Should We Keep Sinning?

Sermon 428 St. Martin’s 182 6/21/26

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Romans 6:1-11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQMGYu7Jd1I

I could talk about how Jesus divides us from our closest human relationships, including our families, this Father’s Day, but I thought I would preach on something a little lighter this morning, so that’s why I’d like to talk to you about sin. Happy Father’s Day.

Years ago, I had a memorable conversation with a friend who raised a really good question. He said, “If we Christians are supposedly dead to Sin(meaning, free from it), then why do we keep sinning? Does our baptism not really work? Why even say that we are no longer ruled by Sin if we just keep doing it?”

I would guess that all of us have wondered about this over the years. Why is the Bible so bold in proclaiming Sin’s defeat and our freedom from it, and yet, we keep doing it? Clearly, we are not completely free from its power over us. If we were, there would be no need to confess our sins later in this service.

My friend had a fair point: we are sinners before and after our baptism, so what is actually being given to us? And if Christians keep on sinning, then the next question might be: how much is too much? We’re clearly going to keep doing it, but now we at least have forgiveness on our side.

It’s human nature to test boundaries; kids do it all the time. How far can we go and not get in trouble? We start young by trying it with our parents, and as we get older, we begin to test God’s boundaries: “How far can I go, O Lord, before you consider it sin? Before you will withhold your forgiveness?”

I had this kind of conversation during a high school baseball game while sitting in the bullpen with a buddy of mine. He wanted to know how far he could go with his girlfriend before it was considered a sin. And then he asked, “Yeah, but if God is going to forgive me anyway, then can’t I do what I want and he has to forgive me?”

Just about then, we realized the coach had been yelling his name from the dugout, trying to tell him to warm up. Our conversation abruptly ended as he scrambled to get ready.  

As embarrassed as we might be, these kinds of questions are worth asking, and ones that all of us have wrestled with over the years. It’s human nature to wonder about the relationship between sin and forgiveness. Shall we sin the more so that grace may abound?

If we’re honest with ourselves, we could apply his question to many aspects of our lives. God’s forgiveness can feel like a credit card with no limits.

“How much can I take before anyone notices?” we might say to ourselves, “God’s got an unlimited amount of grace, but the human auditors are not as forgiving.” Or we might think, “As long as she doesn’t know, then I’m okay. I know God will forgive me, but my spouse definitely won’t.”

Any Christian who has ever made a serious evaluation of their life has recognized the dissonance between our belief that we are forgiven, that we are no longer ruled by sin, and that we are called into a new life, AND YET temptations abound, and we get stuck in the old life of sin. How can this be?

It’s helpful to know that we are not the first to wrestle with these questions. Paul addresses them head-on in our reading from Romans chapter 6, a great reminder that the earliest Christians struggled with the same questions we do today.

From the very beginning, believers have tried to figure out what the Cross of Christ means for how we go about living in this world. And in Romans 6, Paul is at his most practical, addressing down-to-earth questions about how you and I are supposed to live while Sin abounds all around us.  

Paul’s main point in our reading is that the rules of the game have now fundamentally changed because of Jesus. His death and resurrection completely altered the lay of the land in this world and in our lives.

The powers of Sin, Death, and the Devil ruled the world freely and unhindered, but One stronger than these powers entered the picture, and as Jesus even said of himself, he has bound the strong man and taken back what was rightfully his.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he challenged the system established by the powers of this world, and on the Cross and through the grave, he broke the powers of Sin and Death that held us captive, freeing us from sin’s grip and ushering in new and abundant life.

And so for Paul, there was a clear distinction between the old life and the new life, and baptism was the portal between the two. As you went through that watery portal, you somehow, mystically, were linked to Jesus’ death and shared in his victory over Sin and Death.

Jesus created a new reality by the sheer power of his resurrection, and he intended for us to go with him.

And so in baptism, “we left the old country of Sin and entered the land of grace. A new life in a new land,” as Eugene Peterson put it.[i] Our paperwork has gone through, and we’ve got a new visa for our new land, in fact, a whole new passport!

