Can I Sin More So That I Get More Grace? Part 2

"What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" (Romans 6:1-3)

In Romans 6, Paul is responding to those who are asking if they can sin more, since the more they sin, the more grace they get (Romans 5:20).

He opens Romans 6 with two questions directed to those who may use grace in a way God never intended.

Question #1: “What shall we say, then?”

Question #2: “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?"

Paul’s answer: “By no means!”

He then follows these two questions up with two more questions.

Question #3: “We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

Question #4: “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

In Part One, we examined the first two questions.

Now let’s take a closer look at questions #3 and #4.

Paul’s third question is:

“We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”

In this verse, sin is something we can live in.

Sin in the book of Romans is mostly used to describe immorality.

With this use of the word sin, a person can live in a state of immorality, which the group Paul was addressing was considering living in for the purpose of receiving more grace.

In Romans 6:12-13, Paul describes sin as “evil desires” and “wickedness”.

He also describes the immorality (sinfulness) of all people, both Gentile and Jew, in Romans 1:18-3:20 and 23.

He highlights the sinfulness of the human race in these chapters so he can highlight the grace of God in the other chapters.

He presents mankind's sinful condition of immorality, resulting in death, then provides God’s solution of grace through Jesus (see Romans 5:12-21).

With the understanding that sin in the book of Romans is used mostly to describe immoral living, then when Paul states we have died to sin, he is saying we have died to living an immoral lifestyle since we have come to faith in Jesus.

He says this to correct the thinking in some people that living immorally is okay, since the more one sins, the more grace one gets (remember, this is Paul’s reason for writing chapter 6).

Paul’s fourth question is:

“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

The “you” in Paul’s fourth question is specifically referring to those who were considering increasing their sin so the amount of grace they received would increase.

Again, he is not writing chapter 6 as a guide to help a believer overcome sin.

Paul is writing to correct a belief among some that sin is okay, since the more they sin the more grace they get.

Paul in his fourth question uses this question to remind those seeking to use grace as a license to sin about being baptized into the death of Christ Jesus.

In Romans 6:10, Paul teaches that the death Jesus died was to sin.

What does this mean?

Jesus took upon himself all the sinfulness of the human race...all the immorality...when he died for our sins...while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).

So Paul asks, “How can we live in sin any longer since it was sin that Jesus died for?”

Jesus didn’t die so we could sin more.

He died to set us free from sin (Romans 6:7).

Paul also asks, “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

What does "baptized" mean in this verse? We will take a look at this in Part 3.

CLICK HERE to read Part Three.