and admonitions to remain faithful even unto death. Some would find it difficult to find grace in the book at all. But the word “grace” appearing at both the beginning and end of the book should clue us to understand that grace is at center of the book of Revelation. Batpism then, he in Romans 6, is defined as part of the idea of the obedience of faith.
The two ordinances (or Sacraments) which Christians of all denominations together observe are the Lord’s Supper and baptism. These ordinances of Christian faith serves as the symbols of our unity in Christ. Yet some of our biggest Christian disputes are over these two ordinances. They divide us rather than unite us. Too many book have been written about these things already, and I don’t plan to write another one. Rather I will attempt to explain how Paul uses the symbol of baptism here.
Paul starts with the words: Or are you ignorant of.” The fancy term for this expression is litotes. This is using the negative of what one means to say to emphasize the positive statement. So the idea here is “Surely, you know that….” They had been taught this about their baptism and needed to bring it back into their mind. Baptism was taught as dying in Christ. It is the reality behind baptism. We are part of the body of Christ. Since Christ, who is the head of the body died, then all the body died with him. Since Christ is risen from the dead, we too rise with Him. Even though the final consummation awaits for the return of Jesus Christ, it is equally true now, even when our actions seem to deny this reality. What God promises is timeless. What He has promised in the past has in a sense already been done because all He ordains shall surely come to pass. We remember Jesus’ words in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5. The formula: “Blessed are … for theirs (or yours). Some of these verbs are in the present tense and some future. “Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” The Kingdom of Heaven is not a future kingdom. We are in the kingdom now. There are some which are future “for great shall be your reward in Heaven.” So we see by Jesus Himself there is both a “now” and “not yet” aspect of our Christian walk. We now live in the Theology of the Cross which was espoused by Luther. What remains in the future is the Theology of Glory as espoused by Calvin. But as Paul reminds us at the beginning of Romans 5, for a short while, our thoughts of future glory are replaced by facing various trials. Death is the ultimate fear which lorded over us. But our death and the consequent fear of judgment is already a past fact in Jesus Christ.
Not only did we die with Christ, we were also partakers of his tomb. Baptism reminds us that our sinful bodies which had died were buried in Christ’s tomb and stay buried there. The body of sin did not rise on the third day. Jesus, who became sin for us did not take our sin up to Heaven when He ascended. He arose in a new body with perfect righteousness. We who are the body of Christ arose with His perfect body. I say this in symbol. We know Christ sits at the right hand of the Father in a glorified physical body, and that we also will have glorified bodies at His return. We realize that the physical bodies we live in have not yet died. We shall die unless we remain to the Lord’s return in which case our bodies will be instantly transformed. But spiritually, and I say this in a real sense, we are already one in Christ, the reality of which is that the Holy Spirit lives in us.
This is the summary of Paul’s argument here. Our oneness with Christ means our freedom from sin. The fulness of this has not yet been fully realized. In verse 7, It tells us because we have died (in Christ and to sin), that we have been set apart unto God. The Greek word is the basis of the word “dedicate” in English. This has the idea of having been set apart for special service to God rather than sin. The verb is in the Greek perfect tense. The Greek tense emphasizes the ongoing reality and implications of an action which happened in the past. The basis of being set apart is first the death of Christ, and secondly our coming to faith in Him. When we believed, we were set apart for a new use. This is what holiness is. Holiness is not what we do or not do. Rather it is the reality of having been set apart. Our conduct flows from this reality. So sinful conduct which was the reality of our life before Christ is not the reality now.
So Paul reminds us that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, the Greek being most emphatic by the addition of the pronoun “you.” Reckon is an accounting term used by Paul throughout Romans. At times, we need to reckon the books. We need to audit them. So by our remembering what is the true reality of our situation, we correct the wrong entries in the book. The term used by the Reformers semper reformanda (always reforming) applies here. But not only are we to reckon ourselves dead to sin, but alive to Christ as well.
Paul has therefore answered the argument that one should abundantly sin that even more grace might come. We already have all the grace we will ever need. We need to realize this grace that has been given. We need to grow in our understanding of this grace. Does this mean we achieve perfect legal standing? Yes, but not based upon works. This does not mean we do not continue to struggle with sin. But struggling with sin is different than submitting to it. If we take Romans 7 as being true of Paul himself in his present struggles, even Paul who some hold to be a superhero had to constantly remind himself of who God is, who Paul was, and what Christ had graciously provided. Let us do likewise.
