Chapter 6 & 7
joseph
Because of the mind boggling, “to good to be true,” description of the
gospel in chapter 5, namely that we are “justified by his blood” and
“saved from his wrath” as a “gift that came by the grace of the one
man Jesus Christ (5:15), the apostle begins chapter six by answering
the question that is sure to follow: “If our justification and the
gift of righteousness is a total work of God and a complete gift of
grace, then why don’t we just keep on sinning so that grace can abound
more?” (6:1)
This is often the knee jerk reaction against the concept of grace by
people who feel we have “to do something” to contribute to this
precious gift that God has provided. The technical term associated
with this concept is “antinomianism.” Anti – against, and nomian –
law. The argument is that if people are declared righteous through
faith alone without even a smidgen of their own effort, they will
become “antinomian,” that is wild and law-less and will “keep on
sinning so that grace will abound,” and whereas this condition is
theoretically possible, the apostle answers the argument perfectly.
“Do we sin so grace can abound? By no means! We died to sin, how can
we live in it any longer?” (6:2) The truth is dead people can’t sin.
If we have truly died with Christ (that is our sin nature) in baptism
and raised with him to new life (Christ now lives in us), how can we
go backwards and be un-raised to life or un-born in Christ? Someone
who has died and been raised from the dead will hardly be able to
return to the previous sinful life, it is just not possible.
At the same time, however, we know that even after the old nature has
been crucified with Christ, we still find ourselves sinning. The
apostle will address this situation more directly in chapter 7 but now
he simply makes the case that now that you “wholeheartedly obeyed the
form of teaching to which you were entrusted,” that is the gospel, you
are no longer slaves to sin or subject to the death that sin leads to.
You are “set free from sin” and are now slaves to righteousness.
He drives this point home in Chapter 7 by utilizing the critical
distinction between living under “law” and living under the gospel, or
the Spirit. As long as the old nature is alive it is subject to the
conditions of the law which say if you sin you die. On the other hand,
if you have died, then you are not subject to the law anymore (7:6)
and are now free to serve in the life of the Spirit. He ends the
chapter knowing full well that he continues to sin, even as a
Christian, but reminding us all that God himself will rescue him (and
has recued him) “through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (7:25), that is
through the gospel that he has described so clearly.