What does "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" mean (Romans 6:1)?

(Vv. 1, 2).The subject of death to sin is raised by the statement of the Apostle, in the end of Romans 5, that, "where sin abounded grace did much more abound". This statement at once leads the carnal mind to ask the foolish, if not wicked, question, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" The Apostle entirely repudiates this unholy suggestion. He will not allow that the believer — who is true to the position in which God has set the Christian, can continue living in sin.

The evil nature is likely to abuse the truth of God in the scripture we have been considering, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” and regard it even as an excuse for a believer's sin. The apostle deals with such an attempt: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound” (Rom. 6:1). Shall we take advantage of the abundance of grace, and by our self-indulgence make a fresh occasion for its display? The more we sin, the more grace will bestow. God is infinitely gracious, and the worse our behaviour is, the greater will be the supply of God's grace to cover our sin. Those who talk or think in this strain, whether intentionally or not, are liable to turn, as we read, “the grace of our God into lasciviousness” (Jude 4). And history shows that many gross evils have arisen in Christendom from such abuses of God's abounding grace.

But the apostle will not allow those who are in Christ, those who live by and in Him, to entertain such unholy deductions from his doctrine of grace. When he says, "What shall we say then?" he is speaking as one of the numerous subjects of the reign of grace. He speaks as representing those, once among the victims of sin, whose hearts have been laid hold of by the grace which is by the one Man, Jesus Christ, and who have thus come to be of Him — sharers with Him in the life and blessing of which He is the Fountain-head. On their behalf, in their name, we may say, he asks, "Does the doctrine of grace allow one to go on still in sin? Do we take the view that grace abounding over sin implies that sin, or a measure of it, is justifiable as furnishing occasion for the triumph of grace?"

Let us notice the way the doctrine is unfolded. The objection is started, "If then grace abounds over sin, then the more our sin the more His grace. Shall we then continue in sin, that grace may abound?" To which he answers, "We are dead to sin, how can we live in it?" This is conclusive against the abuse of the doctrine, although it is only for faith that we are dead: for then faith in it must tend to holiness, and not unholiness. The truth is ever according to godliness.

Questions at once assail us here, and these the apostle deals with, as we shall see, continuously. To be freed at once from all possible charge of sin, and with this from law also, would seem in the eyes of more than natural men unholy from first to last, while sin is nevertheless admittedly within us still, and the devil and the world are both around to incite and allure us. But grace really reigns; and "sin," says the apostle, "shall not have dominion over you, because ye are not under the law, but under grace" (ver. 14). It is strange, yet true, that even the Christian is slow to recognize in all the length and breadth of it, the truth of such an assertion; yet it is the thesis which Paul sets himself to maintain all through, and against all who may gainsay it. Let us watch his argument as having that personal interest in it which indeed we have.

He starts at once with the argument of an objector, of course, founded on his previous declaration that "where sin abounded grace did overabound." "What then?" he asks; "shall we continue in sin, then, that grace may abound?" Spite of the answer given to it here, that question is substantially raised today, as if there had been none; as if in fact, it were really unanswerable. But it is true that the apostle's answer is very little understood; and even by those who are quite satisfied with it. Rejecting utterly the thought, he puts it away with another question. "We who have died to sin," he asks, "how shall we still live in it?" The putting that as a question shows how unanswerable he deems it; and unanswerable it clearly is, if only the premise is rightly taken. If we are dead to sin, then it is an undeniable consequence that we cannot live in it.

Let us read Rom. 6:1-4. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we who died in sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptised to Christ Jesus were baptised to His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism to death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." The argument of the Apostle in this familiar passage is so clear that none can well mistake it. He has just been telling us (in Rom. 5:20) that "where sin abounded grace did much more abound." Here God's wonderful working is shown, wherein He has triumphed over all man's evil, using it as a dark background for the display of His rich grace to sinners who believe. Then the Apostle anticipates a cavil that some perverse minds might raise. If man's evil causes God's grace to abound, why should we not go on sinning? The Apostle proceeds to show that this would involve a flat contradiction of the whole Christian position. The believer is looked at by God as having died in the death of Christ; how then live in that to which Christ has died?

