Truth: Salvation by Grace Does Not Grant a License to Sin

Text: Romans 6:1-4

Title: License to Sin?

Truth: Salvation by grace does not grant a license to sin.

Date/Location: Sunday July 21, 2013 at FBC

Sanctification

In this passage, we embark on a new subject: sanctification.

A. Up to this point in Romans, we have thought about condemnation – that man is in sin and subject to the death penalty for it. Then we looked at justification, which means to be made righteous in standing, in legal standing before God in a point of time. Our new subject is sanctification, which means to be progressively made righteous in conduct. It is a process. The end goal of sanctification is to be made like Jesus (Romans 8:29). Another way to remember the meanings of these words is this: justification is righteousness in position, and sanctification is righteousness in practice.

B. It is crucial to get these two ideas right and in the right relationship to one another.

1. Some people intermix justification and sanctification so that the two are indistinguishable. What happens then is that justification is never completed, and you can never be sure if you are saved or not. It makes you not sure of your salvation. In our witnessing experience, it is almost without exception that this is the testimony of Catholics. Their theology leads them to this conclusion.

2. Others believe an opposite error, namely that justification and sanctification are so separate that the latter is not certain for the justified person. Said another way, this wrong form of doctrine teaches that a person can be justified but may never be sanctified. This error is just as awful as the previous, because it allows people to think they are saved when they really are not. It makes you too sure. It offers false assurance to many evangelicals in our day who need to be called to repentance over sin lest they have a shocking surprise after they are resurrected to final judgment.

C. The big picture of God’s plan of salvation is that it first of all rescues us from the present and future penalty of sin (death, 5:12). It also rescues us from the present and future power of sin (Romans 6, etc.). Eventually we will experience deliverance from the very presence of sin (Rev. 21:4).

Introduction

How you approach the chapter initially makes a big difference in how you interpret it. You might come to it with certain questions or preconceived notions about what it says or should say. These can color how you see the meaning. Here are a couple of thoughts along that line:

A. Wrong: It is possible to have death to sin.

If you think like this, you will be hunting for sanctification all the time, thinking that it is normal not to experience death to sin, or that it is normal to have to struggle to attain death to sin.

B. Right: You already have death to sin: It is not merely a possibility, it is a reality!

C. Wrong: How can I or in what way can I, a justified person, live a holy life?

Belief that focuses here tends to look for methods that will bring sanctification and can experience great disappointment when those methods do not “work.”

D. Right: Why must I, a justified person, live a holy life?

This is the question that the opening verses of the chapter really answers. It presents truth about what has happened to the believer that sets him in a context that demands he live a holy life. The mechanics of how to do so are not detailed here; rather the moral oughtness of living a holy life is commanded.

We should try to avoid allowing presuppositions to dictate our understanding of the text and just read it like it is new and fresh to us. But, we may already have heard or read a lot of teaching on this passage that colors (or mis-colors) our understanding of it.

I. The Question: Continue in Sin? 6:1

A. “What shall we say then?” points back to what was just written in chapter 5. Paul has said there that sin abounded, but grace super-abounded. This abundance of grace provides Christians with eternal life through Jesus Christ.

B. This could lead someone to think wrongly that if grace abounds where sin abounds, then we should just keep on sinning so that God’s grace can keep on abounding. This is the meaning of the question: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”

1. This is a modern-day charge against our form of doctrine. If salvation is so easy, if God’s grace overcomes sin and the rotten sinner doesn’t have to pay up, then, they say, your form of doctrine is ridiculous. It allows anyone to keep on sinning as much as they want.

2. Just the question should cause the true believer to recoil in horror. The heart of a true Christian hates sin in all its forms—in himself or herself, and in others. The true believer does not go hunting around for an excuse to sin more. When you become a Christian, not only is your legal position changed (justification), but your heart is changed as well (regeneration), and you experience the presence of the Spirit (indwelling). These all work together toward sanctification, to diminish sin in your life, not increase it!

C. We should never seek to make grace abound more by sinning more. God’s grace has been demonstrated bountifully toward unbelievers by providing salvation from sin and needs not to be proven any further, nor put to the test. And yes, grace continues to abound to the believer as he lives a life still spotted by sin. However, the primary way in which God’s grace is exhibited in the life of the believer is that God helps the believer to NOT sin. He helps the believer to repent of and confess his sin. Grace slowly eradicates sin and the desire for it in the believer.

II. The Answer: No Way—We’re Dead to Sin! 6:2

A. Certainly not! This is a strong negative—the horror of the idea is too much for Paul. KJV has “God forbid” but the Greek word for God (qeoj) is not present. It is better translated “may it never be!” or “absolutely not!”

B. Another question further explains the point. “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” The question, as often in Paul, actually makes an assertion. And that assertion is this: we cannot continue in sin that grace may abound because we died to sin—so we cannot continue in it!

C. The idea of death to sin is a little tricky to grasp. It is a metaphor that gets its meaning from physical death. Just as physical death causes us to stop sinning in this life, so the Christian has become separated from his old life of sin. The next two verses give further information on this idea.

III. The Explanation—We Died with Christ, 6:3-4

A. Paul is fond of questions that teach. He opens verse 3 with another one. The question appeals to our knowledge of basic Christian doctrine. “Do you not know…?” The not-so-subtle point is that we should know!

B. What should we know? That Christians have been baptized into Christ Jesus. Some people understand this as water baptism, picturing the initiation into Christianity and conversion. However, it is preferable to understand this as Spirit baptism, the work of Christ through the Spirit that places a believer into the body of Christ and into Christ (1 Cor. 12:13 and Gal. 3:27). Spirit baptism happens to every believer at the moment of salvation and is more significant than water baptism in Christian doctrine (Matthew 3:11, Acts 1:5). Water baptism is a picture of what happens at conversion, when Spirit baptism takes place. Spirit baptism, in other words, is where the action is. Water baptism is a symbol of it.

C. So, we were baptized into Christ, and that means we were baptized into what Christ did for us. The Spirit connected us with and immersed us into Christ’s death. We become identified with that which was done for us. Christ died for sin that we might die to sin. 1 Peter 2:24 expresses this thought very well. This death to spiritual death and sin means that we are not held under the dominating power of sin any longer. Sin’s dominion is over those who are alive to it, and Christians are dead to it!

D. Burial comes after death and makes it clear that death has happened.

E. Our connection with Christ doesn’t stop with death. Christ rose from the dead to a glorious resurrection. So we also have arisen from death with Christ into a new life with Christ. This situation demands that we live a new life (= walk in newness of life = conduct ourselves in a new way). Our lives must not be lived according to sin because a decisive break with the old life has occurred. That break from Adam was made possible in Christ.

Conclusion

Keep in mind that the “spiritual” connection you have to Jesus is real. It is not just a thought or figment of Paul’s imagination. When you trust in Christ, a real spiritual connection is forged between you and Him in such a way that what He did becomes yours too.

In Romans 6, Paul moves beyond the doctrine of justification. But he does not leave behind the idea of a spiritual connection between Christ and His offspring. Recall that Adam was the representative head of the race. What he did had an effect on his descendants. In a similar way, what Christ has done has an effect on his offspring as well. As believers were connected with Adam, we are now connected with Christ.

This text does not command you to die to sin. It says you already have died to sin! We will see more about this in the upcoming messages. The effect I hope this will have is to strengthen you in your battle against sin. MAP

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