How To Be Right With God
Part 15*
We Christians sometimes ignore the fact that sin is still very powerful and can overwhelm our flesh. Remember, as I mentioned in the last message, though God has regenerated our spirits, you and I still live in unregenerate bodies that are weak and that can be lured by sin. Anytime that we play around with sin we run the risk of becoming enslaved again.
Introduction
One of Aesop’s Fables is called "The Dog and the Wolf." It goes this way:
A gaunt wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a house-dog who was passing by. "Ah, Cousin," said the dog. "I knew your irregular life will soon be the ruin of you. Why don’t you work steadily as I do, and get your food regularly given to you?"
"I would have no objection," said the hungry wolf, "if I could only get a place."
"I will easily arrange that for you," said the Dog; "come with me to my master and you shall share my work."
So the wolf and the dog went towards the town together. On the way there the wolf noticed that the hair on a certain part of the dog's neck was very much worn away, so he asked him how that had come about.
"Oh, it is nothing," said the dog. "That is only the place where the collar is put on at night to keep me chained up; it chafes a bit, but one soon gets used to it."
"Is that all?" said the wolf. "Then good-bye to you, Master Dog."
The moral of the story was: Better starve free than be a fat slave.
That ancient fable bears some truth. Sometimes when we give in to a life of ease, there is a price to pay.
The same could be said about sin. Sometimes when we stop resisting the momentary pleasure-promises of sin and give in to it with no further resistance, we run the risk of exchanging our freedom for a collar of bondage.
That idea is what is behind Paul’s words in our next portion of the book of Romans. Turn with me please, to Romans 6. We’ll be reading verses 15-23.
Paul has explained to his readers that we are justified by grace, through faith, apart from works of law. Now he is dealing with possible misunderstandings that his readers might have. If there is sufficient grace to cover all of man’s sin, what would be wrong with just continuing to sin and taking advantage of God’s great grace?
(Read Romans 6:15-23)
The key to understanding what Paul is talking about here is to understand the question he is asking in verse 15: "Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?"
There is a similarity between Paul’s question here and the one he asked back in verse 1 of this chapter (which we covered in the last message from Romans.) In verse 1 he said, "Are we to continue in sin… ." Here he asks, "Shall we sin…." In either case he is dealing the Christian’s involvement with sin after conversion. The difference between the two is in the tense of the verb "sin." In verse one the tense was the continuous present. It carries the idea of ongoing, unabated, unchecked sin. Paul was asking, "Can a person become a Christian and go right on sinning with the same abandon he had before his conversion?" His answer was, "May it never be!" Here in verse 15 the verb tense is different. It reflects the idea of a single act of sin rather than a continuance. Wuest translates it this way: "What then? Shall we sin occasionally because we are not under law but under grace?"
I hope all of us understand that it would be a mockery of Christ and our death to sin to go on sinning with abandon with no cessation. But what’s the harm in an occasional, willful sin? After all, we’ve been good for awhile. Now we’d just like to give in a little to something that is particularly enticing to us. Hey, we’re conscientious most of the time. Surely with the great abundance of grace that God has given and the fact that the Bible does acknowledge that all of us sin,(1) God will overlook the occasional, willing foray back into the realm of sin. We’re only human. We’re certainly not perfect and won’t be until the day we’re taken into glory anyway, so what could be the harm? Besides, we can be restored, so it really isn’t a big deal, is it?
So what about it, Paul? Should we be much concerned about an occasional, willful encounter with sin in our lives? Isn’t it OK to give in and sin on purpose just once in awhile since we’re not under law anyway, but under grace?
Notice that Paul’s answer to the question in verse 15 is the same as it was in verse 1: "May it never be!" He uses the exact same phrase to express his disapproval, which says, in essence, "Never!"
Now wait a minute! Because of the sacrifice of Christ we can be forgiven when we sin. Why would Paul imply that we shouldn’t give in once in awhile as long as it doesn’t get out of hand?
