04.14. LESSON 14

LESSON 14

We learn from Romans 3:8 that some distorted Paul’s doctrine of grace into the slander, "Let us do evil, that good may come." Legalists could argue plausibly from the statement, "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly," the more sin the better, for then God would have more opportunities to exhibit his forgiving grace. Or ask: "Why need Christians work, since sinners can be justified without it?" By such babble, partially converted men, still under Adam’s reign and therefore still trusting human merit instead of divine grace, could twist Paul’s gospel into a deadly perversion. No wonder Paul recoiled in holy horror. To get something for nothing is so contrary to fleshly economy that to get, according to gospel economy, everything for nothing is just too much and too good for all except the wholly converted. Here is the solid core of gospel repentance, which, at its deepest level, is absolute turning away from defunct Adam to Christ. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Christ). The imperative transition from ruin in Adam to new life and another chance in Christ is the crux of Christianity. To realize that Romans 6:1-23 is an inspired commentary on an intensely personal verse Paul wrote the Galatians helps: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I (Adamic Paul) that lives, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh (mortal frame) I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20). According to this, Paul reckons that his old man in Adam is an executed criminal, and that he is a new creature in Christ, who lives in him to body forth himself to the world—"The old shack under new management." In distilled essence, with even more emotional appeal and Christian motive, Romans 6 is all here. This verse is the key that unlocks Paul’s conception of Christianity, and the secret of his own enigmatic, extraordinary life. A surrendered life gives Christ an outlet for his grace and power.

King and Subject

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body" (Romans 6:12). That this exhortation leans back on the first part of the chapter is shown by the "therefore." The connection is, now, since you reckon yourselves to be identified with Christ in his death and resurrection, make this faith an experimental reality in your lives; that is, reduce your faith to practice. Why this plea to Christians, if they have no choice in the matter?

Though saints by God’s decree are dead to sin, sin itself is not dead. Instead of Paul’s saying that sin is dead he says, "Reckon (believe what God says about it) ye also yourselves to be dead to sin." To make this death- to the power, pollution, and practice of sin, which are as real and tenacious as are its guilt and penalty, an actuality, saints must resist, learn by experience, and grow strong. To lift them immediately above the reach of sin would be contrary to the principles of moral and spiritual growth, and would therefore retard their Christian progress. God gives justification immediately, but he gives sanctification by another method. In men who refuse to leave Adam for Christ, sin reigns in death, as sailors who refuse to leave a doomed ship for a lifeboat drown; but sin in men who desert Adam for Christ is so counterworked and outlawed that it cannot be king and tyrannize over them. Although the Adamic nature is not extirpated in men so long as they live in mortal bodies derived from Adam; and though the flesh and the Spirit, "contrary the one to the other" (Galatians 5:17), both live in a Christian, the flesh need ever reign, nay, can never reign, until his will goes along with the solicitation to evil. Does not this throw light on 1 John 3:9 : "Whosoever is begotten of God cannot sin?" A Christian is judicially and ideally dead to sin; if he sins it is against his will and endeavor. His heart is too tender toward Christ to hurt and grieve him by ingratitude and disobedience. He cannot callously and habitually sin; sin is a false note in his life and peace. Sin reigns over sinners, but not over Christians. Sin will pursue saints even unto the tomb, but they are always enabled to escape it.

All this underlies Paul’s second reason in Romans 6:1-23 why saints cannot sin, namely, "Sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14). Justification is a gracious, divinely wrought change in the lives of those who are justified. Since law effects no such change in relationship, cause for the consequent change in life is lacking. Law can make subjects and slaves, but it cannot soften hard hearts, break stubborn wills, and generate gratitude and love, as grace does. That his plea for Christian living may be effective, Paul roots it in divine grace, not ’in law and "will of the flesh." To lift men out of sin, they must be brought into a realm where grace, not law, is the constitution. Law and fear are not comparable to grace and gratitude in the power to purify.

Master and Slave When men hear the gospel, they must choose between the two Adams. Paul thanks God that the Romans have made this crucial choice correctly. The language in which he describes this pregnant change, "Obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered," reinforces the first part of the chapter. Christianity is not a moral code given to be lived up to in order to please God: rather, it is built on the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ which serve as a pattern for men’s use in fashioning their Christian lives; that is, what Christ experienced bodily, they must experience spiritually. Nor does choosing a new Master exhaust human freedom. That Christians are still free to determine their course is shown by Paul’s exhorting them to present their bodies, not to serve sin which leads to death, but to serve God which leads to eternal life—something no man can earn or give. Though Christians have a new Master to serve in a new kind of slavery, they are "called for freedom" (Galatians 5:13). And, strange paradox, they alone are "free indeed" (John 8:36). The chapter closes with the third reason why saints cannot sin: sin is too expensive; no man can afford it. Its seed is in it to bring forth fruit after its kind; it is a short circuit that wastes life. Sin is a faithful paymaster, but "nobody can live on the wages it pays." "The wages of sin is death" eternal.

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