Change of Address

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?”

The Apostle Paul asked and answered his own question in Romans 6:1-2. The question came in response to his teaching on grace in the previous chapters; he anticipated his audience’s conclusion would be that sin is actually a good thing, because the more we sin, the more God gets to display His amazing grace. To paraphrase, Paul predicted they would say, “If we sin more, God gets to forgive more.” That is how “grace may abound.”

But he answered his own question with an emphatic no. After all, he was saying, if we have died to sin, how can we continue living in it? The Greek word that is translated live more literally refers to a permanent address. Some of you maintain more than one residence, but you have only one legal permanent address. Your vacation house or time share are not recognized as a legal residence; that designation is reserved for the place where you spend 51% of your nights.

Paul’s careful use of the word live implies that we will still sin from time to time. He understood that he was writing to human beings who would not attain perfection under the sun. The point is not that those who have died to sin (Christians) will never sin, but that they cannot live in it. Our permanent address cannot be in sin. Maybe some of you have run back to the sin you once died to. I recommend that you move. Go to the post office, fill out a change of address form, and get out of town.

Have you died to sin? You cannot live there any longer.