GOD FORBID

What gives rise to this exclamation? It is the thought of a believer continuing in the practice of sin. What has given rise to this is what Paul has stated in chapter 5 verse 20, ‘Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound’. God, in His grace, is willing to forgive a person’s sins. ‘Well then, Paul’, someone may say, ‘the more sinning, the more grace can abound. Why should we not go on sinning so as to give God’s grace the opportunity of abounding all the more? If our acceptance depends on His grace solely, and not on our works, then surely we may live as we please, and still be His now, and in heaven hereafter?’ If the apostle had taught that salvation depends in any degree on our works, such an objection could not have been made. However, Paul does not modify, nor does he withdraw his teaching of free salvation. Not only has the objector misunderstood the freeness of salvation, but also what it means to be a Christian. Continue in sin? To Paul the thought is reprehensible. ‘God forbid’, he says. We have died to sin, v. 2, how could we go on living in what we have died to? Dying to sin means to be released from all power and influence of sin, as a slave by his death is released from the power of his master. Being dead, the claim of sin upon us is cancelled. It is therefore inconceivable that the soul which is free from such a claim can, as before, yield its faculties to sin’s influence. What is more, the believer has entered into a vital personal union with Christ. This was signified in his baptism, vv. 2, 3. It signified that he died with Christ, was buried with Him, and rose again with Him. So, united to Christ we have died to sin. When Christ was crucified we were crucified because we were seen in Him when He died. So we have died as far as our old life of sin is concerned. We were identified with Him in His burial and in His resurrection, participating in His own resurrection life, v. 3.

‘Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?’ How can we if the life which we now live is the life which is ours by conscious union with a living Christ? The idea is a moral contradiction in terms. Do not any longer live in the continuance of sin. ‘Walk in newness of life’, v. 4.