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Pathways Through Paul
Daily Devotional
February 13
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Today's Pathway:
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Today's passage opens with a rather odd question:
"Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?".
This is based on the end of chapter 5, where Paul states that wherever sin abounds, grace abounds even more. Some apparently would raise an argument that sounds something like this: "Grace is good, and we need to have grace. The more someone sins, the more grace they receive. Therefore, it makes sense to sin more so we can get more of God's good grace." Newspaper columnist George Neavoll once wrote this,
"I am a great advocate of sin.. It is only when one sins that one knows the forgiveness of the Lord. Unless one is forgiven, one cannot forgive--and where would the world be if that were the case?"
Paul's response to this idea is "God forbid". The grace of God does not give the believer a license to habitually sin. In fact, according to verse 2, the believer is now "dead to sin". I Peter 2:24 says,
"Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness."
Before we received Christ, we had no choice but to sin, We were ruled by our sin nature. However, when we received salvation we became new creatures in Christ (II Cor. 5:17). Therefore, because Christ lives in us, we no longer have to sin. We can choose to do so (which would obviously be a wrong choice), but we are no longer under any obligation to do so. We have become "dead to sin". John put it this way:
"Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (I John 3:9).
At the moment I received Christ I became dead to sin, and therefore it no longer has control over me, and my lifestyle should now be one of righteousness.
It should be noted here that Paul is not saying that a man who gets saved will automatically live in sinless perfection. What the Christian has is freedom from sin's domination. He may sin, but sinning is out of character. It is not his normal lifestyle, because while in the past he was "dead in sins" (Eph 2:1), now he is "dead to sin". Albert Barnes described being dead to sin this way:
"To be dead to a thing is a strong expression denoting that it has no influence over us. A man that is dead is uninfluenced and unaffected by the affairs of this life. He is insensible to sounds, and tastes, and pleasures; to the hum of business, to the voice of friendship, and to all the scenes of commerce, gaiety, and ambition. When it is said, therefore, that a Christian is dead to sin, the sense is, that it has lost its influence over him; he is not subject to it; he is in regard to that, as the man in the grave is to the busy scenes and cares of this life."
If you are saved then you ARE dead to sin. Does the way you live your life show that?
Pastor Mark J Montgomery
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