What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God
forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into his death?
Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should
not serve sin; for he that is dead is freed from sin.
Now
if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him: knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those
that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for
ye are not under the law, but under grace.
What
then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under
grace? God forbid. ROMANS 6:1-15
Years ago I was in Guatemala. I flew
into the capital in the mountains and took a bus down to the coast.
It was a memorable ride; on one side was an unforgiving rock face and
on the other was a dizzying drop. If we left the road in either
direction it would mean certain death.
In a similar fashion the way of life
witnessed to us in the scriptures is more often than not presented to
us in two equal truths that if either one is ignored could mean our
death. We have a perfect example of that of which I speak found in
the witness of Paul in Romans chapter six.
Paul started by establishing that all
men Jew and gentile believer as well as all unbelievers are relegated
to death by their very nature of sinfulness. The self given by Adam
at the core of every motive and action showing forth the death we all
inherited from him. The hopelessness of this situation is not
comparable to the hope of glory given to those who place their full
trust, dependence,and expectation in the redemption of the Father
found in Messiah.
The fulfilled promise of life is so
much greater than the death of the fall. It is like light and dark.
We allow ourself to think of them as opposing forces but in truth
darkness only exist where there is no light present; when light is
present darkness is shown to be an immaterial illusion. Paul has
shown that though this darkness of death is found in all mens heart
the gift of life through the obedience of Yeshua the Messiah is a
power that overcomes the penalty and power of sin to a degree that is
beyond comparison.
Embracing this truth provides for such
a release of our burdens that our eyes become open to the fact that
our failures can never overcome the success of the Fathers redemption
in Messiah. We see that the wrath poured on our Saviour was complete
and that for YHWH to place His wrath upon a believer would mean that
what was upon Yeshua was not sufficient. Without the equal truth of
our need for holiness and righteousness in our living; we might well
come to the conclusion that our sins do not matter. We could fall
victim to the idea that if we trust in what He has done then our own
actions are of no consequence in YHWH's eyes. While it is true that
our Father desires to change who we are not simply what we do; it is
equally true that what we do is a reflection of who we are.
Paul builds an undeniable case that far
exceeds the thought of our actions do not matter if we are in grace.
He shows that the effect of being in grace is a change so magnificent
that to continue in our old conduct is impossible. Paul ask a simple
question, in the Greek it reads, do we continue in the sin that grace
may abound. It is not the acts of sinfulness he refers to but the
first sin. When Adam chose to trust in his own self to provide life.
Paul ask the believer; do you not
understand that the witness of water baptism is a token of our true
baptism into death by our being made one with Messiah. When Yeshua
died and was buried we also died and where buried. This being true
when the Father breathed His life into Messiah and raised Him from
death all of us who are in Him where raised also into the shared life
of the Father.
The old man born from Adam was
crucified with Yeshua that the sin of the self generated life would
be destroyed in a shared death. In this shared death we are made free
from the slavery of our sinfulness from the self generated life.
To paraphrase
Paul... do the math. If the old mans self generated life is dead
through our fellowship with Messiah and by such its sinful nature
then our new God generated life also has a new nature of
righteousness. So is it possible to live in grace and not have our
actions be according to the nature of our new life.
