Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Rom 6:1 NLT 

Footsteps # 305 Thus far in our journey through Romans we have taken three steps with the great apostle. First, we met him and the Romans, and we glimpsed the reasons he wrote to them (Rom. 1:1-17). Second, Paul introduces us to the all-pervasive problem of sin among both Jews and Gentiles, and we discovered that all stand under the law’s condemnation, which eventually results in death (Rom. 1:18-3:20). Third, Paul vigorously explored God’s solution to the sin problem – justification by grace through faith alone. He left no stones unturned to demonstrate that salvation is a gift of God (Rom. 3:21-5:21). 

We are now ready for the fourth step in our important journey. In chapters 6 through 8 Paul will describe the way the justified should live. 

His teaching that salvation is a gift from God was not only revolutionary, but it raised all kinds of questions. One quite natural response was this: “If everything depends on what God has done if our achievements don’t bring about our justification or even aid God in granting it, then what does it matter how we live?” That question is inevitable once a person realises that God has made full provision for our justification. 

Sometimes the question comes from genuine believers who honestly want to know how they should live if they have been saved by grace. At other times those who desire to live a sinful life will raise it as an objection. And then others would like to show the irresponsibility of Paul’s theology and how it leads to antinomianism (lawlessness). 

It is the latter two groups that Paul probably has in mind in Romans 6:1. Their logic runs something like this: (1) Paul claimed in Romans 5:20 that the law identifies sin and thereby increases it; (2) more sin means more grace; (3) therefore, let’s go on sinning so that grace may increase and God will be glorified all the more because of His ever more extensive gracefulness (Rom. 6:1; 3:8). 

Such reasoning would invalidate Paul’s theology among serious thinkers and provide a basis for profligate living among the irresponsible and insincere. 

Paul, as we will see, violently rejects such a perversion of the gospel. In the process, he will provide us with essential information about how the justified person will live.