Shall We Keep On Sinning?
By Dennis Pollock
In the first verse of the sixth chapter of Romans, the apostle Paul asks: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Romans 6:1). In this study I want to consider why Paul asked this question. Why would he say this?
Notice the word "then." Paul asks, "What shall we say THEN." This tells us that the issue he is bringing up has something to do with what he has said in this epistle previously. In other words, Paul says, "Based on what I have been telling you in this letter what conclusion can we draw?" Paul seems concerned that some will come to believe an erroneous idea after reading his earlier words.
And what is that false, invalid concept Paul suspects may capture the minds of his readers? It is the idea that we who have believed in Jesus Christ have the freedom to continue in sin and magnify the grace of God. So, after asking, "Shall we continue in sin?" Paul states unequivocally: "Certainly not!" and then states: "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"
For this to make much sense we must go back to the previous chapters, where Paul insists that salvation is by grace and through faith in Jesus. He is radical in the idea that we are saved by faith in Jesus and not by any works we have done. He even goes so far as to state: "But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness…" (Romans 4:5). Through faith in Jesus Christ, God justifies ungodly people, men and women with a terrible past, people who have committed atrocities and lived wicked lives. By inviting such people to receive His Son, Jesus, by faith, and put their trust in Him, He declares that they will be forgiven, accepted, and even justified – placed in such a spiritual state it will be as though they had never sinned at all.
Do We Continue?
But after insisting that salvation is through faith in Jesus and not by any works we have done or can do, we get to the sixth chapter of Romans, where Paul asks the question: "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" He knows that human nature is what it is, some are going to view this doctrine of acceptance with God through faith as a free pass to sin as much as they like, as often as they like, and with all the gusto they can muster. Because of Jesus we all get a divinely stamped visa for heaven – no changes needed, expected, or demanded. And therefore, Paul answers his question about continuing to sin by saying, "Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?"
To Paul, the thought that being saved by grace gives us the freedom to go right on stealing, right on fornicating, and right on committing adultery is horrendous. To be born again by faith in Jesus means you die to sin, your life will change, your behavior will change, your moral standards will change, and a godly lifestyle will become your new norm. Thus, in response to his question: "Shall we continue to sin?" his answer is a loud "Certainly not!"
You Cannot Stay the Same
This is not a new idea to me. For the last 50-plus years I have believed that to embrace Jesus by faith means you cannot go on with your wicked lifestyle. You may slip up here and there, but you will not be the same man or woman you were before you accepted Jesus. I have spoken plainly about these things, and some people have been very upset with me. In their minds, believing in Jesus means nothing more than believing in the historical Jesus. They protest loudly that we should not expect or insist on any kind of lifestyle change. The only thing different about us, now that we have believed, is that we have believed. We will still lie, we will still curse, we will still spend hours and hours watching pornography, we will still sleep with every person we date… nothing about our lives will change except that we used to not believe in Jesus and now we do believe in Him.
Some of these folks, upset with my insistence that lifestyle change will always accompany genuine faith in Jesus, will leave comments under my videos, saying something like, "Well I believe that salvation is 100 percent free. I believe in salvation that is completely by grace through faith." They seem to feel as though they have said something novel or clever, something that I obviously must be ignorant of. But the truth is, every evangelical believes that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus. Nobody denies that. No Baptist, Presbyterian, Charismatic, or Methodist. We all believe we are saved and go to heaven through faith in Jesus.
The question is: should we expect a lifestyle change to accompany our faith and give evidence of its genuineness? And if your life does not change, and you go right on living as selfishly, sensuously, and immorally as you did before your so-called faith experience, do you really have true salvation? And Paul here says a big fat "no." How could you continue in sin if you truly believed in Christ and died to sin? And if you did not die to sin, Paul strongly suggests that you are not saved; you did not truly believe in Jesus, even if you think that you did.
Is Jesus a "Sin-Minister?"
He asks another similar question in his epistle to the Galatians, writing: "But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." (Galatians 2:17-18). Although he changes a few words, this is identical to the question he poses in Romans. Now that we have received Jesus by faith, can we continue sinning? He answers, once again, "Certainly not!" If this is our attitude, the idea that we can sin freely, happily, and enthusiastically AFTER receiving Jesus, we are declaring Jesus to be a sin-excuser, a sin-producer, a "minister of sin" as Paul puts it, and we are rebuilding the life we supposedly demolished through our faith experience with Jesus. Why does Paul bring these things up? He knows that if he does not speak about this and resolve this issue, people will mistake grace for license and freedom to sin.
We must remember that when we read these epistles of the New Testament, we are reading books inspired by the Holy Spirit. These are not just the opinions of Paul, Peter, James, and John – these God-breathed letters reveal the mind of God. And, unquestionably, the Holy Spirit wanted those who intend to follow Christ to know that real faith, the faith that saves and forgives, will always be accompanied by life transformation. Anticipating the very thing Paul was trying to avoid, the idea of sin-as-much-as-you-like, James was moved upon by the Spirit of God to write: "Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works… For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." (James 2:18,26).
Genuine faith in Christ always leads to turning away from sin. Any supposed faith that does not produce this turning away is fake faith, or, as James puts it, "dead faith." And dead faith never saved anybody. "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid."
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