{"id":1550,"date":"2010-02-25T20:57:19","date_gmt":"2010-02-26T02:57:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=1550"},"modified":"2010-02-25T20:57:19","modified_gmt":"2010-02-26T02:57:19","slug":"romans-61-dont-stay-in-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/romans-61-dont-stay-in-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"Romans 6:1 – Don’t Stay in Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Romans 6:1<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?<\/span><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Salvation does not mean we have a free pass to sin all we want.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The expression \u201cWhat<\/span> shall we say then?<\/span>\u201d is called a debater\u2019s phrase. This is a Rabbinical way of teaching which Paul no doubt learned under the teaching of Gamaliel (see Acts 22:3<\/span><\/strong>). The process involves the teacher asking a question like this, then encouraging debate before the giving the answer.<\/p>\n

The word here translated \u201ccontinue<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word epimen\u014d<\/span><\/em> which is a compound word made up of epi<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cupon, over, in, or at\u201d and meno<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto stay or remain.\u201d <\/span>Hence, this word means \u201cto remain or stay longer in or at something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul has, at length, just demonstrated that as a result of Adam\u2019s sin, we are all sinners condemned to death and we are not justified by performing any works of obedience. <\/span>He also said that the presence of the Law does not serve to make us more righteous; instead, it brings our sinfulness more into the light of revelation, making us appear even more sinful. <\/span>Also, he has shown us that when we believe God\u2019s promises (in our case, that Jesus Christ died to pay for our sins and rose again from the dead), God chooses, by His grace, to declare us righteous (wiping out any and all of our sins past, present, and future).<\/p>\n

Do you remember the point he made back in Romans 5:11<\/span><\/strong>?<\/p>\n

And not only so<\/span>, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the reconciliation.<\/span><\/p>\n

We rejoice and God is glorified when we are declared righteous by His grace. <\/span>And in Romans 5:20<\/span><\/strong> he said:<\/p>\n

But the Law entered so that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A quite natural reaction for a Jewish Christian living in Rome would be, \u201cWell, if all of my sins have been paid for and that glorifies God, and the more I sin the more that grace is demonstrated, then I can sin all I want. Then, God receives even more glory for it, and I will still be found righteous!\u201d <\/span>This is the point that Paul is now going to argue against.<\/p>\n

As is typical of Paul, he states the anticipated objection very plainly, \u201cShall we continue in sin that grace may abound?<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

What Paul is really asking is, \u201cShould we continue to live a sinful, ungodly life like we did before we were saved so that God will receive even more glory for forgiving us as an even worse sinner than we already are?\u201d<\/p>\n

As you will see in the next verse, his response is an emphatic, \u201cNo way!\u201d<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the misconceptions of believing in eternal security (once you are saved you can\u2019t ever lose your salvation) is this notion that we can now sin all we want without repercussion. Eternal security is clearly taught in the Bible, especially by Paul. But he just as clearly argues against giving sin a free reign because we have died to sin.<\/span><\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone \"\"(618) 614-3070<\/span><\/span><\/span> and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Romans 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Truth to Learn Salvation does not mean we have a free pass to sin all we want. Behind the Words The expression \u201cWhat shall we say then?\u201d is called a debater\u2019s phrase. This is a Rabbinical way of teaching […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[707,708,132,276],"class_list":["post-1550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-continue","tag-epimeno","tag-grace","tag-sin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-p0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}