Oh the deep, deep love of Christ – your wounds have paid my ransom.
” Paul said you should pray that you may know the full extent of My love, the height, depth, length and and width. It is not for nothing that he says this, because it is in knowing experientially, not just intellectually the extent of My love that your life is irretrievably changed. The thing is, that the extent of My love is actually so vast that even as you grow to know it better and better every day, you will never get to the full understanding and knowledge of it. So keep praying that prayer and as you do, your life will be continually changed and renewed.”
Please read Romans 5:20 – 6:14. We are going to have a few bites at this passage. Remember that Paul has been speaking, in the last part of Ch 5, of the reality that death came into the world through Adam and life through Jesus.
He comes to the conclusion of that ch in vs 20 ff, with a statement putting the law in perspective. The law did not cause sin or bring it on, it was a later addition to the story of man’s relationship with God, in that it enabled people to become aware of their sin, identifying it as such. In becoming aware of how devastating sin is, the concept of grace became much more real as they could identify the extent of God’s forgiveness in Christ, against the background of the awfulness of sin. The conclusion in 5:21 summarises this argument “Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”.
Ch 6:1: It is then, as if Paul’s imaginary opponent suggests that if grace is so great and beneficial surely we should sin more so that we can experience more of God’s grace. I don’t suppose many people would say this today in so many words, but there are plenty of people who believe and feel free to sin since, “there is always going to be sufficient of God’s grace to cover them”. Maybe even you may occasionally do or say something with your conscience warning you and you justify it deep down with the thought of the magnanimity of God’s grace. “He will surely forgive me?!” As we unpack ch 6 we can see Paul’s argument as to how fallacious that thought is.
This argument then sets the basis for the teaching of ch 6. It is a very important argument and focuses basically on the fact that when we are saved, our sin is not only forgiven but we are effectively dead to sin. If we are dead to sin, then how come we still sin and what should we do about it? This is the conundrum which Paul then addresses. See if you can follow his argument in the chapter and we will come back to it again next week.
May God bless you as we move through another week.