What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Romans 6:1
A recent case in Calgary brought to the public’s attention the growing freeman-of-the-land movement that is causing headaches for people and governments. A man claiming to be a freeman had to be physically evicted from a house that he took over and almost destroyed. The group he claims to be part of refuses to acknowledge any laws that it doesn’t like. According to this movement, laws are contracts, and unless a person agrees to a law, that law does not apply to them. This means such a person can (or think they can) ignore highway speed limits, hunting laws, and any other laws that are inconvenient to them. Freemen on the land members are freeloaders with no respect for the rights and property of others. Ignoring those laws, they say, makes them free. Or so they say. They need to read Romans 6.
In the previous chapter, Paul points out that the grace of God has delivered Christians from the penalty of the law. When we trust Christ, we come under the protection of grace, and need no longer fear judgment. So, in Chapter 6, we find Paul presenting this interesting question that some might ask: now that we are free from judgment, can we live a sinful life, because grace has guaranteed us immunity from the penalty of sin? What this question fails to take into account is the reality of the new birth. We are not the sinful, helpless creatures we once were. We have been given life that is now capable of functioning as God intended and as God desires. That same new life comes with a desire to live according to the desires of the One Who has given us this life. So a person wishing to live in sin is displaying strong evidence that there is no new life, just a desire to live as he pleases without any consequences.
This question brings before us the very real possibility that a person claiming to be a Christian is simply making an empty claim. A desire to live in sin is contrary to the desire of the Holy Spirit Who lives within each true believer. Unbelievers desire to live in sin because they are incapable of anything else. Although a Christian can live in sin, he can also live in obedience and faith, living according to the Word of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The evidence that a person is saved does not come from that person’s claim to be so, but from the fruit of the Spirit that grows in a believer’s life. There is a serious contradiction between a person claiming to be a Christian and a person claiming the ‘right’ to live in sinfulness.
No, God has saved us for far more joyful and rewarding things than living in the dunghill of sin that He has saved us from. Let us live in the good of our salvation, not in the bad of our former sinfulness. -Jim MacIntosh