How Can We?

When Luther opposed the Roman Catholic church of his day by declaring, "The righteous shall live by faith" (Rom 1:17), the church was outraged. They called a meeting, the Council of Trent, and pronounced "anathema" -- curses -- upon those who would proclaim such things. One of their "anathemas" was on the notion of justification by faith apart from works. They were opposed to this because, largely, it simply set up a free sin condition. If you're not saved by works, you can sin all you want without any consequence.

Luther was not the first to face this argument. Paul was. Paul wrote, "Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 5:20-21). For the believer, here, the correction to sin is not punishment, but grace. Logically, here, if sin increases, so does grace to counter it. So the logical objection is, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" (Rom 6:1). There it is. "Paul, if you're saying we're saved by grace and you're saying that increasing sin causes increasing grace and we want God to be most glorified, then it only makes sense that we sin more so God can be more gracious." The same objection that Rome had. If we are saved by grace apart from works, then the most logical choice is to sin with all your might. There will be no consequences. Paul didn't stop and take note here. He didn't mitigate. "Well, hang on, I need to explain what I meant by 'where sin increases grace increases more'." No, he didn't change it one iota. What he did say was, "By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom 6:2). Interesting comeback. "How can we who died to sin still live in it?" His answer to "Shouldn't we sin all the more?" was, "You can't." He didn't modify or diminish grace. He simply said, "You can't live in sin once you're in Christ." John wrote something similar. "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9).

The answer to those who objected to Paul's "saved by grace through faith apart from works" is the same answer to Rome. It is not liberty to sin because being in Christ is a fundamental change of one's nature. Rome complains we could sin all we want, and Paul and John argue that your "want" changes in Christ. Both of them don't simply say you "should not" continue in sin. They say you cannot. It violates the new nature. So while we who are in Christ do sin, it is never comfortable or continuous. Like the fireman who violates his nature to remain safe and runs into a burning building to save someone, he can violate his own nature, but not for long. Which is the idea for us as well. We have died to sin. We are no longer in sin's grip, sin's realm, sin's control. We might revisit it from time to time, but we don't live there anymore.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17)

Is that your experience, or are you perfectly comfortable indulging and defending sin? If the latter, you might have a serious problem.