Romans 6:1-2: Shall We Continue in Sin?

Romans 6:1-2a.. "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!"

Amidst Christian circles we often talk about the question that since God has saved us, and since there is nothing we can do to lose our salvation (1 Peter 1:3-5), why should we not go on sinning? In other words, if God promises to us that he will never withhold his mercy, why should we not thrive in our sinfulness? Why should we obey God if he promises to both forgive us and keep us saved?

In today's devotional, I do not seek to give a thorough answer to that question. In Romans 6, Paul gives a thorough answer to that question, but he sets his case up in a beautiful way in verses 1 and 2. He first asks this rhetorical, ethical quetion: "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" This question is the same of those proposed above. Since God has both justified and reconciled us (which summarize Romans 4 and 5), why should we not go on sinning? Once again, there is a great answer to this question that Paul will get into. But today, I want to look at his initial reply: "by no means!"

There is something that we often miss in the English text as we translate it from the Greek. The Greek term that is translated into the English "by no means" is the highest possible Greek negation. In other words, Paul is not simply saying "no," he is saying something much more than that. The answer to his question is "no," but he states it in the most imperitive way possible. In English terms, this might be the equivilent to "Heck no!" or "absolutely not," but no matter what words we put it in in English, it is difficult to grasp how dearly Paul was against this question. He did not just answer "no," he answered "no; never; absolutely not; without a shadow of a doubt; it shall not be among you; how dare you think of that; BY NO MEANS!"

When we think about Paul's question, "Are we to continue so that grace may abound?" oftentimes we get wrapped up in it. Well, that's a good question, we think. Paul, you might be on to something here; that sounds like a good idea. Nevertheless, Paul says otherwise. Before he even gets into the reasoning of why we ought not to answer yes to this question, he convicts us for even placing it in or minds. In other words, the idea that we ought to keep sinning though we are in Christ should be an idea that is far from us. If we are asking this question, our minds are not in the right place. There are many reasons for this that Paul will go into (and that we will talk about tomorrow), but let us first understand Paul's initial answer to this question: "BY NO MEANS!"

So, how often do you let your mind think that you ought to sin that grace may abound? How many times (per day?) do you tell yourself that it's okay to sin because God will have mercy on you? How many times do you appeal to the grace of God to justify your sin? STOP! These things are not the true attitude of a Christian, and we see clearly in Romans 6:1-2. When approached with the above idea, we ought to answer like Paul did: BY NO MEANS! Amen.