To Sin Or Not To Sin? That’s the Question!
Philip P Eapen
Preached on Aug 28, 2023 at the Community
of Grace, Thevara.
We have been studying Paul’s epistle to the Roman Church for the past several weeks. It is the longest of all Pauline epistles in the New Testament. We have covered the first five chapters so far. Today, we shall strive to capture the message of the sixth chapter. I have titled this sermon, “A new life, a new Master, A new destiny.” We who have been joined together with Jesus Christ have to submit ourselves to God – our new Master – so that we will have a new destiny, life eternal.
For the sake of those who might have joined us today in this series, allow me to summarize what we have learned thus far.
When did Paul write this letter?
Why did Paul write to the Romans?
What did Paul discuss thus far about the Good News of Jesus Christ?
In the first five chapters, Paul has answered these vital questions.
1. Why do we need the good news of Jesus Christ? We need the good news because we have some terrible news. Both Jews and Gentiles are under the wrath of God because all have sinned.
2. What, then, is the good news?
- First of all, the Good news is that God sent Jesus into the world
and eventually elevated him to be the King of kings and Lord of lords.
He did that to remain faithful to His covenant obligations to Abraham
(and David). God’s faithfulness to His covenant is what we refer to as
His ‘righteousness’. (“I am not ashamed of the Gospel; for in it the
righteousness of God is revealed …”) - Secondly, the Good news is that
God redeemed the world through the death of Jesus Christ. His blood
was shed for our forgiveness. God is willing to forgive the sins of
the world if they repent and trust in Jesus. - Thirdly, the Good news
is also that God has now thrown open the doors of His covenant
community to all humanity—that is, to all who would receive
it through faith in Jesus Christ. It is not necessary to be a physical
descendant of Abraham. It is not necessary to be a part of the Jewish
community.
3. How can Gentiles ever be God’s people? Wasn’t membership to God’s covenant community restricted just to the Jewish descendants of Abraham who were given the Law of Moses? No. Abraham himself was not a Jew. In fact, he was vindicated and exonerated (justified) before God before he was even circumcised. The Law was given to his descendants so that they would know how to live within God’s grace.
4. Why did God change His mind after selecting Israel? God did not change his mind. Right from the time He chose Abraham, he wanted to save the whole world throught the “Seed of Abraham” (Jesus). Until Jesus’ arrival, Israel had to be given a Law so that they would know how to please God.
Why did the Jews find it difficult to accept Paul’s Gospel to all the nations? Where did they go wrong?
1. The Jews believed that the Law was God’s greatest gift to them. It was indeed.
2. But the Jews did not know that there was a danger hidden in this “gift of the Law.” What was the danger? - Any Jew who break one part of the Law will be considered as someone who broke the entire Law. There is a curse on any one who breaks the Law. - We have fatal sinful tendencies within us. When the Jews read the Law, they came to know of many sins. Their sinful tendencies (the flesh) took advantage of them by leading them to transgress the Law. They stumbled on the very Law which was given to guard them against sin. - The Jews were trapped under the Law. They were obliged to keep the Law. But none of them was able to obey all of it. The curse of the law brought various disasters on them—including exile and slavery. - The Jews thought that the Law had remedies for their sins. They observed the rituals and sacrifices without realizing that those were mere pointers to the real sacrifice (of Jesus Christ) which was yet to come.
The Gentiles were already living in sin. The Jews too were living in sin even though they were supposed to be God’s people living “under the law”. As the sins of mankind multiplied by the day, they should have become detestable in the sight of God. But instead of giving up on mankind, God was all the more determined to save humanity. As transgressions increased, the measure of God’s grace towards mankind kept pace with it. Sin abounded. But grace abounded all the more. That is, the rapidly worsening situation of human sinfulness could not diminish God’s immeasurable compassion.
I shall read the sixth chapter for us now. I find Bishop N. T. Wright’s translation quiet useful.
1What are we to say, then? Shall we continue in the state of sin, so that grace may increase? 2Certainly not! We died to sin; how can we still live in it? 3Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into the Messiah, Jesus, were baptized into his death? 4That means that we were buried with him, through baptism, into death, so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead through the father’s glory, we too might behave with a new quality of life. 5For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection.
6This is what we know: our old humanity was crucified with the Messiah, so that the solidarity of sin might be abolished, and that we should no longer be enslaved to sin. 7A person who has died, you see, has been declared free from all charges of sin. 8But if we died with the Messiah, we believe that we shall live with him. 9We know that the Messiah, having been raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has any authority over him. 10The death he died, you see, he died to sin, once and only once. But the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way you, too, must calculate yourselves as being dead to sin, and alive to God in the Messiah, Jesus.
