73: A License To Sin?

A license to sin?

When you preach the Gospel of grace, one of the biggest accusations is going to be the question in Romans 6:1. This question was leveled against Paul and is leveled against everyone who preaches grace:

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (Romans 6:1)¹

If you share the Gospel that Paul preached, you will be misunderstood. Where will this misunderstanding come from? Not the world. They won’t be the ones concerned about a license to sin. It will be the religious who will cry, “They are saying it’s ok to sin!!” …forgetting that we ALREADY have the choice to sin or not! We can choose to shoot someone or rob a bank or have a lustful, fearful, angry, hateful thought! But Paul at no time said, “Let us sin that grace may abound.” What he said was, “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more.”

Paul put all his assurance in God’s grace. Jesus said the flesh profits us nothing,² but most people put more confidence in the flesh to overcome sin than they do in God’s grace. However, His grace is greater than all our sins.

Here’s Paul’s answer to the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”:

Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? (Romans 6:2)

Paul didn’t say, “You shouldn’t live in sin”; his answer was that it isn’t possible for someone who has died to sin to live any longer in it. We are a new creation in Christ, and we no longer live “in sin” (the noun) because we have died to it.

When the topic of sin was brought up, Paul always took the focus off the sin and onto the identity that we have in Christ. Why? Because he knew that if people would believe the truth, they would live it.

(from pages 127-129 of Unveiling Jesus)

Unveiling Jesus, by Tricia Gunn, is a verse by verse study of the pure gospel of grace. It’s an amazing journey of love, identity, and freedom in Christ.

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¹All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.  Used by permission.
²John 6:63