The point is that as fallen human beings we miss glory when it passes by us. Sometimes we have to stop, meditate, and by God's grace see the glorious truths of Scripture. It is amazing how we will fail to see and appreciate glorious truths and yet our hearts will be amazed by a dazzling play in a football game. Our depravity has killed our capacity to rejoice in spiritual things for spiritual reasons. Most Christians would say that our salvation is a supernatural thing, but sometimes we fail to see how much of it is beyond our ability to perform. Conversion is a paradoxical thing. Salvation is filled with tensions and paradoxes that sometimes we often miss. The one that struck me as I read this morning in Romans was our freedom in Jesus Christ.
In the early chapters of Romans, Paul begins his most thorough examination of God's work of justification found anywhere in his writings. He follows the pattern that has been picked up by most Protestant explanations of the Gospel. Beginning with guilt, he continues on from guilt to grace and from grace to gratitude. In Romans 6, we pick up Paul's argument with some implications that will naturally follow. And some that his critics assume will come. The answer that Paul has given for how a sinner is seen as righteous before a holy God is simply to be found in Jesus Christ. We have been joined to Him, united by faith, and are given His righteousness as He has taken the punishment of our sin, satisfying God's wrath by His death. Paul's critics pick up an inevitable objection to this teaching; or Paul, as it were, cutting off their argument before they get to it. In verse 1, Paul asks, "Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?" If we are no longer guilty before God because of grace and it has nothing to do with our law-keeping, what's to keep us from sinning? The question is one of a heart untouched by grace. In response, Paul picks up his argument in saying that we are dead. If we have been united to Christ by faith, we have been partakers in His death. Therefore, Paul's answer is that we are dead to sin. We have been raised with Christ to live unto righteousness. So Paul's response is simply that dead men do not sin.
The verse that really struck me as I read was verse 14. Paul says to his listeners, "Sin will have no dominion over you." This is a massive promise. Sin will never have absolute domination over the believer. Although through neglect and unwariness he may for a season fall into sin, sin will never conquer him. How does Paul support this massive claim? How can Paul guarantee that Christians will not fall victim to the domination of their sin and fall away? First of all, Paul does not say "because you are expected to follow the law." In contrast, Paul says "since you are not under law but under grace." The very thing that the Judaizers criticized is the foundation of Paul's argument. In contrast to those who saw grace as an excuse to continue in sin, Paul's theology views grace as the very foundation to obedience. This is one of the many paradoxes of Christianity. To Paul, grace was not simply forgiveness. It has been said by some that mercy is God's withholding of judgment and grace is God's giving of undeserved blessing. Paul uses grace to signify both. It is by grace that our sins are not counted against us (cf. 3:24), but Paul sees grace as doing something more. The problem of the Jews is that they saw grace as simply the forgiveness of sin. If that is solely what Paul means by grace, then certainly it would be reasonable to see grace as aiding human sin. We can go on sinning and never be punished for it, because God is gracious. And sadly that is how many people, Christians and non-Christians, live their lives. But more than that, Paul sees grace as something more. Grace changes our affections. God changes our hearts, makes us alive in Christ to see glory and to delight in it. Our hearts are captivated by a greater desire than the desires of our sin, that is a desire to know and delight in Jesus Christ. Grace is glorious. And grace is paradoxical. Grace alone is the foundation for true obedience, because only grace transforms our obedience from the root- the heart. That is how, in the words of Paul, we "become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you have been committed."