The answer is that sin is dangerous for the believer. It always affects us in a negative way, even though we can be forgiven. Paul shows us in the verses that follow his question three very good reasons why we should strive to avoid even the occasional, willful sin. The first is this:
I. Sin Still Has the Power to Enslave Us.
Even though we have escaped from sin and the eternal effects of sin have been overcome in our lives, sin still has the potential to enslave us all over again.
(Read v. 16-18)
Paul states here a timeless principle, which is really a warning: We become the slaves of the one to whom we submit ourselves - either to sin or to God. We have a choice and whatever choice we make has a consequence.
Before we became Christians, we had no choice at all in the matter. We were slaves to sin and that was it. We had no power to overcome. But when we died to sin and were buried with Christ in baptism, we were freed from sin’s deadly grip.(2) Paul says in verse 17, "Thanks be to God that though you were slaves to sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching…." (Incidentally, the Greek word translated "form" here is TUPOS. It refers to a "type." We’ve already seen that our death, burial, and resurrection in baptism is a type of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Paul’s mention of obedience to that "form" or "type" undoubtedly refers to our "death, burial, and resurrection" in Christian baptism.) Anyway, though we were thusly freed from sin, this principle of enslavement stated in verse 16 is still in effect. We become the slaves of the one to whom we submit ourselves. Therefore, even though we’ve been freed, if we willingly submit ourselves again to the old master of sin, we run the risk of becoming enslaved all once again. Sin still has the power to enslave us if we present ourselves to it.
Think of a reformed drug addict. He finally manages to break his habit, but he knows that if he plays around with it again, there is a danger that he could become hooked again. The same is true of the sin which used to enslave us.
We Christians sometimes ignore the fact that sin is still very powerful and can overwhelm our flesh. Remember, as I mentioned in the last message, though God has regenerated our spirits, you and I still live in unregenerate bodies that are weak and that can be lured by sin. Anytime that we play around with sin we run the risk of becoming enslaved again.
This warning of the powerful effects of sin is found in a number of places in Scripture.
Peter warns us of entanglement in 2 Peter 2:20 - "For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first."
The key words there are "entangled" and "overcome." If we play around with sin, it is entirely possible that we can become entangled in it more thoroughly than before.
You might remember the story of Samson and Delilah. Samson played around with Delilah, teasing here with the secret of his great strength. She would say something like, "Oh, Samson, you must not love me. If you did you wouldn’t hold anything back from me. You’d tell me the secret of your great strength." In response he toyed with her. He would give her some lame explanation and she would bind him while he slept. Each time, though, he awoke and broke the ropes on his arms like they were threads. This happened over and over with one deadly twist. Each time he played the game with Delilah, he got a little closer to revealing the real truth. It was all in fun of course. No harm done. He was strong enough to handle it. But finally, he told her the truth. The secret of his strength was his long hair. Again when he was asleep Delilah tied him up. This time though, she cut his hair. When he awoke the scripture says he thought, "I will go out as at other times and shake myself free." But this time he could not break free. Judges 16:21 says, "Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison."
Each time we play around with sin we run the risk of being overcome by it. Like Samson, we get closer and closer, not realizing our peril until we are trapped. We need to have a healthy fear of the power of sin and must avoid it as much as is humanly possible.
"Take care, brethren," the Hebrew writer says in Hebrews 3:12-13, "lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God." (I guess no one ever told the writer of Hebrews what many teach today, that you cannot fall away!) But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."
What is the warning here? It is a warning about falling away that results from being hardened by sin. Sin hardens. Notice also that word "deceitfulness." Sin is sneaky. It will fool you or deceive you. You think you’re getting away with something, but all the while, though you don’t realize it, you are being hardened. If this continues our hearts can become so hardened that we are no longer sensitive to God’s word or the conviction of His Spirit..