12So don’t allow sin to rule in your mortal body, to make you obey its desires. 13Nor should you present your limbs and organs to sin to be used for its wicked purposes. Rather, present yourselves to God, as people alive from the dead, and your limbs and organs to God, to be used for the righteous purposes of his covenant. 14Sin won’t actually rule over you, you see, since you are not under law but under grace.
15What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! 16Don’t you know that if you present yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you really are slaves of the one you obey, whether that happens to be sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to final vindication? 17Thank God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you have become obedient from the heart to the pattern of teaching to which you were committed. 18You were freed from sin, and now you have been enslaved to God’s covenant purposes (19I’m using a human picture because of your natural human weakness!). For just as you presented your limbs and organs as slaves to uncleanness, and to one degree of lawlessness after another, so now present your limbs and organs as slaves to covenant justice, which leads to holiness.
20When you were slaves of sin, you see, you were free in respect of covenant justice. 21What fruit did you ever have from the things of which you are now ashamed? Their destination is death. 22But now that you have been set free from sin and enslaved to God, you have fruit for holiness. Its destination is the life of the age to come. 23The wages paid by sin, you see, are death; but God’s free gift is the life of the age to come, in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.
We know that the first eleven chapters of this epistle answers the question, What is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The second half of the epistle, from chapters twelve to fifteen, is about, How do we live out this Gospel? Exhortation follows the teaching.
But, in chapter six, we have an early parenetic section that exhorts Christians to lead a holy life.
We all are familiar with Paul’s exhortation, in Romans 12:1, where he pleads with Christians to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God. Chapter six tells us why and how we should present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God.
Similarly, Romans 12:2 urges us to be renewed by the transformation of our minds. The first half of Romans 8 teaches us why and how we should change our way of thinking.
The teaching found in chapters six through eight provides us a firm foundation for practical Christian living. Therefore, it is very important for Christian to correctly understand these chapters.
In chapter six, Paul continues his argument he put forward in chapters four and five. He asks two rhetorical questions.
After making such a statement – “where sin increased, grace multiplied” – Paul wonders whether someone might ask, “If more offences can result in greater measures of God’s grace, why don’t we just continue in sin?”
The Message Bible paraphrases this question: “So …? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving?” That’s one way of looking at it—even if you don’t like paraphrases.
The second question is similar to the first. Shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under the grace?
None of us were under the Jewish law. Paul is directing this question at Jewish Christians. They were “under the law.”
What does Paul mean by saying, “We are no more under the law”?
We might think that the Law of Moses was like training wheels attached to kids’ bicycles. When a child learns to ride a bicycle, the training wheels helps to keep the bike upright. Once the child is able to pedal without falling, the training wheels are removed.
So, some Christians think that the Law was given to help Israel remain on God’s track till the arrival of Jesus Christ. After Jesus fulfilled the Law, there is no more need for the Law! The Law was abolished.
The question is, Is this what Paul intended to convey to his readers when he said, “We are no more under the law”? I don’t think so.
Over the past fifty years, the most prominent of New Testament scholars understand it this way.
When a Jew leaves Judaism and starts following Christ, he is actually stepping down from the “high horse” of Judaism in which he once took great pride. He trusted in his privileged Jewish pedegree. He thought that he was in good terms with God just by being a descendant of Abraham.
He had something that no other nation had—the Law of Moses that gave him his religion, the Jewish identity as “the People of God.”
But once a Jew realizes that he is like any other sinner, he comes down to the level of all other sinners. He comes and stands at the back of the line. He cannot pull his Privilege Card to cut the line and stand closer to the front. The Jew has to go to the back of the regular Gentile line—to put it figuratively!
After turning his back on his Jewish identity, will a Jew be able to say, “Finally, I am no longer a Jew and I can do whatever I want to do”?
When Paul asks, Shall we sin, because we are not under the law but under the grace? what he means is, Is the Christian life a lawless life?
Antinomianism. That’s the belief that Christians are not under any rule, regulation or law. Are we advocating antinomianism?
Paul gives us just one answer to the two questions. He is emphatic. He says, μὴ γένοιτο! God forbid!
I included the Greek phrase here because it is a unique phrase that occurs only about 15 times in the New Testament. Ten of those are found in Romans.
Paul is very emphatic. A Christian must not even think of continuing in sin. Christian life is not a lawless life.
There’s another place where Paul uses the same emphatic μὴ γένοιτο! It’s in Romans 3:31.
Do we then nullify the law through faith?
The answer again is, μὴ γένοιτο! God forbid!
Just because a Jew leaves his privileged Jewish identity and starts following Christ, he is not stepping into a void—a lawless life.
Paul says he does not nullify the Law through faith. Instead, he upholds the law! Why?
That’s because Jesus came here as a Jew. The goal of the Mosaic Law was Jesus Christ. He lived under the Law. He died under the Law to fulfill the Law. The death of Jesus Christ is valid under the Law of Moses.
