Day: January 7, 2024

FREED FROM SIN

Romans 6:15-23 NET.

¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not! ¹⁶ Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were entrusted to, ¹⁸ and having been freed from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness. ¹⁹ (I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. ²⁰ For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. ²¹ So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. ²² But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. ²³ For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Last year, we began a series of studies on what the gospel is all about, based on the writings of the Apostle Paul. We continue that series today as we start out this new year. We should focus on the gospel message because it defines us as Christians. Every believer should be able to explain the gospel. At some point, our non-Christian neighbors, friends, and family members are going to notice that there is something different about us. They will wonder why we don’t react to our problems the way they do to theirs. They will want to know our secret. The gospel is our secret, not a secret that God wants us to keep. He wants us to tell people why we live like we do because he wants them to repent and start living that way, too.

The apostle Paul was an expert at explaining the gospel, and we are fortunate to have his explanations in his letters in the New Testament. Paul said that he was not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1:16).

Every Christian should know this gospel and be able to explain it. But, more than this, every Christian should be able to live by this gospel of grace. It is one thing to know a fact. It is another thing to live it. We live in some truths even though we cannot fully explain those truths—for example, gravity. Gravity was here among us long before Newton got bopped by the apple. We know more about gravity now, which can be used for our benefit. But we cannot escape gravity without a costly trip to space.

But the gospel is not an automatic law like gravity. The gospel is a message that has to be understood, accepted, believed, and lived. People who are ashamed of the gospel and want to live another way are free to do so. But Paul taught us that the gospel is the power of God for salvation. So, people who choose not to live according to the gospel will not be saved. That makes the gospel message very important. That makes those of us who know the gospel very significant. We know a truth vital for the salvation of ourselves and others.

Jesus once told some Judeans that if they continued to follow his teachings, they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free (John 8:31-32). They didn’t think they were slaves. The truth is everyone is going to be a slave to something. Believing and living the gospel message frees us from sin and enslaves us to God. Today’s text explains the mechanics of that truth.

The question: Is willful sin permissible under God’s grace? (15).

Does God’s grace in Christ license us to sin all we want to? I think that is a fundamental question to ask. It helps us get to the foundation of what grace is. We already know from previous texts in Romans that every one of us was born in sin, and we needed a Savior. Jesus is that Savior. His death on the cross brought us salvation. By putting our faith in Christ, we are justified and declared righteous before God based on God’s grace.

The question Paul brings up here is what it means to be under grace. We know what it means to be under the law. It meant condemnation. It meant never being able to escape sin and its consequences. It meant being born a sinner, living in sin all your life, and dying in sin. The question Paul brings up here is once you are under grace, is sin even a thing anymore? Can we sin now because there is no longer a law to condemn us for sinning?

The answer: No, because grace must be obeyed (16-18).

Grace has not licensed us to sin. Grace has given us a way to escape sin. We were going our way and booked passage on that excellent unsinkable ocean liner called the Titanic. The Titanic is a picture of our self-determination. We boarded, and things were going well until we encountered that iceberg. Then, suddenly, we were sunk in the ocean of sin on our way down to the bottom. God’s grace came along and rescued us from the freezing waters about to take our life.

The question that Paul brings up here is this: Is it okay to jump back into the water? His answer is, “What are you, stupid?” It ain’t going to happen. You don’t jump back into the water because the water was what you had been rescued from. You don’t jump back into sin because sin is what got you into trouble in the first place.

Grace is the lifeboat. That’s why once you enter a life of grace, you have to live that life. Grace must be obeyed. Paul tells the Roman Christians that they had been obeying sin all their lives, and they were all on their way to the second death. Then God’s grace came into their lives, and it rescued them. Having been rescued from sin and its consequences by grace, they voluntarily became enslaved to God’s righteousness. They exchanged one slavery for another.

Grace has freed us from sin and enslaved us to God (16, 22).

In verse 16, Paul says you are slaves to the one you obey. It’s going to be one or the other. Either you are going to be slaves to sin, or you are going to be enslaved to God (verse 22). There is no neutrality. There is no freedom without freedom from sin, and you cannot get free from sin without staying in the lifeboat.

