Romans Chapter 6 Vs. 1

 

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

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

What shall we... Questions 32-35. Next, Rom. 6:15. Having proved the sinfulness of both Jews and Gentiles and that both must be redeemed alike by Christ through faith and grace, Paul now takes up the argument of the divine method of dealing with sin and the secret of a victorious holy life (Rom. 6:1-8:39). The questions come up that if salvation is free and apart from works-if the more heinous the sins the more abundant the grace to pardon, then may we not go on in sin so that the grace of God may become magnified? God forbid.

Paul anticipated the major objections of his critics, that by preaching a justification based solely on the free grace of God, he was encouraging people to sin.

This still is an ongoing discussion in the church today. Many believe that it is not necessary to live above sin. They feel that it is a natural thing to sin, and God will overlook sin. He surely knows their weakness. The flesh will sin, but we found in the previous lesson that our flesh must be dead so that our spirit can live. There are two forces in our body today, our flesh nature and our spirit nature.

God’s provided righteousness involves more than declaring believers righteous on the basis of faith. In Romans the first clue to this fact is in Rom. 5:5 : “God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.” The presence of the Holy Spirit within believers and God’s reproduction of an attribute of His (His love) in believers speak of their new natures and their new lives. This new kind of life, with the sanctifying ministry of the Holy Spirit, is now discussed at length by Paul in chapters 6-8.

Ground of sanctification

The questions that open this section demand reflection. A review of God’s provision by grace through Jesus Christ should elicit praise to God. But the teaching on God’s justification of sinful people (3:21-5:21) and the statement of Rom. 5:20 in particular might lead some to suggest what Paul expressed: Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? Some may have reasoned that since grace increases “all the more” when sin abounds, then believers ought to sin more so they could experience more grace! The apostle voiced this idea only to reject it vehemently: By no means! (mē genoito; cf. comments on Rom. 3:4) In no way is the abundance of God’s grace designed to encourage sin.