Sin: Where The Rubber Meets The Road

Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:20,21)

If you have admitted to your sinful, hopeless condition, and accepted Christ as your savior, believing that his sacrifice at Calvary paid for all your sins (1 Cor. 15:3,4), according to Romans 3, 4 and 5, you are now righteous before God and standing in his grace (3:22; 4:5,6; 5:2).

There is something that all saved folks experience with their salvation event; “the peace of God that passes understanding.” (Philip. 4:7) What a sublime experience this is. Of course, we want it to continue forever. But there is something that seems to get in the way of it; sin.

Huh? I thought Christ’s sacrifice took away sin(s) (John 1:29). What’s the deal? Doesn’t it say in Romans 6:6,7 that my “old man” , “the body of sin” is crucified/destroyed, and that I am “freed from sin?” Is this some kind of joke God is playing on me? Did I do something wrong? Did I not get saved? Has the Spirit of God departed from me?

No, no, no and no.

There is no “joke,” doing right and wrong has nothing to do with it, and if you have trusted the Lord Jesus, believing that he died for your sins, and was raised again the third day ((1 Cor. 15:3,4)) then you are accounted righteous in Christ, saved, sealed and bound for heaven. What this (your acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior) did was affect a “spiritual” or “positional” union with God in “heavenly places” (Eph. 2:6). The problem is not that your salvation was ineffectual (“vain”). The problem is that it did not change your human nature (“flesh”), which is prone to sin, exceedingly so. Indeed, you are “freed from sin,” I.e., its penalty (Rom. 6:23), but salvation does not free anyone of sin, or what is commonly referred to as the “sin nature.” That nature must remain intact, and for a reason, briefly explained in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians,

1 Cor 1:27-31

27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

29 That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

What is it, in verses 27 and 28, which “God hath chosen” that is “weak”, “despised” and “base”? Verse 29 clearly identifies it as the “flesh.” Through weak, sinful men (and women!) God, in the present dispensation, has chosen to manifest Himself to the world through “the foolishness of preaching.”(verse 21).

This runs totally contrary to what the “wisdom of this world” (verse 20) teaches, which has, and always will, reject the idea that God is glorified through human weakness. Nay, the world’s wisdom celebrates and exalts human strength and virtue, and so too, to a great extent, does most Christian teaching. The fastest growing segment of Christianity, the Neo-Pentecostal movement, owes its success to the idea that Christians can transcend and overcome their natural proclivity towards sin through what they call “the baptism of the Holy Ghost.”ⁱ In Paul’s letter to the Romans, which was written about 20 years after his Damascus road experience (Acts 9), and well into his gospel ministry, he describes his own inability to “overcome” his sinful nature,

Rom 7:14-21

14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

The standard Neo-Pentecostal response to this is that Paul had not yet got “the baptism of the Holy Ghost” when he wrote this. Nonsense. The only baptism spoken of in any of Paul’s 13 epistles involving the Holy Spirit is in 1 Corinthians 12:13, where it says, “for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body.” That “body” is identified in verse 27 as “the body of Christ,” which is the spiritual organ into which “all them that believe” are placed. ((Acts 16:31; Rom. 3:22; 1 Cor. 1:21; Gal. 3:22; et.al.)) The baptism of Romans 6:3,4 is one and the same as this baptism, and it must needs be the “one baptism” of Ephesians 4:5, prescribed for the present dispensation (Eph. 3:2). The fact that Romans 6:4 says those who have this baptism administered to them are “raised up” unto “newness of life”, does not mean our flesh has gone through some sort of transformation or re-birth which allows us to be freed of ( the presence of) sin.

When we put all this together, we can see that it is divinely decreed for the present dispensation that believers retain their fleshly nature, indeed, that God has chosen, now, to be glorified only through the weakness of human flesh.

The Confessional

Traditional Protestant/Evangelical/Catholic theology, which rejects the Neo-Pentecostal claim of a second work of the Holy Spirit, prescribes the admonition in 1 John 1:9 as the remedy for sinning,

“If we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

This constitutes an error in the application of doctrine (instruction for the obedience of faith) to the body of Christ that is meant for another group of believers in scripture. If we are “made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21), and “forgiven…all trespasses” (Col. 2:13), past, present and future, why would God demand of us to confess our sins in order to be “cleansed from all unrighteousness?”

If, upon your acceptance of Christ and his sacrifice for your sins, God imputed his righteousness (Rom. 4:6) to your heavenly account, why would one need to do anything more to be “cleansed from all unrighteousness”?

