Sin & Death: Sin for God’s Glory?

“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Romans 6:1-2)

We join this letter immediately after the writer — Paul — has made an earth-shattering statement: “Where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Astounding! God’s grace is so enormous, so elastic, that it wraps all the way around our sin like an unbreakable balloon. The more we sin, the bigger God’s grace gets to cover our sin (through faith in Jesus’ death in our place on the cross).

sandd_350You can never, ever sin so much God’s grace isn’t big enough to cover your sin. What a great God! The more we sin, the more impressive His forgiveness looks. So we should make Him look really impressive by collecting all of the sins we can, right?

Paul answers that. Depending on your translation, he says: “No!” “By no means!” “God forbid.” “May it never be!” “Certainly not!” Why? Because God’s impressive grace doesn’t stop at covering your giant pile of sin; it also flipped off the shock collar that kept you from breaking free of sin in the first place. (More on that idea tomorrow.)

Think: Is it a weird idea that God’s grace is limitless — that we can never out-sin His ability to forgive? Or is it so normal an idea that we take it for granted?

Pray: Thank God for His impossibly impressive grace and forgiveness for your sin (if you’ve trusted in Jesus’ death in your place on the cross).

Do: To get a clearer picture, read Romans 5.