The Grace Series - Shall We Continue in Sin That Grace May Abound

The Grace Series - Shall We Sin That Grace May Abound

Let me begin by saying I am a preacher and teacher of Grace. It is s God’s Grace that saves us, and not our own works. However, many seem to believe that God was simply satisfied with us like we were, and Grace came to show us that. This idea is not true. God created man for His Own reflection and Identity in the earth. Man, in himself, became everything but that. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Romans 6 starts with a question, and then the answer. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”  Is Grace abounding through our sins? Is Grace abounding through us at all? The answer to this is bound up in the Lord Jesus Christ. John writes of Him that He came full of Grace and Truth. So, Grace came through Christ, and Christ was full of God’s Grace. With this being true, we can conclude that to know Grace is to know Christ in His fullness. He was and is FULL of Grace and Truth (John 1:14).

Romans 6, continues on from Paul’s question to God’s answer of whether continuing in Sin manifests the abundance of Grace. “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” God forbid that the idea even be in us that our continuing in sin is producing the fruits of Grace. However, when we look at ourselves and our inabilities, we might say it is impossible to live a sin free life. Our own nature from our natural birth is contrary to everything we are learning of God. How then can we who are filled with such lack walk in His Glory?

The answer to these questions, and our inabilities lies within the cross, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Here is where the abundance Grace begins to be found. Do we not know, as Paul would say, that we that are Christs have died with Christ? He that dead is freed from sin. Sin’s penalties diminished when Jesus hung on the tree. Laid upon Him was the iniquities of us all. He died and we died with Him. That is God’s Grace in fullness.

God poured out Christ’s death as the death of us all, and we are baptized into this death by the Spirit of God. In this, we through Him, become dead to sin. We become dead to the elements of the world. This work of His Death MUST be realized in our hearts. It is where we find freedom from condemnation, from attitudes, from the world, and from sin. I am not saying you will never commit bad acts or sins again, but I am saying in His death the penalty of them was destroyed and they are not held against us. They were placed upon Him.

In the knowing of His death we come to a place of transition to be filled with His Life. In this same Grace that produces such death in me, comes abundance of NEW LIFE. This is not the old me made better. This is Christ living in me, and my eyes becoming WIDE OPEN to His Life within me. This is New. Like Joshua said to the children of Israel, you have never been this way before.

This is the new and living way by the Spirit of God. Therefore, we cannot say through our sins Grace abounds. Grace abounds through the knowing in our hearts of His death, burial, and resurrection. Grace abounds simply through us knowing Him, and Living in this understanding, which is Living in Christ. This is the abundance of God’s Grace and God’s provision to us, Christ living in our hearts, and we by and in Him. Glory to God in the Highest!