"But we can still repent and be forgiven can’t we?" Yes we can, as long as our heart is sensitive enough to repent. The danger, I believe, is that we will lose that sensitivity and will not return to God for forgiveness. I think that is what the Hebrew writer was warning us about in Hebrews 6:6 when he spoke of it being "impossible to renew them again to repentance…" It isn’t that God will not forgive. It is that such a one can no longer repent. True repentance takes a soft heart that is broken by a sense of guilt and wrong. Willful sin, even occasional willful sin, hardens the heart a little at a time until it finally turns it to stone.
Sin’s ever-present power to enslave us can also be seen in the fact that it often takes us much farther than we intended to go when we first consented to just a little.
 | We tell just a "little white lie" and before we know it we are compelled to tell a dozen more to cover it up. We only sinned once and now sin is pulling our stings. We find it harder to shut off the lying. |
| We give in to anger and allow ourselves to get just a little bit too mad. Pretty soon it has escalated into a small war with us in a full scale, out of control, shouting match. |
| We allow ourselves to dwell just a little too long on some seductive thought and soon we find we can’t get it out of our minds. |
Sin still has the power to enslave us! Each time it presents itself - make no mistake about it - it is seeking to bind us once again.
Paul’s remedy? Its there in verse 19: "… just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification."
II. Sin Still Has the Power to Shame Us.
(Read v. 21)
If you are a Christian, there may be some things you did in your life before Christ that you are ashamed of. You would be humiliated if people found out about them. What about since you became a Christian? Are there things that you hope never become known to anyone else? Sin brings shame and this shame has widespread negative effects on us.
For instance, the shame of sin causes us to want to cover up, to hide from others. This effects our relationships because we can never be entirely honest for fear of discovery. We always have to worry about exposure. We lack the peace that Christians are supposed to have. Our relationships are not what they should be because we fear exposure.
Proverbs 28:1 says, "The wicked flee when no one is pursuing…"
The idea here is that one who has done wrong constantly has to watch his back. He just knows someone has seen him and that it is only a matter of time before he is discovered. Such a life is far from peaceful.
Sin, in the beginning, promises momentary enjoyment and perhaps relief. In its wake, however, it leaves us guilty and looking over our shoulders, covering our tracks and worrying about exposure.
Even more serious, the shame of the occasional, willful sin can also cause us to hide from God.
The account of the very first sin in the Garden of Eden illustrates this. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the forbidden tree, what did they do? They tried to hide from God in the bushes. They couldn’t bring themselves to face Him because they were ashamed of what they had done.
Sin does a number on our relationship with God. When we’ve done something knowingly and willingly that is wrong, just like Adam and Eve, we hide out from God. No, we don’t hide in the bushes, but we cease praying. We cease spending time in the Word. God is pushed out of our heart of hearts. We cease the self-examination that is supposed to come during the Lord’s Supper. We don’t feel worthy so we keep God at a distance.
But it doesn’t stop there. The more we stay away the less worthy we feel. Things escalate. As opportunities come up for us to serve Him, we dodge and decline because our spiritual lives aren’t "together." In short, we are sidelined. We’re ineffective. Our spiritual lives, though we may still go through the motions on the outside, are stalled out. We are not living in the kind of victory God intends for us. We know we are harboring the enemy and doing little or nothing to throw him out. We’re living in defeat, all because of the shame that started from some occasional, willful sin.
Sin also does a number on our participation in the joyous spiritual life.
When I was in the fifth grade I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Fever. Back in those days not too much was known about the disease. Some died from it and some were impaired for life. For me, thankfully, it was neither of those things, but it meant a solid year of bed rest, a home-school teacher, and a lot of sitting on the sidelines. After the illness had run its course, though my energy returned, I still couldn’t run, jump, kick, wrestle, or play baseball like all the other kids. It was too risky. I remember begging my mother to let me play like the others, but I could only watch from the sidelines and wish things were different. I longed to live the kind of life that typical, active fifth and sixth graders lived, but I was prevented by my illness.
