Paul has just finished his argument and has concluded with the words we read in the last verse of chapter 5. Where sin abounds, God's grace abounds even more.
Dr. Cynic thinks to himself "I've got him now" and he charges in with his arguments:
| Dr. Cynic: | you have just said that you believe God is gracious enough to forgive any sin. |
| Paul: | that is so! |
| Dr. Cynic: | then you are saying that God's grace is the most wonderful thing in the whole world? |
| Paul: | that also is true! |
| Dr. Cynic: | well, if that is so, why worry about what you call sin in the first place. Why not just live the way we please and if it is wrong God will forgive. |
In fact let us go one step further. We in fact should practice a life of what you call sin because that is how a person experiences grace. Sin in other words effectuates grace.
Paul recoils in horror and answers: God forbid that we should go on sinning just to make grace abound.
You and I have all heard similar arguments in the conversations we have on a regular basis. In fact our society and culture have become so dulled to any sensitivity to sin that we may not even flinch when we hear such a thing.
"God is a loving and forgiving God. He will forgive any sin therefore it doesn't matter how a person lives or thinks because God's grace is greater than all our sin.
This passage draws up three questions in my mind.
From the beginnings of the gospel a false doctrine has continually spring up that basically says: "I've been forgiven so now I shall go on and do whatever I want."
Some have even seen this to be an imperative or prerequisite to salvation. If sin is the key which unlocks the door to God's grace then I will experience more of Gods grace, even unto salvation if I go out and really sin big. The russian rasputin who was advisor to empress alexandra defended his licentious lifestyle by teaching that it was necessary for salvation
Paul would cry out to that and say God forbid. You have died to sin when you became a Christian
Dietrich bonhoeffer the german pastor martyred during world war II for his stand against the nazis calls this cheap grace. It cheapens the very thing that cost our Lord his life. He goes on to say that it is grace because we didn't deserve it. But it came with a price.
To ignore that fact cheapens the most amazing and glorious part of the gospel...no more than that... It spits in the face of the gospel
When a person becomes a Christian they must ask themselves this question every day: "shall I go on sinning so that grace may increase?" Or "shall I stop sinning because grace has increased to me?"
That is a choice we must make. Will we test God's grace by living without restraint and expecting Gods grace or shall we let Gods grace so affect us that we begin to change and stop sinning.
This is legalism. It is the system that place a higher emphasis on the form and the symbol than on the substance of faith.
Paul outlines here a formula for baptism. In the new testament baptism was predominantly an adult act since most people were first generation in the church.
The symbolism is rich in that it conveys ones identification with Christ in death, burial and resurrection.
But to insist that this is the only way whereby baptism should take place would be placing a higher importance on the form than on the spiritual reality that is being conveyed.
The fact is that whether you were immersed or sprinkled; baptized as an adult or as an infant, the reality is that when you are in Christ, you have died to sin and buried it and Christ has raised you to a new life.
For some reason though, we humans like to place a higher emphasis on the forms and structures of our religion and hope that all conform to the way we do things. Yet what is really critical is the underlying truths and convictions.
Christ died once for all and rose again. He ordained that those who follow should also follow him in baptism. But that is only a point of initiation into faith.
We do it with many other forms of religion as well. And this is precisely what jesus criticized the pharisees for - using their outward expressions of religion as substitutes for the inner realities of a changed and increasingly sin-free life.
Shall I go on being tempted?
I wish I had better news for you today. Anyone here who has been honest with themselves knows that temptation never goes away. And for you who are weary and battle scarred from facing temptation all your life, I wish I could say there will come a point where temptations will cease.
You see the moralist would say that you should do all you can to avoid being tempted. Go away to some mountain top or some monastery. Remove yourself from the real world.
If you were to do that, you would find that the only things that change are the nature of the temptations; not the fact of being tempted itself.
Jesus never promised that temptations would cease. Only our sin natures tendency to give in to those temptations. He would know. He went away to the wilderness to fast and pray...to escape the pressures of the world in preparation for ministry...and that is precisely the point at which he was tempted.
The answer paul says is to reckon yourselves to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. This means that we should come to consider and appreciate the fact that we no longer have to let sin hold control over our body. We know longer are chained to those addictive habits.
There is a higher power and his name is jesus Christ and he has risen from the dead thereby giving us the power to rise above sin and weakness and let righteousness reign in our mortal bodies.
The puritans used to say, ' God does not take away our ability to sin; he gives us the ability not to sin.
The choice is ours. It is not shall I go on being tempted. You will.
Instead it is shall I go on giving in to temptation? And the answer to that is no, you need not.
Stuart briscoe illustrates it this way. He says that if television sets were made with no on/off switches, and we were chained to our recliners and our eyes were made to stay open through some mechanical means, we would have no option but to watch television. However, we all have the option to watch or not to watch and we can use our legs to get up walk to the set and use our hands to go turn the set off .
You see temptation has not overcome us for God always along with the temptation always gives us the options from which to choose.
We no longer have t go on giving in to temptation.