Romans 6,7 & the first bit of 8 part 2

"1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? " Romans 1:1

This is not talking about those accidental little slips, this is actually answering a serious question. There have been people whose theology actually followed the idea that we should sin so that we can then confess our sin because 1 John 1:9 says, "9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." How will we be cleansed from all unrighteousness if we do not have sins to confess? Probably the most famous person to have this idea was the Russian monk Rasputin.

I once watched a documentary about his life and supposedly he would tell young women that they need to perform a sinful act together so that they can confess it and be cleansed! (I've heard some chat up lines but his was surprisingly effective!)

Of course Paul's immediate answer to this is, "2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"

So we are to no longer live in deliberate sin, we have died to it. If we are dead to sin then it is a nonsense to continue in it as a deliberate act. It makes as much sense as an ex smoker deliberately starting to smoke again so that he can give up again! Now an ex smoker may well find himself falling back into it again at a time of weakness, but this isn't talking about that kind of fall. This is talking about a deliberate act.

Now, clearly this probably doesn't apply to us, and so our brains get confused as to why we need to know something we wouldn't knowingly do anyway. We wonder whether it really has got something to do with us and struggle to find the connection that isn't there.

Although we wouldn't knowingly sin to bring about God's grace, the arguments that Paul gives to support this are very key to our understanding of our faith as a whole.

"3Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
(Paul could assume that all early Christians were baptized.)
4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, " Romans 6:3-5

This is a glorious truth, and Paul cannot contain himself to the subject of sanctification. The amazing truth that we who have died with Christ have also been raised to a "new life" with Him and one day "shall certainly" be in His likeness when we are with Him.