The occasional, willful sin can do to us spiritually what Rheumatic Fever did to me spiritually. It can put us on the sidelines, watching and wishing, but missing out on the good things God has for those who live active spiritual lives.
Recently a young man underwent surgery to remove the pericardium, a paper-thin lining around his heart, because his had enlarged to about three-fourths of an inch thick, restricting the function of his heart muscle. The doctors said that when they slit the pericardium, the heart immediately began to function about twice as fast as it had been working before.
In much the same way, the occasional, willful sin retards the functioning of our spiritual heart. We get very sick spiritually. It’s one of the effects of letting sin into our lives without opposing it. We are restricted to functioning at a much lower level than God intends. Ultimately that functioning can stop altogether. Only when we come clean and confess our sin, making it our intent to keep it out as best we can in the future do we begin to recover.
So what harm is there in an occasional, willful sin for us since we live under grace? Why shouldn’t we drop our guard once in awhile, go with the flow, and enjoy some of the momentary pleasure of sin? Because sin has the power to enslave us again and to shame us out of our relationship and service to God. We’re robbed of the joy God intended for our lives. But that isn’t all of it. Paul mentions yet a third effect - a deadly one.
III. Sin Still Has the Power to Kill Us.
(Read v. 21b-23)
Becoming a Christian does not remove your freedom of choice. Just as you and I chose to follow Christ, we can at some later time allow ourselves to be so enslaved and controlled by sin that we choose to desert Him. We can exchange the life we have gained for the death that we left behind.
So many passages of Scripture warn us about this! I’ll mention just a couple.
Paul wrote to the Galatians, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life."(3)
Galatians was not written to alien sinners. It was written to Christians. We need to make every effort not to sow to the flesh. If we do and do it long enough, we will reap corruption instead of eternal life.
The Hebrew writer put it this way: "For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries."(4)
Yes, Christians will sin. John tells us that if we say we don’t sin we are liars.(5) But we should never do it willingly. Sin may force its way into our lives from time to time, but we shouldn’t’ let it sit down and make itself comfortable. We should give it no quarter in our lives and throw it out whenever it invades.
The late Grover Cleaveland Brewer often told this story when he preached from this passage: Some young men were watching the Tennessee River rising above flood stage when they noticed a little rabbit trapped on a shrinking little island in the midst of the raging flood. They decided to rescue it, but could find no way to do it. Each member of the group, all in their early teens, was strong and vigorous, and fully accustomed to outdoor activities. All knew the danger of the river, especially at flood stage, and their parents had warned them again that very day to stay out of the water - but there was the problem with that trapped rabbit! One of the boys, stronger than the others and a powerful swimmer, decided to attempt the rescue. He made it to the little island, thrust the rabbit into his overalls, and plunged back in for the return swim. The end of a log riding the crest of the flood hit him in the temple. Four days later they dredged his body out of the river several miles downstream. The boys who witnessed the tragedy were present when the body was recovered and one of them found the remains of the rabbit in the dead boy’s overalls. In a moment of agony, he held it up for the others to see and said, "This is what he gave his life for!"(6)
What are you giving your life for? As cute as that little rabbit was, it was not worth the loss of a human life. Is there some sin you have compromised with and ceased to resist? What will be the outcome if it stays in your life unchallenged? Will you again be enslaved? Could it be you are enslaved now? Will it continue to bring you shame and rob you of the abundant life God has for you? Will it ultimately overcome you and take away the life God has given?
Don’t let it stay there unchallenged. Repent of it today and begin to make the changes that won’t let it continue in your life. It could mean the difference between life and death.
* This message is Part 15 of a series of sermons from Romans by the author called "How to Be Right With God" [Back]
1. I John 1:8 [Back]
2. Romans 6:3-7 [Back]
3. Galatians 4:7-8 [Back]
4. Hebrews 10:26-27 [Back]
5. I John 1:8-10 [Back]
6. James Burton Coffman, COMMENTARY ON ROMANS, Firm Foundation Press, p. 247 [Back]
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
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All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.