home Grace Romans 6:1 is the Litmus Test for Grace

Romans 6:1 is the Litmus Test for Grace

From at Redeeming God.

Inevitably, whenever I speak or write about grace this way, someone objects that I am contradicting Paul who said in Romans 6:1 that we should not continue in sin so that grace may abound.

Whenever someone asks this question, I am always pleased, because it shows that they are finally beginning to understand grace.

In Romans 4–5, Paul has been writing about the radical, scandalous, outrageous grace that I have been presenting here as well. Note that Romans 6:1 is an objection to Paul’s teaching about grace. It is only because of what Paul has written that someone raises the objection that if what Paul is saying is true, why can’t people sin all they want?

Paul goes on to explain why people should not, but he never says they cannot. And nowhere does Paul say that if people continue to live in sin, they will come to the end of God’s grace, or will prove that they were never truly justified in the first place. No, Paul argues that if a person truly understands the love and grace of God, and what God has done for them in Jesus Christ, this knowledge will lead them to live free from sin, not to live in sin even more.

This is why I like to say that Romans 6:1 is actually the litmus test for anybody’s teaching on grace.

Be sure to continue reading here.