Romans 6:11. — It is asked what does reckoning ourselves to be dead to sin mean? There can be no truth of greater importance for the believer to enter into. For it is thus that our deliverance from sin that once held us as its miserable captives is realised practically in the daily life. At the opening of the chapter the Apostle meets by anticipation the opposition of the flesh to the doctrine to which we have been brought at the close of Romans 5, that where sin abounded grace did much more exceedingly abound. So that by the obedience of Christ, brought to its last test and consummated in His death, we that were of the fallen race of Adam have been constituted righteous. This involved that before God and for faith we have died with Him. Hence the idea that we should continue in sin that grace may abound is abhorrent. We have died to sin instead of living in it is the answer of the Christian; and this was explicitly set forth in the place we took in baptism at the very entrance of our path. We were baptised to His death, buried with Him by baptism unto death, henceforth to be dead to all we once were as having lived in sin.

36 I will summarily review his reasonings founded on this, before entering into detail. The disobedience of one made the many sinners - the obedience of One constitutes the many connected with Him righteous, and thus we are righteous by the work of another. In chapter 6 he goes on to notice that some will say, "Oh, if Christ has done all, it is no matter what I do: if it is righteousness without works, then we may walk as we like." The answer is, not "That ought not to be," but "That cannot be," for we speak of death - I have part in righteousness by death. If the thing be real, I cannot live in what I am dead to, and that makes this become impossible; if I live, being thus dead, it is by being alive to God, in Jesus Christ our Lord. A new and holy life (for it is Christ in the power of resurrection) brings with it, not only hatred of sin, but deliverance; the same principle is applied to law in Romans 7. If I am dead to the law by the body of Christ, I am delivered from that which had power over me while I was alive, that I may walk in newness of life.

But if we are constituted righteous by and in Christ, entirely apart from any works of our own, sins being forgiven, and sin not reckoned to us — a question is then raised as to practical righteousness — Shall we continue in the practice of sin? The enemies of the grace of God always raise this question, or put it as a charge, that those who hold the doctrines of the sovereign grace of God, imply that they live in sin that grace may abound. The charge is as common in this day, as it was by the Pharisees in that day, against the apostle. In the next chapter we have his inspired answer to the usual calumny. But rest assured, nothing short of this abounding grace can give rest to the soul.

This then, is the question, if grace has abounded over sins and sin — over all our iniquities which we have committed, and over the sin we have inherited, and where sin has abounded, grace has much more abounded — is it true, then, that abounding grace leads to continuance in the practice of sin? From that day to this, the rejecters of the gospel have always said it is so. If you are completely justified, not by your own works, but in and by the subsisting, unchanging righteousness of God in Jesus Christ our Lord raised from the dead — then that implies you hold that you may be careless, and indeed may practise sin!

Now what says the Holy Ghost by the apostle as to this? “What shall we say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” Far be the thought; “How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Here, then, is that principle of deliverance from sin so greatly ridiculed — deliverance from sin by death. Neither shall we find any other deliverance from sin in the word of God. For centuries, many sincere souls sought deliverance by fastings, and seclusion in monasteries. Many sincere souls now seek it by efforts after a false perfection of the flesh. But here is the full truth of God — deliverance from sin by death.

Now, as to continuing in sin, the apostle shows the thing is an impossibility and a contradiction, for no one can be alive and dead at the same time. If you have died with Christ you can't talk of being alive in sin. When you were baptised what were you brought to? You had a part in Christ's death, and you want to live in sin. In saying so you deny the whole thing. Christ has died to sin. Not that He ever had sin, but He was in circumstances where He had to meet temptations, and at last to be made sin upon the cross, though He never knew sin. But now He has died out of that whole condition. He died unto sin once. He once came into the midst of this evil scene, displaying righteousness and holiness in all His ways, and now He has died out of it. If you have been brought unto Christ you are dead, and are out of the other condition. The apostle speaks here of dying unto sin. We know from other scriptures that He also died for sin, and that He bore our sins; but here it is deliverance from sin, and not forgiveness that is spoken of.