In the previous two articles, we learned that by his grace, God has forgiven us of all our sins and freed us from the guilt and shame those sins produce in us. A misunderstanding of those two truths can lead to a commonly asked question: “Are you saying that sin doesn’t matter and we can live any way that we want to?”
Paul addressed this question in Romans. First, he stated, “The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more” (Romans 5:20). In other words, God’s grace is infinitely greater than our sins. No sin any human can imagine or commit can ever outdo the love and grace of God.
Then he tackled the inevitable question: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase” (Romans 6:1)? As we can see, this misunderstanding is not a new one. Even Paul anticipated it nearly 2,000 years ago. And his response? “By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer” (Romans 6:2)?
What an incredible truth! We have died to sin, so we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been set free from its power over us. Does that mean we no longer sin? Of course not. We still stumble at times. But through Jesus’ death, our old self has also died and been made new in Christ. We have died to sin and are now slaves to righteousness. That is another reason why God’s grace is essential for all of us: it set us free from the power of sin and made us new in his righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:17-21).
To go back to the original question, yes, sin does still matter. Even though we have died to sin and are no longer slaves to it, even though those who are in Christ have been made new and are now the righteousness of God, we can still give in to daily temptations. We can yell at the person who cut us off in traffic. We can curse at the neighbor who let his dog do his business in our yard. We can hate the person at work who got the promotion over us. We can mistreat our parents, spouse, children, and friends for… well, for any reason we can think of, and we can come up with a lot.
We still have a choice of walking by the Spirit we received when we were made new in Christ or indulging the flesh and its evil desires. While God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5) and nothing can separate us from his love (Romans 8:39), sin still has negative consequences. If we give in to the flesh, God will not stop loving us. He fully accepts us and has completely forgiven us, but that doesn’t mean we won’t experience the full ramifications of wrong choices. We can lose family and friends. We can lose our jobs. We can lose our health. We can lose our status and reputation. And though we won’t lose our salvation, we can certainly become less effective in our daily life as a Christian.
So I say that we take to heart what Paul wrote to the Romans. “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). Therefore, we need to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Grasp what it means to be a new creation in Christ. The more we see ourselves in that light, the more we will be a light in this world, just as Jesus called us to be.
