Shall We Sin That Grace Might Abound?

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.