Paul’s point in our reading is that we should start acting as citizens of heaven in this life BECAUSE WE ARE CITIZENS OF HEAVEN. Though heaven has not yet come to earth, and the fullness of God’s reign is not fully realized at this moment, heaven’s paperwork already has you marked as dead and raised, so consider yourself in this way and live accordingly.

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How might you live differently if you knew you had another lease on life, if you were given a second chance?

For many folks I’ve talked to who have survived cancer, a car wreck, a brush with death in any way, they usually come out the other end more grateful for what they have rather than what they could have; they are more attuned to the present, focused on what they can control rather than what they can’t.

And usually it’s because they have accepted that they very well could have died, they were now living with extra time. Some even talk about it as a quasi-resurrection experience.

I think that’s the feeling Paul wants us to have post-baptism. The old life is gone; you chose that the moment you decided to start following Jesus. You have entered a new land, and with that comes new life in Christ. It should impact how we live the rest of our lives.

It remains a mystery why the Lord did not completely do away with Sin and Death on that first Easter, but he has given us enough to manage in this life until we either join him on the other side OR he brings the other side to us at the end of the age.

But in the meantime, we must not forget who we are and what has been done for us. Paul’s message can be summed up simply by saying, “Become what you already are!”[ii]  

You and I are citizens of God’s New Creation; whenever we sin, we are acting like we’re still a part of the old creation, but we are not! Yes, we are still sinners on this side of heaven, but we are now redeemed sinners, no longer slaves to sin. Jesus has broken Sin’s spell over us, and we are free.

“So should we continue to sin in order that grace may abound? By no means!” We shouldn’t take advantage of God’s grace and keep living in the old ways of the world. As citizens of God’s new creation, how we live matters; morals matter even in this old world. Ethical living may not save us, but it attests to the faith that lives in us. It is the natural expression (and fruit) of a faithful life.  

As Christians, we are not powerless to Sin. We cannot conquer it alone, but we dare not forget that we have been given salvation from it. We are not in this fight by ourselves, and we are not left defenseless. You and I are called into deeper life with God, into deeper fellowship with our Heavenly Father and one another right now!

Truly, the kingdom of heaven has come near, as Jesus said, and we (and the entire creation) are forever changed.

And that’s why there is this movement, this rhythm to Paul’s letter to the Romans. We open ourselves up to God’s actions for us simply by faith. We receive that grace that is freely given to us by faith and faith alone. The fancy word for this is justification. We receive God’s justification through faith.

But then Paul says that because we are justified by God, we then live sanctified lives as we continue to walk with Jesus as citizens of heaven while on earth. Drawing closer and closer to him.

And part of drawing closer to him is also pushing back against the darkness of this world. As people of light, we stand against the forces of this world that are opposed to God.

We do not keep on sinning so that grace may abound. No, we actively resist Sin and the destruction it brings to this world and our lives.

You can think about this physically in a way. We open our hands to receive God’s free gift of grace. We then extend our hands to serve the world in the name of Christ. And then we put up our hands to resist the Sin that is all around us and that tries to draw of us from the love of God. [iii]

Paul spends much of Romans logically going through the implications of the Cross and what it means for our lives, but so much of it can be summed up in hands open to God’s gift, extended for the service of others, and raised to resist the things that are not of God.

This has been the Christian witness throughout the ages, and a blueprint followed by the saints who have gone before, all of whom navigated being a sinner in this world by consistently returning to the Lord, extending themselves to others, and fighting back against the powers of Sin and Death in the name of Christ.

They had left the old country of Sin and entered the land of grace. A new life in a new land.

And so my dear friends, “Consider yourselves dead to Sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” And live accordingly, to the glory of God.

[i] The Message translation.

[ii] Fleming Rutledge’s summation.

[iii] Dale Bruner gives this image in his short commentary: The Letters of Romans p. 87.

Photo by byshark on Unsplash