Romans 6:1,2

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?   Romans 6:1,2 ESV

We read in verse 20 of chapter 5 that the law came to increase the trespass. In other words, the more God reveals, through his laws and commands, His character, the more we should begin to recognize how sinful and evil we are. God wants us to see who we really are in light of who He is so that we realize our desperate need for His grace, grace that has the power through righteousness to abound, to set us free from our sinful debt.

We see that God uses our sinful and lost state to glorify Himself by revealing His perfect grace. 

We would not know or understand the power of God's grace if we didn't understand our sinful and lost state - which allows us to experience God's grace when we are transferred from darkness to light.

God will always be perfectly glorified in every situation, even in our sin He reveals Himself and glorifies Himself. Paul touched on this earlier in Romans 3:5 and 3:7:

But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.)

But if through my lie God's truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner?

These verses describe what Paul is saying in verse 20 of chapter 5, while not responsible for our sinfulness itself, God is glorified when He reveals His perfection in light of our sinfulness. 

Paul is very good at anticipating the questions of his audience and cutting off any misunderstanding that might take place. He does this numerous times, including 6:1:  

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

Paul asks the question he knows some (maybe most) of his audience will ask...if our sinfulness causes God to be more glorified through the abundance and power of his grace, shouldn't we (or couldn't we) sin more - so that God may be more glorified? 

Paul dealt with the same issue in Romans 3:8 - and indicates here that some were even charging Paul with teaching this false doctrine of sinning freely. 

And why not do evil that good may come?--as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just.

Paul tells us the state of people who want to accuse the gospel of preaching this message, or teach that the gospel allows for this type of thinking: their condemnation is just - this is a very stern warning that we must bring forward to Romans 6:1. 

So, what is Paul's answer to this question of sinning in order for grace to abound?

By no means

Absolutely not! God forbid! Paul is very passionate in his answer...this way of thinking flies in the face the entirety of Scripture. 

Our sin is never justified, always offends God, and always hinders our relationship with Him.

Not to mention the harmful effects that sin causes in our earthly lives and relationships. Yet, because we battle the flesh, Paul knows there are those who will attempt to justify their sin - so he cuts off this argument before it begins. 

While those of us who place our trust in Christ are not sinless, but are saved from the wrath of God because we are wrapped in His robe of righteousness, Paul tells us in Colossians 3:5-9 how God views sin, all sin - from sexual immorality to anger to covetousness to lying to slander:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices

We have looked at the following verses before, but I think it's important to revisit it here - in light of what Paul said above. In Mathew 5:21,22 and 5:27,28 Jesus tells us that anger is murder, and lust is sexual immorality...in God's eyes all sin is equally black, equally deserving of His just wrath, equally intolerable in the presence of a perfect and holy God.

"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire.   Mathew 5:21,22

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  
Matthew 5:27,28

It's clear that we cannot take this lightly, while we will struggle against the flesh until the day we die, we must always be repenting, moving away from sin and towards our God - never justifying our sin, always praying for God to reveal our sin to us, including sins that we may not even be aware of, that we could purge them from our lives. The desire to do this will prove out the fact that our heart has been regenerated, and our mind is being renewed!

How can we who died to sin still live in it?

In the last sentence of verse 2, Paul asks another questions that reveals two truths.

1. Those who are saved have died to sin. (He will dig into this a little more in the next verses)
2. Those who continue to sin, unrepentant, are guilty of living in it.

We will focus more on the first truth in the next few verses. The main thing to take away from it at this point is that, by dying to sin, we need to realize it is no longer necessary or acceptable to live in it. This does not mean that we are sinless, but that our lives are characterized by a moving away from sin, as we pursue a closer relationship with our Father.

The second truth I would like to look at a little closer. Paul asked in verse 1 if we should continue to sin - indicating a purposeful, unrepentant sin - a person living in sin with no desire to address the sin - even justifying the sin (so that grace may abound). Now, in verse 2, he tells us that a person reasoning and living this way is guilty of living in sin. How is a person living in sin different than saved person who is by no means sinless?

1 John reveals some answers:

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.   1 John 1:5-7

Those who walk in darkness are the lost, they do not have fellowship with the Father.
Those who walk in the light are saved, and do have fellowship with the Father. 

To 'walk' means to tread around, to abide, to live this way. Those who walk, or live in the darkness are those who have not died to sin, they do not have fellowship with the Father, and they continue to live in sin - their condemnation will be just (unless they accept Christ - our continuous prayer). Those who walk, or live in the light have died to sin, have fellowship with the Father, and no longer live in sin - they have been cleansed, their sins will be forgiven, as we read in 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Hallelujah! Thank You Father, to You be the glory forever and ever, Amen!

Romans 5:21

so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.   Romans 5:21 ESV


Verse 21 is a continuation of Paul of verse 20, and parallels verse 20. First we see Paul jumping back to sin and it's power over the lost:

as sin reigned in death

It is so important to recognize the power that sin has over those who are slaves to it. The direct effect of sinfulness is a physical and spiritual death. As long as we are condemned because of our sinfulness, in light of God's holiness, we are subject to death - death rules over us and controls us, we have no power to free ourselves from it. Death will ultimately catch up to us, no matter what. Paul laid out in several other verses this same power that sin has over it's slaves:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned  Romans 5:12

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.  Romans 5:14

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.  Romans 5:17


Since spiritual death, brought on by sinfulness that God cannot tolerate, is the lack of a restored relationship with God, we can also know that, for those who are currently physically alive but in bondage to sin, death is a daily experience - an active, ongoing existence without the perfect peace that comes from knowing God, resulting in a chasing after the wind.

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 1:14

Separating us from God, sin also has the power to cloud the minds and hearts of those who are slaves to it, giving sin the power to reign over it's subjects -  so that they are powerless to recognize or even desire their only way to true freedom. Sin does this by appealing to the fleshly lusts and desires of the lost, thus causing the Light and the Way to appear foolish and unwanted:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  1 Cor. 1:18

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. John 3:19

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.  John 3:20

Those verses describe very clearly the power of sin that Paul is talking about, the power to cause spiritual and physical death to the lost, to reign over them by causing them to want the very thing that is killing them and reject the only thing that can save them!


But, Paul then lays out God's answer to our situation:

grace also might reign through righteousness 

Grace, being the unmerited, or unearned, favor of God on someone, has the power to reign - to overcome sin and death! What is the channel, or path, through which this grace destroys sin and death? Righteousness! Only perfect righteousness can overthrow the sinfulness that condemns the lost.

God's act of grace in releasing prisoners from their bondage to sinfulness and death is powered by perfect righteousness!

For those who have been saved, and have entered into a relationship with God, being credited with perfect righteousness by the grace of God, that grace now reigns - and we are now obedient slaves to the grace and righteousness of our holy and perfect God!

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.  Romans 6:17,18

  

Paul told us in verse 17 who made this perfect righteousness available to a group of lost sinners: 

For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.

One man made forgiveness, and perfect righteousness, available to us...Jesus Christ...alone. Paul restates this crucial truth in verse 21:

leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord

The grace and righteousness that lead to eternal life are offered through Jesus Christ...never because of anything we have done and always in spite of all that we have done. We cannot miss this truth:

If we ever think that something we have done, or are doing, has any bearing on our salvation whatsoever, we have sinfully and tragically destroyed the perfect, finished work of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.