Sharing The Marvelous Wonder Of God’s Grace
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles
In Romans 6:1-2, Paul speaks directly to some folks who were obviously exploiting God’s grace:
“Shall we continue in sin [keep on sinning] that grace may abound?”
He gives a concise answer: “Certainly not!” [“May it never be!” – Romans 6:2 NASB] and uses an analogy that starkly contrasts death and life:
“How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (Romans 6:2).
No resurrected Christian from the watery grave of baptism, should be longing to engage in sin (Romans 6:6).
However, Jude warns us that it is possible to “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality” (Jude 4 NIV).
The devil deceives us regarding the wages of sin (Romans 6:23), in that sin does not always “appear” to have the stench of death about it (note all of the beer advertisements). In fact, sin can be downright appealing (James 5:5; cf. Hebrews 11:25).
Paul recognized this fact, so he instructs us to:
“Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and “Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Romans 6:11-12).
If we truly grasp the marvelous wonder of God’s grace for each one of us (Romans 5), we will spend our days sharing it with others (2 Timothy 2:1-2) — never exploiting it.