Deliver us from evil
Paul is not speaking of the sins (plural) that each of us may sadly sometimes fall into, but rather he is asking whether the believer in Christ is under the dominion or rule of sin.
The title of this article is provoked by a study of a frequently misunderstood question raised by Paul in Romans 6:1: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” It is a rhetorical question, asked after the apostle had shown that Christ is the head of a new creation in the same way that Adam was head of the old (5:12-21). Paul shows that, in this way, Adam was a type of Him that was to come. Both are shown to be representative men: what they did (Adam in Eden and Christ at Calvary) affects all those who are associated with them. We are “in Adam” by virtue of our birth but “in Christ” and belonging to a new creation by virtue of our new birth, through faith in Him. Although true Christians may still sometimes act according to the flesh (the corrupt nature inherited from Adam), we are not “in the flesh” (that is, not dominated by it), but “in the Spirit.” The Holy Spirit now permanently indwells those who believe in Christ (Jn. 14:16; Eph. 1:13; Rom. 8:9) and frees the believer to live a new kind of life..
But we are running ahead of the apostle’s argument. First, he shows that it is impossible for even believers to live as God wants by our own efforts.
We cannot free ourselves
Jeremiah tells us that the flesh cannot be changed or improved. He puts it this way, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jer. 13:23). The point of the verse is not that we humans cannot remove the stains of sin—though that is true—but rather that we cannot alter or overcome something that is part and parcel of being a fallen creature. Sin is characteristic of mankind as spots are of a leopard. We not only need to be forgiven for the individual sins we have committed but freed from continuing in bondage to sin. In Romans, Paul demonstrates how unreasonable it is to think that God would forgive us but not free us, that He would pardon us for being in the mire of sin without also providing a way out.
This is not the first time Romans calls upon us to follow the way the Holy Spirit reasons or argues. The late Tom Westwood entitled his commentary on the Roman epistle, “A Courtroom Drama,” and so it is. We hear again and again an appeal to think something through with Paul. “If our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say?” (3:5) “What then shall we say that Abraham has found?” (4:1) “What shall we say then, is the Law sin?” (7:7). “What then shall we say to these things?” (8:31), and so on into chapter 9. The beginning of chapter 6 is no exception: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” We are invited to reason through the question and decide for ourselves if the idea makes sense.
In writing this, Paul is not himself proposing that his readers continue in sin, nor supposing that anyone in their right mind would suggest such a thing. Rather, he is inviting us to consider whether such an idea makes any sense in the light of the deliverance that the Lord has effected through His death. “For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (6:10-11). Is it likely that God’s salvation would provide pardon and forgiveness of sins but no present power to overcome sin? The NASB makes this clearer by translating the question as, “Are we to continue in sin?” In other words, is that the way it is to be? Think it through. As Denham Smith wrote:
“Jesus came Himself and sought me:
Sold to death, He found and bought me;
Then my blessed freedom taught me—
Peace, peace is mine.”
The Law cannot change us
Freedom from sin can never be attained by self effort, even with the best of rules or principles to guide us. This is made abundantly clear in Romans 7:7-25. There the most earnest seeker after day-by-day holiness is heard to cry out, “O wretched man that I am!” The exacting demand of the Law enabled him to learn his wretchedness but could not impart power to effect any change. Note how many times the words “I” and “the Law” appear in the passage. It is a graphic and painful description of an individual who agrees with the Law and struggles most earnestly to fulfill it, not realizing that the sons of God are no longer under it. Instead of this fruitless struggle, he must appropriate the provision made to free him from sin’s dominion. The liberating role of the Spirit in the life of the believer is made clear in Chapter 8, where the 3rd and 4th verses show how the righteousness of the Law may be truly fulfilled. The practical outworking of this is expounded more fully in Galatians 5:16-25.
Can we become sinless? Not in this life. The apostle John wrote in order that we might not sin but also recognized that we may do so (1 Jn. 2:1). However, Christ died to sin (ours, not His own) and He now represents us as surely as Adam once did (Rom. 6:10). It is His death that we are to reckon as ours. The flesh in us isn’t dead, and we should never try to reckon it so. That is an unscriptural delusion. Rather, in Christ we have died to sin as the controlling principle in our lives, and, by faith in His finished work, we enter into freedom.
Sin versus sins
Our understanding will be helped by noting that the text does not ask “Shall we continue to sin?” but “Shall we continue in sin?” Paul is not speaking of the sins (plural) that each of us may sadly sometimes fall into, but rather he is asking whether the believer in Christ is under the dominion or rule of sin. His answer is that the believer is freed from it (6:7, 18, 22) rather than under its dominion (6:9, 14).
Confirmation of this is also found in the use of the word “continue” in our text. Is that where we are left after receiving Christ? It is the same Greek word that appears in John 1:38. Two followers of John the Baptist wanted to know where Christ lived (meno). Again, in John 15, the disciples were charged to “abide” in Him. In neither of those cases was something accidental or temporary in view; they speak of what was characteristic. Later, in his first epistle, John confirms that those who practice righteousness are born of Him and those who do not are not, regardless of what they profess (1 Jn. 2:29; 3:10).
This answers the challenge, “Do you mean to say that once you are saved you can live as you please or live like the devil?” No, you cannot, because it is no longer your nature as born of God. If a person lives like that, he cannot and should not be regarded as a believer. “By their fruits you will know them” (see Mt. 7:17-20).
In this short article we cannot develop these thoughts any further, but we draw the reader’s attention to the summary of chapter 6 by J. Oswald Sanders as quoted by William MacDonald in the Believer’s Bible Commentary. He writes: “Shall we continue in sin?” and answers:
1. You cannot because you are united to Christ. Reasoning (vv. 1-11)
2. You need not because sin’s dominion has been broken by grace. Appealing (vv. 12-14)
3. You must not because it would bring in sin again as your master. Commanding (vv. 15-19)
4. You had better not for it would end in disaster. Warning (vv. 20-23)
Our purpose in this article is not to help readers to have a head knowledge of the subject of deliverance, but to encourage them to go on and experience it in an ever fuller way. The grace is available. Let us all appropriate it!