I am not saying we must live sinless lives to get saved. Look at the last five words of today’s text. Those words are “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The gift of grace that makes salvation possible is not something we can or cannot do. It is what Jesus Christ did for us. If it were not for Jesus, there would be no grace. There would be no rescue. But the question Paul addresses in today’s text is what it looks like to be rescued. He answers that the person Jesus rescued will be forever in debt to the one who pulled him out of the water.

The picture that Paul draws is one of redemption. Someone who is redeemed has been rescued from slavery and then voluntarily sets himself to serving his redeemer. It is exchanging one slavery for another, but there is a big difference between the two slaveries.

Living by grace leads to life; sin leads to death (19-23).

Paul asks the Roman Christians to think back to the time before they became believers in the gospel. He reminded them that they had presented their members (all aspects of their being) to impurity and lawlessness, which led to more and more of the same. They are now ashamed of the things they used to do. But it is more than a shame that they feel. It is a relief. They have been rescued from certain death.

We know that Paul is not saying that the Roman Christians will live forever. He is not saying that death is an illusion. He’s talking about a different kind of death here. Everyone dies and goes to the grave. We die not because of our sins but because of the sins of our ancestors in Eden. God told Adam and Eve that if they disobeyed his prohibition and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would surely die. Ever since they did that, all of us surely die. The payoff of that sin is death.

But the Bible tells us that everyone will be raised from that death to face judgment. That is where the gift of God comes in. On judgment day, Jesus will grant eternal life to all who have faith in him. But those who have not been rescued by grace will have to pay the penalty for their sins. That penalty is death. But that death is different from our natural death. Everyone will be raised from natural death to face judgment. But the second death is permanent. From it, there will be no resurrection.

Put another way, there are two inheritances: permanent life and permanent death. How do I know I am going to inherit permanent life instead of permanent death on judgment day? Well, am I in the boat or not? Has God’s grace rescued me, or am I still swimming around in the freezing water of my sin? Have I put my faith in Christ and his finished work on the cross, or am I still trying to live my way?

Paul has told the Roman Christians a hazardous thing. He told them about justification by faith. He told them that everyone who puts their faith in Christ will not inherit the death they deserve but will inherit eternal life instead.

But in today’s text, he explains something significant for all of us. He explains that the grace that saves also sanctifies. The lifeboat that rescues us from sin’s consequences also becomes a lifestyle that imitates God’s holiness. Someone who is saved presents his members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. Eventually, living in that grace will result in glorification. That is why Paul’s question in today’s text is so absurd. “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” It ain’t going to happen because grace is our way out of sin.

It is suitable for us always to ask ourselves questions like this. We must think about these things at the beginning of this new year. We should ask what kind of life we plan on living. Do we want to jump back into the same old freezing water that was dragging us down to death? Or do we want to take advantage of God’s great grace that he has given us in Christ?

The gospel is more than simply a doctrine to be believed. It is also a life to be lived. It is a slavery to God and his righteousness. It is more than just being grateful for the lifeboat. It is taking that lifeboat and helping others into it. It is dedicating your life to the one who has saved you, and that means committing yourself to doing his will. It is obeying the commands of your coming King – not to get saved, but to get other people saved.

_____________________

For further study:

Colenso John William. St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans: Newly Translated and Explained from a Missionary Point of View. D. Appleton 1863. pp. 134-137.

Johnson Luke Timothy. Reading Romans: A Literary and Theological Commentary. Crossroad Pub 1997. pp. 109-112.

Jong Paul C. Exegesis on the Book of Romans. I. Hephzibah Pub. House 2006. pp. 346-355.

McGee J. Vernon. Reasoning through Romans. 2nd rev. ed. Thru the Bible Books 1981. pp. 103-107.

Pate C. Marvin. Romans. Baker Books 2013. pp.149-153.

Stott John R. W et al. Reading Romans with John Stott. IVP Connect an Imprint of InterVarsity Press 2016. pp. 103-107.

Westcott Frederick Brooke. St. Paul and Justification: Being an Exposition of the Teaching in the Epistles to Rome and Galatia. Macmillan 1913. pp. 256-261.