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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Why Have We Changed the New Covenant?, #8
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? (Romans 6:15,16—NIV)
If someone is trying to prove his own point he may be tempted to seize on a particular part of our message that supports his own view, and then discard the remainder of our statements.
This is what we have done with Paul. Paul understood the danger of an unbalanced interpretation of his presentation as he sought to explain the transition from Moses to Christ, as is evident in the following passage:
In the Christian life, sin leads to death. Obedience to Christ and His Apostles leads to righteousness.
It seems clear from the above passage that Paul was very aware his teaching of grace could be interpreted to mean believers were free to sin.
How does Paul refer to this warped interpretation of Divine grace?
"By no means!" "God forbid such an interpretation!"
Paul goes on to tell us that when the person who believes in Christ offers himself as a slave to sin he or she will die spiritually. If the individual chooses to obey the teachings of Christ and His Apostles he or she will gain righteousness.
Paul was thankful that the Christians in Rome were obeying the teaching of the Apostles.
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:17,18—NIV)
In his epistles Paul consistently warns the believers that sinning leads to spiritual death while obeying the laws of righteousness leads to eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23—NIV)
The verse above, so often preached to the unconverted, is actually addressed to believers who have been baptized in water. It is telling us that if we choose to yield ourselves to sin we shall die spiritually. The gift of God is the ability to choose to live righteously through the authority and power of the new covenant. The unsaved do not possess the authority and power to choose to live righteously.
We see therefore that the gift of eternal life is not something just handed to us, it is the gift of an opportunity to choose the behavior that leads to life.
Eternal life always is the result of holy, righteous behavior.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22—NIV)
The result of freedom from the power of sin and slavery to God is holiness, and the result of holiness is eternal life.
To be continued.