Jesus was the fulfillment of the office of the High Priest. He was the true Tabernacle that held the Presence of God. He was the Passover Lamb, the Bread of Life. He was the scapegoat that carried away our guilt and shame.
If we say that the Law is null and void, we are shaking the very foundations of the Cross of Christ!
Yes, the ritualistic aspects of the Law were fulfilled in Christ. That’s why we don’t sacrifice animals here. But any part of the Law that was affirmed by Jesus and the apostles still stands! Yes, there are such laws, especially the Moral Law (or The Ten Commandments). That is why Paul wrote in Romans 13:10, “Love is the fulfillment of the law”.
Paul gives us two reasons. Why should we quit sinning?
Paul does not say, “It is impossible a born-again Christian to sin.” Instead, he gives his readers two powerful reasons to quit sinning.
What you see in these answers is the centrality of the cross and the meaning of true faith. I shall explain.
A repentant sinner receives the benefit of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice only when he makes the death of Christ his own death. That happens through water baptism.
When a repentant sinner accepts water baptism, something actually happens. That’s what the apostle Paul says here. The sinner dies with Christ. He gets buried with Christ. And then, when he rises from the water, God identifies him with the resurrection of Jesus so that he may lead a new life of obedience to God.
My point is this: Something actually happens during water baptism. We evangelicals and charismatics often say that baptism is just a symbol of what has already happened inside a believer.
That’s because we use Romans 10:9-10 as a formula for “getting saved.” Let me tell you very clearly. Romans 10:9-10 is NOT a formula for “getting saved.” For more than a century, evangelicals have been plucking those two verses out of context and using it as a formula.
Water baptism is the official beginning of Christian life. That’s where the line gets drawn. That’s where a death, burial and a new start happens. Baptism is not an empty shell. It is the real deal.
If we hollow out water baptism and present it as a mere symbol, what Paul says in Romans 6 will be just empty words for us.
All humans are slaves to sin. There is no way we can break the shackles of sin. Human religion does not offer us any help with this.
But when a repentant sinner believes in Jesus Christ and takes water baptism, he gets united with the death of Jesus Christ.
Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?1
In verse 6, Paul says that our former self gets crucified with Christ. Death brings us freedom. Real freedom. Idenfitication with the death of Christ sets us free from our slavery to death.
Verse 7 says, For someone who has died has been freed from sin.
The sinful nature remains with us even after baptism. It will continue its conversation with us. It will entices us towards sin. Many young Christians ask this question, I have been born again. Why am I still getting these urges to sin?
You are hearing the voice of your sinful nature. But there is an important difference.
You are free from the slavery to sin. You can ignore the suggestions of your sinful old nature.
In Romans 6, Paul reminds us that we must take charge of our lives because Christ has set us free.
He commands his readers to do these things:
These three commands must be accompanied by their corresponding commands:
The very act of dedicating ourselves to God is called sanctification. Once anything or anyone has been dedicated totally for God’s use, that thing or person can be described as a holy thing or a holy person.
Paul is commanding his readers to sanctify themselves. These acts of consecration are things that we must do. Jesus is not going to do these for us.
We must be so responsive to God that we are irresponsive to the voice of our sinful nature. We must be so busy doing the right things that we do not have time to consider any sinful activity.
This is the life of a Christian. He was a slave of sin. He was set free by the death of Jesus Christ which he appropriated through water baptism. He is now a slave of God.
Verse 22 says, “But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.”
We are not called to be absolutely “free.” We were set free so that we might belong to God. (Chapter seven talks about that)
Someone might ask, We are saved by grace through faith. Why are you giving us a list of commands?
Yes, I agree that we are saved through faith. If we actually believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we will live out that reality every moment of our life. How else can we prove the genuineness of our faith?
Anyone can make a confession that they believe in Christ. In fact, anyone can pretend to be a Christian and accept water baptism. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. We know that a person’s faith is genuine when he lives out his faith in the Saviour every moment of his life.
Christian life is not an instantaneous event. It is a journey. At every moment of that journey, we are called to ignore sin and to say “Yes” to God. This is why the New Testament urges us to remain alert.
In conclusion, let me remind us that we have been given a new life. We were set free from slavery to sin and Satan. We are now called to consecrate our life to God. We must become slaves of God. If we become slaves of God, we will have a sanctified life. The result is holiness. The end of such a consecrated life is eternal life.
This is the real life of faith. Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”2
Philip Eapen, an environmental scientist by training, devoted his life to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ ever since he realized that the world needs Jesus Christ more than anyone or anything else. Apart from sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, Philip teaches Christians in order to equip them for service. He is supported by donations from readers. Philip is married to Dr. Jessimol and they are blessed with three sons and a daughter.
Date: August 21, 2023
