Paul's Epistle to the Romans — page 24

Believers are usually slow to accept this truth and therefore need to learn by experience that what God says about the flesh is true. In this next series of verses, Paul shows that practical sanctification is something progressive in a believer's life.

Chap. 6:15 – Paul now addresses the subject of believers choosing to sin because they are under grace. He asks a question similar to the one in verse 1: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?” He answers the same way he answered the question in verse 1 – “By no means [far be the thought

• JND]”. By no means was God's grace designed to encourage

Christians to sin. Such an idea is completely illogical. How can we praise and thank the Lord for suffering on the cross the agonies of God's judgment to pay for our sins and at the same time continue committing those same sins? This should be abominable to every sensible believer. Christians can fail along the path of faith and sin, and if they do, they judge themselves in repentance, rise up and continue (1 John 1:9; Prov. 24:16). But willfully following the course of sin because we are under grace is not normal Christianity. This leads one to question whether such a person really understands the gospel he professes to have believed. A person who justifies this kind of walk is generally not saved.

We might wonder why Paul would take time to address this question, when every sober-minded Christian would not even entertain such an idea. However, we must remember that Paul was facing the objections of Judaizing teachers who opposed the doctrine of justification by faith. They were legalists who believed that preaching the gospel Paul preached (“once saved, always saved,” as the saying goes) encouraged laxity and sin among Christians. The remedy they found was to put believers under the Law and make them try to perfect themselves in holiness by adhering to its demands. They believed that if Christians were kept in fear of losing their salvation if they sinned, they would be more careful and diligent in living rightly.

This idea, however, reveals an ignorance of what the Law is and what the Law can and cannot do. Simply put, the Law can demand a holy life, but it cannot produce it. It was not given for that purpose. Even if keeping the Law could produce a holy life, it would still miss the mark. God's goal is to produce devoted and affectionate fellowship with Christ in those who have a relationship with Him, motivated by love (John 14:15, 15:9; 2 Cor. 5:14). Legalism will not do this. Under legal dictates, Christianity becomes a worldly set of rules and regulations, leaving the hearts of those under such a system untouched. All these means do not produce affection for Christ, nor do they encourage an intimate relationship with Him. Nor does living on that legal line give the believer the power to resist temptations to sin.

An Illustration of the Power of Grace

It is clear that those who hold these ideas do not understand the power of grace – God's unmerited favor toward man. When God's grace touches the hearts of His people, its great power brings about change in their lives. This results in their being affectionately attached to Christ, with the desire to please Him. A story that G. Cutting mentions in his booklet, “Peace; Is It Yours?” illustrates the power of grace. We transcribe it here verbatim. “A housemaid is busy with her daily work in her master's dining room. While dusting the fireplace, she does not notice that her duster has caught on an expensive vase, and as she pulls it, she knocks the vase off the mantelpiece, breaking it into many pieces! She knows very well how her master will feel about this; besides being a choice work of art, the vase had been passed down as a family heirloom for generations. How bitterly she reproaches herself for her carelessness, and she is saying to herself: ‘How can I face my master about this,’ when just then the parlor bell rings, summoning her to the master's presence. With a heavy heart and trembling, she answers the call.

As soon as she enters, he says: ‘We want to tell you that your mistress and I have just been talking about you and have decided to give you a week off.’

‘Thank you, sir; but are you forgetting that I already had my holiday this year?’ ‘We have not forgotten that, but it is our wish to give you a special week.’ Then, extending his hand, he says: ‘Please take this money. It will help you enjoy your time off better.’ ‘Oh, sir,’ she says, bursting into tears, ‘I could not accept either the money or the time off, for I am sure you will not offer me anything when you know what I have done. In my carelessness, I broke the beautiful vase that was on the dining room mantelpiece.’ ‘I know,’ he says. ‘In fact, it happened that I was passing by the window at the time and saw you do it; but although we both feel the loss deeply, we have long desired to make a special show of our appreciation to you and we consider this a good time to do so.’ Would this new and unexpected experience of her master's kindness make her more careless about her work in the future? No, no; exactly the opposite.” The grace shown to the housemaid would make her more diligent and conscientious in her work.

In the same way, if we set aside time to meditate on the amazing grace that has been shown to us by God, who saved us and blessed us more richly than all the other creatures of the universe (including the angels), this will produce devotion to Christ. There will be a desire to repay Him who has blessed us so greatly, and this will be expressed in wanting to please Him in whatever way we can. In this line of response, the psalmist said: “What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me?” (Ps 116:12) Thus, daily meditation on the grace of God produces a daily desire to please Him. This is something that no legal system can do. Paul refers to the practical power of grace operating in the hearts of believers in Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age”. The grace of God not only saves us from the judgment of our sins, but also teaches us to turn away from an ungodly life.

Serving Righteousness

Chap. 6:16 – In the next verses, Paul tells us something that every Christian needs to know about sin and practical righteousness. He says: “Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as servants to obey someone, you are servants of the one you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” This shows that there is a captivating power both in the practice of sin and in the practice of righteousness. By presenting ourselves to either one, we come under its power – for evil or for good. If we, as Christians, choose to live in the old state of Adam (sphere of life) and present ourselves to the call of the sinful nature, serious consequences will result. We will come under the power of sin and become slaves of the sins that we allow! The Lord Jesus taught this to His disciples; He said: “everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). This is a universal principle that applies to all humanity. It is as true for a believer as for an unbeliever. So by choosing to sin, we do violence to our own souls (Prov. 8:36). Every Christian must learn – and may have to learn through the Lord’s correction – that the “freedom” presented in the gospel (v. 18) is not freedom to sin, but freedom from sin. God wants to free us from the power of sin so that we can do His will – not so that we can keep on sinning! The gospel proclaims freedom, not permissiveness. If we have been separated from that whole order of things under Adam by our connection with Christ under His Headship, why would we think of living our Christian lives in that ungodly state, when we know that it will lead us into slavery? As mentioned earlier, when Christians choose to sin, this manifests unbelief in the fact that “the flesh profits nothing” (John 6:63). The problem is that we still think there is something good in it that will serve our happiness and satisfaction. And by yielding to the flesh, we are deceived by it, and we come under the power of those sins that we commit. God allows it to be so, and uses it as a discipline to correct our wrong attitude toward sin. We can say, thankfully, that for the believer who goes in that direction and allows sins in his life, there is a way out through repentance and self-judgment. But for the unbeliever, the sins he allows in his life only lead him into greater slavery.

As mentioned, this servitude works equally in both lines: “whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” By saying: “you are servants of the one you obey...” Paul personifies “sin” and “righteousness”, and sees them as two opposite masters with opposite servitudes. To whichever of these we present ourselves, we become its servants. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, by presenting ourselves to the new master (righteousness), we form new and good habits that lead to practical sanctification. Paul will speak more about this in verse 19. One solemn thing to consider here is that, although we are positionally in a new place before God – where grace reigns through righteousness – sin can still be, in practice, our master, if we choose to live in that old state of Adam. Every Christian needs to consider this seriously.

Chap. 6:17-18 – Paul was convinced that the Roman saints to whom he was writing had obeyed “from the heart the form of doctrine” to which they were “delivered [instructed – JND]”. That is, they had believed the truth of the gospel, and so were “freed from sin” positionally. If they presented themselves as “servants of righteousness”, they would prove the power of grace working in their lives, producing practical sanctification – because that is normal Christianity. To indicate these two servitudes, Paul uses the word “servants” eight times in verses 16-23.