“Well,” the Evangelical brethren would say, “your sin has made you unrighteous, or created an unholy condition in you, forcing God to ‘break fellowship’ with you, and the only way to restore that fellowship is through confession of the sin(s).”

Ephesians 1:6 says that we (the saved) are “accepted in the beloved,” and verse 13 says we are “sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” Indeed, once we are connected to God we cannot be separated from Him by anything, and certainly not by our sins. Romans 8 makes this certain,

Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.

34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:33-39)

The emphasis in verse 38 is mine, and is meant to point out that “things present” includes the sin that dwells in you, identified in chapter 7, verse 20.

Reckon …Yourselves To Be Dead Indeed Unto Sin

This is the prescribed way to deal with our sin(s) in the grace dispensation. This is not a denial of the presence of sin in your life, it is a statement of fact, viz., that if God has accounted you righteous in Christ, then you are to reckon it to be so. If God has declared a “not guilty” verdict upon you from heaven, then your response is to believe it, accept it, and thank Him for it. If you do otherwise, by confessing the sin(s), in an attempt to be reinstated to something you were never in the first place cast out of, do you not make a mockery of God’s gift to you, and in effect, do “despite to the spirit of his grace”?(Heb. 10:29). Isn’t this tantamount to allowing sin to have dominion over you, which Romans 6:14 expressly forbids?

A license to Sin?

What I am presenting here is often characterized as tantamount to issuing believers a “license to sin”. Not so. The definition of license is, to permit some behavior that would otherwise be unlawful. If the law has been fulfilled and taken out of the way by Christ’s sacrificial death, and indeed it has (Rom. 3:21; 5:13; 10:4), then there is nothing you or I can do, regarding our salvation, that could be deemed unlawful. Indeed,

all things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any (1 Cor. 6:12)

However, with every declaration of liberation from the bondage of the law, the Apostle always follows it with an admonition not to abuse the privilege, as in the above passage. Perhaps the most famous of these is the one that immediately follows the passage I opened this article with,

Rom 6:1-2

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

Certainly, if we come into the body of Christ with a host of sinful habits, we should cease from those habits, not with a flippant or cavalier attitude, but in a repentant spirit  ((1 Cor. 10:6)). This is not, as has been plainly pointed out above, because these things can separate us from the love of God, or expel us from fellowship with Him, but rather because it can cloud our testimony and alienate us from others. Since God’s purpose for every believer is to be a witness of his grace, then we are to avoid behavior that might impede this purpose  ((e.g., 1 Cor. 5:1)). This does not just apply to what is commonly referred to as “the sins of the flesh,” but, more importantly, to the spiritual sins. Spiritual sin would be what Paul refers to as “holding (literally, “withholding”) the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom.1:18), I.e., not obeying the doctrine he laid down for the present dispensation ((Rom. 16: 25,26; Gal. 1:8; 2 Tim. 1:13; Titus 2:1; 1 Thess. 3:14)). This would include continuing the practice of things religious—claiming for them some spiritual efficacy—that, while having been ordained for other dispensations in the Bible, are not ordained for this one.

Col 3:23-25

23 And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.

25 But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons.

We are not saved because we are “working righteousness”, as in Acts 10:35, rather, we are saved unto righteous works.

Eph 2:8-10

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,

9 Not of works, lest any man should boast

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Titus 3:5-8

5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.

In conclusion, we are not to deny that we are without sin, claiming, through some sort of anointing that it is eradicated and no longer present in our lives. Neither are we to remind God of our sin(s) through confession, whether it’s done to another human, or in our “prayer closet.” We are to “reckon ourselves to be dead, indeed, unto sin”…raised to newness of life; accounting ourselves to be “new creatures in Christ”; saved, sealed…created unto good works, which we are to be careful to maintain…thanking God daily for our salvation and the forgiveness of sins; that we may look forward to receiving the recompense of our works, viz., the “reward of the inheritance”, at the judgment seat of Christ ((Rom. 14:10)), and enter into God’s divine rest by walking in the truth of Romans 5:20; that His grace does indeed abound over all our sins.

Mike Schroeder

All Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible. Feel free to distribute this article as you see fit.

Related articles:
License; Keeping a Short Account with God; Were sin abounded, Grace did much more abound

Are you saved? Jesus Christ—“who knew no sin”—and his sacrificial death on the Cross, has made the way for “everyone that believeth…to be reconciled to God. History has shown that whatever peace man has achieved in the world can only be temporary. The Bible says that individual men and women can know, beyond a doubt, that they are saved and bound for heaven, and therefore have absolute and permanent peace, regardless of what is going on in the world, by trusting Jesus Christ and his death on the cross for their eternal salvation.  “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” Have you done this? If not, why not now?