Sometimes our Bibles have unfortunate chapter breaks that seem more intent on disrupting rather than clarifying an idea. The transition from Romans 5 to Romans 6 is one of these. Chapter 5 ends with "The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 5:20-21). Chapter 6 begins with "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom 6:1-2). Now, set apart, there is a mental disconnect between the two, but put together we have a stream of thought.
The end of chapter 5 gives the premise: Law increased transgression and where sin increases grace abounds more. The question at the beginning of chapter 6 is a natural notion. "Well, then, if sin increases grace, then let's sin away! It will just increase grace!!" Paul exclaims "May it never be!" (I'm thinking that is not an affirmation of the idea.) Paul's refutation of the notion, however, is telling and, perhaps, surprising. The question isn't "Is it a good idea to sin to increase grace?" The question is "How can it happen??" You see, there is a fundamental change that occurs when we repent of sin (change direction) and come in faith to Christ. That fundamental change ... is death. That is, sin is no longer comfortable for us. Oh, sure, he goes on to explain (Romans 7) that we still struggle with sin, but sin has lost its power over us and, as John puts it, "No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1 John 3:9). We still sin (1 John 1:8, 10), but we are, in the end, not comfortable with it and are in the process of being conformed to the image of His Son (Rom 8:28-29) -- what we call in Christianese "sanctification."
Paul is quite certain that those who are "buried with Him through baptism into death" (Rom 6:4) have "our old self ... crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin" (Rom 6:6). Do we still sin? Yes. Why? Because we choose to. Because we "let sin reign ... so that you obey its lusts" (Rom 6:12). Because we "go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness" (Rom 6:13). Do you get that? We choose to submit to sin. We don't have to. We have died to it.
We who have repented, who have placed our only hope for salvation in the person of Jesus Christ, have been identified with His death and, therefore, have His new life. We have died to sin. And, yet, we still crawl back to it. Daily. We don't have to. The process is simple. We let sin reign. We present ourselves to sin. Those who are not in Christ don't have this situation. They sin because they have to; it's their nature. We don't. "The outcome of those things is death," Paul says. "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life" (Rom 6:21-22) Being enslaved to God is freedom from sin. It is part of our born-again DNA. We ought to make it our practice.
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